From the Road

A few interesting things have happened since I last posted. First, my computer died. Hard drive kaput. The good news is that it happened when we were preparing for a week of vacation, during which I wasn't going to use it anyway. I had just enough time to get it to my computer repair guy before leaving town, which is so much better than having it die nine days from now, when the kids go back to school, and I go back to writing.

The other good news is that we've had a wonderful family vacation. Highlights include visiting my half-sister, whom I didn't meet until my thirties, and having my kids meet the cousin they didn't know they had; taking a whale watch cruise with my sister and seeing fifteen whales, two of whom kept breaching; exploring the rocky, exquisite Maine coast; and sitting around the campfire as a family, talking, singing, and solving puzzles.

The Prius, which we kept impressively new-looking for several weeks, now has blue jimmies ground into the backseat and smells like week-old clams. Harry Potter fans who remember in book Seven when Hermione puts a spell on her purse to fit all their camping gear in it will have a picture of me packing nine-days of camping equipment into our small car. When we broke camp yesterday and got all the stuff reloaded, my son called it "a miracle."

On the Quaker front, the kids and I visited Amesbury meeting in Massachusetts on our way north and I am hoping to visit New Haven Meeting this morning before heading home, where I hope to retrieve my fixed computer, post pictures, and report on the very interesting book I've been reading. A teaser till next time...