No Service

I spent the first half of the day working and then cleaned up a variety of little things on my to-do list such as updating the wipe-off calendar and getting the lawn mowed. (It was my turn to mow it myself.) Then Max and I sped over to Target to get some "pool" toys (now on sale, since Target is focused on the fall already) and went to pick up one of his friends. We grabbed the twins and some towels, a sheet, bottled water, and headed for Whipple Dam (just a warning in case that website gets your hopes up--ice fishing is poor this time of year). By the time we got there it was a quarter to five (working half the day is not "till noon") on a Friday evening and we were going against traffic. There were five bored teenage life-guards who almost outnumbered the rest of the folks at the swimming area. My favorite was an older Russian woman in a bikini with scars that criss-crossed across her belly from the bottom of her rib cage to her bikini line. I admired her chutzpah. That said, the sky was overcast after a hot and humid day and the gnats and flies were out of control. I said a prayer of thanks everytime I saw a dragon fly (Odragonflykenobi, you are my only hope.) We blew up the water spider:



which holds three kids at once (we have this gadget that plugs into your dashboard to blow up airmattresses and extremely over-sized pool toys) and tossed the kids and their pool noodles in the water. Since Ben and Milo, despite five weeks of private swim lessons, still can't/won't swim entirely independently (to be fair, Milo truly is *right there* and it could be any day that I can gleefully report that he can get from point A to point B in the water on his own), I had to be right there with them. But the swim area at the dam is shallow for the first 20-25 feet or so and after an hour and a half, I was satisfied that they were statistically likely to stay above water for the rest of the visit there. So I retired to the sheet/towels on the beach and knitted and watched them. (Well, also by this time they were all working together on sand-construction and going in and out of the water at a very shallow depth AND I'd brought a stockinette sock to work on, so I didn't need to look at my knitting.)

A half-hour later we packed up the truck (we had to get Max's friend home by 7, so we could only stay two hours) and we each got an ice cream treat and then headed home. I felt sticky, flea-bitten, and happy. When we got home I showered and scrubbed each twin, then showered and scrubbed myself (I mean SCRUBBED--I'm short a layer of skin now) and then gave up the shower to Max.

Tonight I'm sewing up the sides of an unfinished object I started two years ago. Wish me luck, the sides aren't straight. Photos to come.