Winding Up, Winding Down

(Virgens from 7/26, 7/27, and 7/28 added on 7/31 after return to home computer.)

Good Morning -

It's Tuesday and I am, once more, at the Lititz Public Library. I have 22 minutes this time, and no noisy neighbors, so this should go well.

Let's see - you haven't heard of Virgens for a couple of days now. Last I checked in was Saturday - that Virgen had a great image from a postcard of a painting at the Lititz Art Show - a great juried art show that apparently takes place every summer in the park down here. We walked around the stalls, shared a fresh-squeezed lemonade and some Fink's Fries, bought some carrots at the farmer's market, and sat by the creek.

After that, we headed back to the house where we steamed some top-neck clams and made a fresh salad. It was getting a little muggy, but we enjoyed them outside all the same because it was still nice enough to sit outside.

After the clams, we relaxed some and then worked our way down to the Hispanic Festival in the city at St. John's Catholic church. We supported the community through the eating of various fried foods (plantains, empanada) and a most unfortunate dish from Peru called "causa". It was a mound of mashed potato salad around a mayonnaise chicken salad, with a squeeze of mayo on top and a wedge of hard-boiled egg. It's hard to move to cold potatoes when one is expecting a hot, fried potato. On the upside, I think the dish could build the cultural divide between the Peruvians and the Germans because each are big fans of mayo chicken salad, hard boiled eggs and potato salad.

After the food, it was a couple of rounds of bingo, a stop for a beer by the Conestoga River, and then back to the house.

So - that was Saturday's Virgen - art and bingo chips.

Sunday, we spent the morning making German potato salad, spinach salad and other dishes for the afternoon cook-out at my partner's brother's house. Each of her three brothers were there, her sister-in-law, her two nieces, and her nieces' 3 kids. We spent the afternoon grilling and enjoying the relatively low-humidity day.

I didn't have my magazines to look for a picnic image for the Virgen for Sunday, so settled on an image of the Hopper print called - I think - Late Night Diner or some such. It's the image of a corner diner at night with the three patrons and cook. It reminded me of sitting around her brother's table after most everyone had left and it was just my partner's oldest and youngest brother, herself, and me.

Yesterday (Monday) we got up early (read: 5 a.m.), packed up the car and drove down to Long Beach Island New Jersey to spend the day at the beach with my partner's friend, who is down there for the week in a rented house with friends.

It was a great drive and a beautiful stretch of beach. The house they rented is right on the beach, so we spent most of the morning (we left Lititz at 6 and were at the house by 9) sitting on the back porch watching the waves. My partner and I walked down a bit and enjoyed getting splashed by the waves. (Oh...I have 10 minutes left). We ate lunch in town and talked restorative justice with my partner's friend's friend, who does that work in the schools here in PA.

I knew I couldn't be that close and not get wet, so I changed before we left and got in the waves. It was a great metaphor of what's going on right now - which I'll elaborate on when I have more than 9 minutes - seeking solid ground, getting grounded while being knocked over by big waves, etc, etc.

The image from last night is a post card from the island and a calendar of August I created on the back of a business card that was in my purse as we were trying to figure out different dates in the month.

Too little time left. I'll spell-check and call this finished.

Here's magic to all.