The last week of our vacation people were sending us text messages and pictures of what was happening back here, which was significant flooding, much of it in the Herkimer/Ilion/Fort Plain region but also some south and west of Utica. We got home early Tuesday morning and it wasn’t long before Kathryn got called by the Red Cross; except for one day of work and one day Jen and I had promised to take Eric to Water Safari. Since we got home the weather has been hot and humid and, fortunately, the rain seems to have moved out of the area for a while. But it is hot (90) with high humidity (82%).
Eric finished up lacrosse with a bang, playing very well, contributing both assists and some goals. Now he is going to golf ‘camp’ on Friday mornings and playing pick-up basketball league on Monday nights.
Kathryn’s long ago and long time neighborhood friend, Judy came to visit with her grandson, Christopher who was visiting her from Georgia. Kathryn and Eric met Judy and Chris at the train station in Rome on Sunday, took them to lunch and then visited Fort Stanwix. Monday the boys went swimming at Trenton Town Park and then played pickup basketball. The boys got along very well, which gave Kathryn and Judy time to just visit. They returned to Rochester via train on Tuesday.
We are back into volleyball with mixed success; we got rained/thunderstormed out of a Wednesday night match which we made up the following week, but that entailed playing 8 games vs. Connie and Dale Postal’s teams. I think we split our games. Thursday night we had a single early game vs. Roger’s team and prevailed 2-1 in close games.
Eric is doing swim lessons the last two weeks of July and we are planning to go to Maine with the Helmers in August. Summer is flying by and we haven’t done any camping, let alone canoe camping.
Thursday Jeanne, Barbara and Nathan arrived in the afternoon. Jeanne and Barbara took the boys for ice cream while Kathryn and I played an early volleyball game. Friday Kathryn, Jeanne, Nathan and Eric went tubing down the West Canada Creek. Bradley Grogan, Hobart and Perry replaced our jet pump with a submersible pump during the heat of the morning. In the evening we went shopping at Gander Mtn and went to dinner at Outback Steak House enjoying the air conditioning in both places.
We had a violent thunderstorm upon our return to our house, but it lowered the temperatures. Saturday the boys went fishing and swimming in the pond before returning home.
Sunday I got a truckload of mulch which we put around the house. We plucked 100+ fishworms from the mulch near the peonies and roadside trees. We fixed the dock in the pond by sealing the plugs with silicone and re-fastening each barrel separately. Hopefully the barrels will stay sealed and float the dock.