Mainely really good

This week I hired an assistant who should start this Monday. Things have really piled up. I haven’t been sending out poems except very occasionally. I haven’t answered correspondence that can’t be done on email. Filing is overflowing.The tomatoes, beans, etc. are slowing down. just about time to pull those plants. The Chinese cabbage is now ready to eat. The seasons move however slowly at times. We’ve had more than enough summer for weeks and we’re more than ready for fall. The airconditioning is finally fixed now that it’s cooler anyhow. We had two inches of rain at long last on Monday. It began in the night and continued on and off all day and into Monday night. That doesn’t relieve the drought but it helps everything survive. it felt like such a blessing.Tuesday we got up at 5:45 and left at 7:15 to drive to Maine for our annual one night vacation.   We had good luck with traffic on the way there [and also on the way back on Wednesday afternoon]. We stopped in Kittery where I get a few thingsat the outlets and consumed lobster rolls at Bob’s Clam Shack where they are the best, then on to Freeport. We shopped the outlets and then enjoyed our luxurious room at the Haraseekett Inn with a king bed and a Jacuzzi. We treat ourselves to one night there. We enjoy plenty of seafood on the Cape but there are no half way good Chinese restaurants nearer than Boston. We have a favorite Chinese restaurant in Freeport where we had supper.   It was a relaxing time in Freeport – something we’ve had little of in months and won’t have till probably midwinter. In the morning, they laid out the usual sumptuous breakfast in the Inn. By late morning, we reached the Noon Family Farm, where we’ve been going for at least 35 years. We got our naturally raised lamb and caught up with Jean, then left for drive home.In New Hampshire, we stopped to buy wine. At home, Melenie, my long time assistant and pseudo daughter, was staying at the house taking care of the cats and doing one of her stints at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. The big cats eat twice a day but Schwartzie is only 10 weeks old and must eat four times a day. My friend Janet took care of the noon feeding both days. Schwartzie slept with Melenie and charmed her thoroughly. All the cats greeted us at the door when we got back by late afternoon Wednesday. I swear that Schwartzie grew while we were gone.Willow plays with him and growls occasionally when he gets too rough. She likes him but feels the need to keep him in line. She feels he is cute but lacks manners. He’s already trying to bite her neck. Mingus is happy again, for the first time since he lost his lifelong bro Sugar Ray. He hangs with Schwartzie, plays with him. Schwartzie has restored Mingus not only to happiness but to kittenhood. He had stopped playing and now he is totally into toys again and chase and hide games. He feels we got Schwartzie for him.Woody interviewed Morton Dean who used to be a news anchor for CBS News and Good Morning, America. He was a correspondent during the Vietnam War and recently made a movie about bringing Nam Vets together again after 40 years. They hit it off so he came to supper last night with Mary, his significant other. We had a great time. I made Armenian chicken and one of the last meals of our beans.I’m Iooking forward to working with Penny Monday for the first time. I really hope she works out. I desperately need some help as things have piled up mountainhigh. I haven’t been getting nearly as much writing done, sine I have to be my own secretary.