August is winding down.  I spent my 70th birthday at the Rhinebeck fair.  First thing we do is check the Arts and Crafts building, looking to see if I have won any awards for the apron and pillowcase I have entered.  No luck this year, but my postcards and the little drug store advertisement from the old Tivoli drug store win second and first prize.  Then on to the animals, less rabbits and fowl this year, but it was the first day.  We met up with Regina, and the boys went on some rides while I sat and people watched.  Sometimes this can be upsetting, parents being cruel, kids being nasty, but that day peope were treating each other with kindness...made me feel good.  I also noticed the number of people with tattoos, almost as many with they as without.  And big tattoos, covering whole arms, backs and legs.  I wonder what this means about our society. 

The weekend before I had gone with Paul and his boys to the cabin and spent Saturday at the Pirate Festival in Alexandria Bay.  While sitting on a rock, overlooking the St. Lawrence Seaway waiting for the pirates to arrive, I noticed too how kind people were to each other.  One big guy, dressed all in pirate garb, was putting stamped tattoos on any kid that wanted it.  Of course, they lined up.  This big gruff pirate, was so sweet and gentle, especially to the two year olds, that it made me smile.  The kids were not the least bit afraid of him, in fact their looks were in awe.  Quite a nice remembrance of that day and this past month.  I asked the gentle giant of a pirate if I could have a tattoo, and indicated my calf.  He quickly put a pirate face there.  It washed off in a day or two, but at least I had a tattoo for a while.

Well, I finally did it - I bought a new car.  It's a bright red Honda Fit and it is gorgeous.  I kept my old black Sentra, and I drive both of them.  Right now the red car is in the garage because the birds that I so faithfully feed are pooping on it.  Anyway, the two cars made me think of an old friend.

When I worked at Clermont, there was a night watchman Charlie that wore a toupee.  He had a great sense of humor and would make me laugh when he came into work at 4:00.  I left at 5:00, and this was usually a very slow time, so we hung out together in the office.  Charlie had me laughing one day when he said he sometimes takes off his toupee and looks out the third floor window.  The visitors below see the "old, worn out watchman".  Then he says, he puts it back on and they see the "young, handsome, strong watchman."
That's how I feel in these two cars.  The black car, I am hunched over the wheel, and old lady of almost 70 driving slow, watching out for any road dangers.  Then, in the red car, I am a young girl, driving a fancy car, not a care in the world. 

So my new car has transformed me.  If only I could get my knees into this picture.

Yesterday Timmy and I shared our first tomato from the garden sandwich.  He made it on bread bought at the Farmer's Market, tomato sliced thin, small amount of mayonaise (I would have used a bit more) and some fresh ground pepper.  Delicious.  It is one of the greatest pleasures of summer, that taste that is like no other.  Oh, sometimes the store bought ones taste close, or you think they do, but that taste is exquisite.

I remember one tomato sandwich Chrissie and I shared.  We were on a bus in Ireland, going to get on a ferry to go to England.  The bus stopped at a roadside stand, and we pooled our money to buy a saran wrapped sandwich.  It was a tomato, on plain white bread, thin slice of onion and Irish mayonaise.  We each took a bite, and then looked at each other in amazement.  "This is wonderful", we both said, and ate slowly, trying to make it last.  Later, licking our fingers, we asked each other, "Was it because we were on an adventure in Ireland that it tasted so good?", No, it was just the garden grown tomato and that little taste of onion. 

Timmy and I have a similar ceremony when we have reached the end of the garden and share the "last tomato sandwich".  It is not as happy an occasion as yesterday, but it feels right.  Every season must end, but there is also that hope, that anticipation of the next year's first tomato.

Back from vacation, our 27th year to spend at Wellfleet.  Quite different from 27 years ago.  No one had cell phones, or computers then.  What a difference 27 years makes.  Each of the teens had a cell phone and a computer.  The little guys had Wii and DS games.  The world has gone mad with technology.  In 2007 Maria brought out her laptop.  She loved it.  We were going to have a pirate party and we needed some riddles, and she pulled out the laptop and quickly came up with these:  What do you get when you cross a pirate with a zucchini?  A squashbuckler.  Where can you find a buccaneer's bathroom?  The poop deck.  Why coudn't the little pirate get into the pirate movie?  It was rated "Aarrrr".  We all thought the computer was a good addition at that time and even strangers on the beach tried to answer the riddles.

Best moments of the vacation?  The 4th of July parade was fun and I saw several people I knew.  Finding Maria's bench at the Preservation Hall.  Helene and I went to each bench, no luck.  Finally, the last bench, way in the back of the garden, and there it was Maria Ciancanelli Kelly.  When I brought my sister Maureen to see it, I had to ask a rather heavy person to move, so I could show Maureen the name.  Maria's bench wow.  Taking a picture of Timmy with his cousin Jer...Timmy whipped off his wool hat (he had sun burnt his head) and Jer with all that hair, arms around each other.  Can't wait to get that photo back.  Meeting our latest addition - baby Orson, cute as a button, and played bababutz with his Great Aunt Linda.  Sitting on the deck, morning with coffee, evening with a Miller Lite.  Wonderful view of the tides coming in and going out. 

14 days go by like a blink of the eye.  In fact, 27 years seemed to have passed the same way.  Good to go away, and always good to come back home.

Yesterday was Regina's 13th birthday and there was a party at her house.  It was the usual crowd, Regina had a bunch of friends, too cold to swim in the pond, but just right to sit on the porch and see the mountains.  Kevin had moved one of the living room couches on the porch, and that is where something happened that has impressed me and stayed in my head.  Rachael's little cousin was standing looking at the couch, when Rachael lifted her and put her on the couch.  Marysol immediately put her head down on one of the big soft pillows and looked tired.  And Rachael said, "Do you want to go hi-e-hi-e?"

Now this was something I had heard all my life.  Grandma Burky said it, Bucky said it a million times - "Let's go hi-e-hi-e", "Close your eyes and go hi-e-hi-e".  I said it to my kids, rocking them to sleep.  It was almost a lullaby -hi-e-hi-e.  And here years later Rachael is saying it.  I looked at her and said, my mother said that all the time, and Rachael eyes changed and she said, "Mom used to say that".  I just thought that was so significant, a siimple made up word, or maybe it sounds like that in my Grandmother's language, but there it was generations later.  I hadn't said or thought of hi-e-hi-e for years and then it pops up.  Family - don't ever underestimate it.

First, an update on the turkeys.  Now the mama turkey has only one baby, but he or she is getting bigger and now they come with three aunts, other female turkeys to help her keep the little one in control.  Timmy caught him in the garden, acutally caught him, held the baby to show me, and when he put him down, the baby ran off fast to his mother.  Maybe that will teach him to stay closer and not be so curious.

Now the big news is Cape Cod - the annual trek will be this Saturday, coming up fast.  The cast of characters keeps changing, but we will have a full house.  Also, Rachael has a house the first week, and Kevin has a house for the two weeks, like us.  Kevin wrote about Cape Cod, his regrets that he didn't spend every vacation, every day at the Cape with Maria, but the times he did spend there are etched in his head, just like all of the rest of us.  We can see Ria walking with first Jer, then Rachael, then Regina, holding their hand, carrying a pail, bending down to pick up a shell, examining it and then adding it to the pail.  We can see her with the big bag full of goodies, books to read, toys for the kids.  We can see her sitting in the chair in the water, head bent over a Harry Potter book, looking up to keep her eye on the kids in the water.  We can see that great big smile on her face - Wellfleet was truly her second home, as Kevin pointed out in his story.  And their home reflected it, collections of seashells, sand in jars, buckets of rocks, memories that she brought back to remind her and keep her close to her second home.

Cape Cod is like that to all of us, good memories of years ago, little kids have grown up, pictures in albums and boxes full of the changing, growing, getting older, but still the joy of being at the Cape.  This year my sister Kathy and her family are coming for the second week.  The new grandchild, not even a year, will be there, as well as his cousin Mina.  New children to share the memories.  Bon Voyage.

Well Clay Hill Road is looking like the Nature Channel, with turkeys running all around both sides of the road.  The old Tom Turkey is still alive, I thought he was shot when I didn't see him for a while.  But a few days ago he showed up again, with three or four ladies.  He looks different though.  His tail feathers, that were once pristine, now hang in awkward positions.  His strut is slower and I think he's tired out.  There is a hen turkey that came with three babies, now only two, but they are cute.  She clucks to them, and they follow her all around, and even peck at the cracked corn.

This morning, I was having my coffee when I saw another tom turkey in the front yard.  He came right up to the picture window, and looked (I thought at me) but he was watching his reflection.  Thinking it was a competitor, he suddenly jumped up and attacked the window.  "That's it", I yelled, stupid turkey, knocking on the window to scare him away.  I guess they really don't have much brains.

We also have red squirrels - nasty little fighters that can fend off the gray squirrels that are more than twice their size.  And this year, we have an albino red squirrel.  He's white.  Like a ghost. 

I really have to get some pictures so people believe me.  I white red squirrel - who would have thought.