Hi all,

Back from the beach--early. More on that later.

Great to see the old diner is still open.


Alice--

International choir festival--sounds great. As an enthusiastic choir singer as long as I can remember I'd love to see and hear it. And in Montana! A big plus. That may mean I can entice Jan to come too. She's not really happy, to be honest, about the pattern she sees--the accusation-- ( based purely on circumstantial evidence with no basis in fact--just a long track record)-- is that we never go anywhere unless music can be involved.

What she really wants to do is visit Glacier National Park--and I'm up for that too. What about distances? Is it practical to try to do both? Unfortunately I don't have unlimited leave--and she's even more conscientious about taking time off from her job.




Re: pets and the 4th. In a nutshell, that's why I'm home early. One of our 3 cats is really really skittish about loud noises. This 4th I understand there were both fireworks and an impressive thunderstorm. I had a housesitter for our trip--the niece of a co-worker.   She has a wonderful voice, and is an excellent pianist--(and hasn't yet started in the work world--needed some cash)--so of course she'd be a perfect housesitter. That's my logic--I suppose. And it's just possible that I should have considered other factors. Don't worry--Jan has already read me the riot act on this.

Well, anyway, our housesitter had no idea if Avery and Fern had been seen since the 4th or not. That's a problem.

So I had to come home early and find out the story. I really lucked out--when I got there Lucy was in a chair on the front porch, Avery was already inside, and Fern--the real concern--just came up around the bushes to the front door as I walked up to it. Maybe she recognized the car's motor--Lucy sure does.

So--auf Deutsch--Ende gut, alles gut--all's well that ends well.

And truth be told, I'm REAL glad to be home.