Summer Passages

We spent an extended period -- three weeks -- at our summer place in Castle Park, Michigan, leaving in late July and staying until mid-August. With just Patrick and Nathan it seemed we were traveling lighter; a sign of things to come. I made a routine of jogging down to Macatawa every other day, alternating with running down to the Castle to work on job-hunting. The ritual rhythms fell into place easily; runs to grocery stores, late afternoon treks to the beach, fixing dinner for the family, watching the sunsets on the Dance Dune. Fulfilling what we increasingly see as our contribution, I spend periods painting some porch furniture, the boys did some cleaning chores for their grandmother and Martha helped her sort and clean out cabinets and closets (whew!) While this was the "high-season", Castle Park seemed decidedly quieter. There was a "July Jubilee" and a "Burger Broil" and even a cocktail party or two, with quite a few people we knew; but the Park is much less the social bee-hive is used to be. Especially during the last week most folks seemed to be renters. We ended up seeing The Dark Knight Rises twice so Nathan could see it (He was on a fishing trip when Patrick and I saw it.) After a violent night-time storm we had a beach day with 6-8' swells that made body surfing a gas. Jamie and Mimi came for a few days, but unfortunately, they had some crummy weather. Nathan and I drove over to Chicago for the last weekend, mainly to pick up Christopher who came down on a bus from Camp Highlands ending his counseling session. But it was also to meet my childhood buddies to practice for our "Neighborhood Picnic" gig on Labor Day weekend. We stayed with Aunt Carroll, took her out to dinner and had a nice visit. On the drive back from CP, we left Chris so he could have a bit more time there and we stopped at Tom & Joan Smith's in Indiana; a wonderful break where the boys got to shoot a .22 and drive 'the Gator.'