We're Back in VA

And it's hot!  So hot!

By the time we left NY yesterday morning, temperatures had been dropping and it was starting to feel almost fall-like; we had been opening up our windows at night to feel cool breezes while we slept.  It sure is different down here. It's about 90 degrees and so humid that it feels like you're breathing through a wet towel.  I can't imagine wanting to open a window, and I've never been more thankful for air conditioning.  Yikes!

But it's so good to be home!!  We've missed our own house, our own bed, our own routines, and most of all, our VA peeps--the three sons and their families who live nearby.

We had a great summer in our old hometown in NY, though.  We got there at the end of June and stayed at my husband's family home most of the time (except for the week we stayed at our Oyster Haven Vrbo house with our whole gang in early July, and another week in August when we blocked it off so that we could get some much-needed plumbing repairs done). It's easy to manage our place from there, because Oyster Haven is just a few miles down the road (and down the lake) from the Pearl homestead. Changeover days are always hard, when one set of renters is checking out by 10:00 a.m. and the next set is arriving by 4:00 p.m. on the same day.  We do have cleaners...but we often have to sort of clean up after them, if you know what I mean.  And my husband and I take all the dirty linens to the laundromat and I make up all the beds with fresh sheets and towels while my husband cleans the grill, makes sure all the kayaks, paddle boards, and oars are accounted for, and moves the dock if the water level has gotten too low. But other than turnover days, we have a lot of free time to visit with family and enjoy the lake. We spent lots of time on our pontoon boat, any day that weather was permitting.

Most summers, my husband and I are the only steady occupants of his family's house.  All four of his sisters own houses nearby, two as their primary residences and two as vacation homes/rentals.  He has one sister a few doors down who lives there year-round, but her house burned down a little over a year ago and she had to move in while her new house is being built. Another sister lives in FL but also owns a home a few doors down, and for many years it has been mostly a Vrbo rental.  Like us, she blocks it off sometimes for personal use, but she and her husband usually stay at the Pearl family's house when they're visiting. However--her husband recently took a job in the area and they are planning to live there almost year-round now, and to stop renting their home and live in it themselves; but they have renters booked until October, so they, too, had to move into the old homestead this summer.  That means there were three couples sharing the house this year!  (With various and sundry other Pearl relatives popping in for short stays now and then.)  That could have been stressful, but honestly it all went so smoothly and we really enjoyed lots of time together, sharing meals and laughter around the kitchen table.  It helped that each couple had their own full bathroom (in order to make this possible, my husband and I did a minor renovation of the dilapidated basement bathroom, installing a new toilet and vanity and giving it a coat of fresh paint, and that became "our" bathroom), and we also each each had a fridge of our own.  (There are four fridges in that house: one in the kitchen, one in the garage, and two in the basement.  Until this summer, I would have said that having four in one house is overkill; but trust me, all of those fridges were full.)

The night before my husband and I left to head back to VA, we housemates (or "roomies," as we often called each other) decided to take a selfie to commemorate what we are calling "The Summer of Us."

If you must share a house, you couldn't find better people to do that with than these.  

Although I'm glad to be "back where we belong" (to quote one of my sweet little VA granddaughters, who thinks our summers up north are way too long), I'll miss watching the glorious sunrises over the lake as I sip my morning coffee.

The view from the deck of Oyster Haven.

The view from the deck of my husband's childhood home.

The grandkids here are all back in school, and everyone is very busy.  But we're excited to get back to our usual schedule of Sunday brunches and special dinners with the families of sons #2,  #3, and #4, and maybe catching some youth soccer and football games, too.  But even on those days when we can't see any of our peeps, even when it's just my husband and me in our cozy little house down here, going to daily Mass together and eating our simple meals for two, life is good.  So, so good.  It's funny, there are so many times that I'll make some comment and he'll say, "I was just going to say that!"  Or he'll ask a question, and I'll say, "I was just going to ask that myself!"  We are so often thinking about the same thing at the exact same time. He likes to joke that we have the same brain. Maybe that's what happens when you become best friends and start dating at 15, and you've been married for going-on-46 years--and when you're still each other's favorite person to spend time with and you've talked about everything under the sun.  We like to quote that line from Disney's Frozen: "We finish each other's...sandwiches!"

Yesterday, I was on Substack and someone had shared this poem by Wendell Berry (I think he died recently?); he is the author of the wonderful novel Hannah Coulter, which I absolutely loved.

  

Oh my goodness!  "And when they speak at last it is to say what each one knows the other knows. They have one mind between them, now"... wow!  I think this poem is about my husband and me.  (I'm sure thousands of couples will read it and think so, too.  But really, gang. This is us.)

As far at that whole  not knowing "which one goes first through the dark doorway...and which sits on a while alone"...well, I'd just as soon not think about that right now.  As Scarlett O'Hara would say, "I'll think about that tomorrow!"

And for now, I'll bid you goodnight, dear readers.