Appreciating Weekends Again

It is clearly time to retire again ... should that be re-retire?

I am tired.  I wake up thinking about sticky grammar problems and how to fix them.  But most of all, I look forward to weekends because they are opportunities to get caught up on rest, house cleaning and dog walking.

Except for the fact that my friends are not all retirees like me, weekends were almost indistinguishable from weekdays before I started teaching again.  Back in those days weekends were times for visitors ... dinner guests ...  house guests ... and invitations to spend time playing or eating with working friends. 

These days my house is so grubby I feel as if I cannot expose it to any but the blindest, friendliest and most forgiving eyes.   Besides I have no energy left to entertain or even go out to play.

This weekend is the first of the local Artists in Their Environment tours.  I would like to visit the places in the village and close by ... and may do that. It will be on again next weekend but that is Thanksgiving and I really would like to do something special like sharing a meal if possible.

Lily is now overdue so we are all looking forward to her entrance into the world.  I haven't had a chance to do the high chair for her but I gave her the little elf artists' cupboard.  Jesse can store her diapers and such in it for now ... and later Lily can use it for art supplies.  I just assume that she will, like all her female relatives, be artistic and that she will need storage space.

Helmut and Ottilia will finish up in two more weeks.  My longed for vacation will be bitter sweet though, for   I will miss them when they return to Europe.  Helmut 's warmth and gentleness remind me of my father.  He is also about the same size as Dad was, and has the same baldness patterning and accent.  Ottilia is as outgoing and talkative as Helmut is quiet but she is wise and funny ... and they provide a counterpoint to one another ... and they brighten my life as well. 

So ... two more weeks of sporadic (at best) blogging, I am afraid ... and then my quiet life will resume, and with it, the energy and the time to write.