04-AUG-B-2
THE DAILY DETAILS OF SUMMER’S CLOSING SEASON
WITH A NEW SCHOOL YEAR BEGINNING
AND MY ELDP NEXT SESSION LOOMING,
BOOKS AND PAPERS READY OR NOT
August 23--24, 2004
Today was the first day of school for the newly arrived freshman medical
students. They have had a lot of group activities of the orientation and getting-
to- know -you variety, but now—no more Mister Nice Guy! I should be able to
appreciate that since this next Friday and Saturday are my
return dates after the longest layoff I will have since the “residence period”
in June gave us a good six weeks off, but now it goes back to a regular anchor
toward the end of each month, around which I have to build my schedule of
whatever I would like to do, since there can be no missing the deadlines of the
class schedule. will have to be dodged in any commitments, such as traveling to
I have had a very spectacular summer day at home, almost painfully wonderful in the full glories of summer in Derwood, with the addition of a touch of crispness in the air and a little bit of daylight shortening to add poignancy. I have done some household chores in the glories of the woods. I had scheduled my Audi several weeks ago to have its replacement of the catalytic converter on warranty on the 24th, so I stored up some of my writing and school work chores. As I got out early in the morning to drive over to the Audi dealer on the Rockville Pike, I had a few friends see me off. They are always standing on the newly graveled apron behind the garage and in front of the shed. That is where they were when the Killetts saw them along with the fox that ran between them. The big bucks are standing there looking at me with interest but not with alarm. What are they always there? I should have known when acorns are coming pinging off the top of the skylights, and dropping on the shed and the canoe, and, once, bouncing off my head. I told that to Jim the mailman who had been taking his nap in the hammock when he had been bonked by an acorn just in the middle of the forehead. I will return to the matter of the hammock and the deer in a moment, since I had orchestrated my departure to do all the things for which I might need the car, like going to the grocery store, delivering the trash for recycling to the foot of the drive, and bringing home the letters to be written and homework to be done.
I then drove to the Rockville Audi drop-off and ran back with “Path Between the Seas” the McCullough tape on the digging g of the Panama Canal playing in my ears. While I was still hot and sweaty, I carried big rocks that had been bulldozed out during the footings of the new addition and piled them in the eroded part of the bank where the torrential rains that had happened the day I stained the deck had washed down the bank. I filled up the crevasses with rocks, then took the hammock, which had been taken down to allow the digging of the well and the excavation to find it, and the landscaping to fill the are back in, and found two small boards to bolt above and below the cracked headboard. I could not get the drill to go all the way through since it does not hold much more than a few minutes charge. The heavy duty drill that Dale Kramer had when we were hanging heads was good for three hours but he explained that is because the battery is a $67 long lasting battery for heavy duty work. I did not have the right length bolts, and set aside that reconstruction task on the hammock.
A little later I heard the wheels of Dale’s truck rolling in, and he came to change the film in the camera that automatically takes pictures as it sense motion in front of it. That had captured several deer, including the ten pointer who posed nicely, one which scampered away when he heard it, one doe followed by two fawns, and several pictures of young bucks that were so curious that they came right up close and had pictures taken of their ears and antlers! I had sent Dale the story of the big bucks on the gravel apron, and the fox that ran through their group. Since they are always there I looked to see what salt or otherwise they were finding there.
No salt, but they are as lazy as any other creature who would lie a good thing without working too hard for it. With all kinds of oak trees throughout the woods, they prefer it right here since the white oaks over the shed drop their acorns on the clean and newly laid down crush and run. They do to have to find the acorns under the leaf litter, but can simply roll them around with their tongues on the easy pickings, and spit the caps of the acorns off and continue this delicacy at their convenience.
I typed a good part of the day under the light streaming in through the skylights and looking occasionally around the woods from the newly stained deck. Derwood is really beautiful now, and compared to the cicada deadfalls that I am picking up daily, shortly the leaves will be coming down in huge volume. I am glad that the gutter guards are up there protecting the downspouts and will try to do one more bit of yard work before that will turn into raking.
I called the Audi dealer, and they said the car was done except for the washing of it, a standard practice whenever the vehicle is brought in. When I ran back the car was ready with the newly heated up catalytic converter smelling like it was just installed, and the car gleaming from its second washing in a week. But, there was no charge since I have an extended warranty, and it runs as well as ever, but without the annoying check engine light on.
With this
brief summer lull, I am going to try to bring the year-end letter to the half
way point for the year so I do not get caught in the year end rush without the
labor intensive project this has become superimposed on trips to the