Subject: Weekend Update: September 12-15, 2002
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 19:56:39 -0400

Andrew's team won their first football game.  The varsity
team and coaches came over to watch the game after their
own workout and were impressed by the young team.  Andrew
was in for only a few plays.  He said that he was given
one task (to keep his opponent away from the kicker)
and that's what he did.  He is having a lot of fun.

Mom and Dad called Friday morning.  They had a 50th wedding
anniversary celebration to attend in Maine for Roland and
Phyllis Standford on Saturday and felt it would be better
to strike out for Maine from Pepperell than from Cape Cod.
When I arrived home on Friday, Emily and Andrew had camping
gear strewn in the kitchen for the New England District
annual mountain climb up Mt. Manadanock.  They had to be
taken to the church in a few minutes after I got home.  I
offered to take them because Joy had been working hard to
put the house back together after the fan went up.  Joy
said that she'd take the kids because it would force her
to sit down for a while.  I agreed, so I let her go.

Miranda and my parents arrived shortly after Joy left.  I
decided to take down the scaffolding myself while Joy was
out, to get it out of the barn.  Dad was feeling spry and
climbed up to the first level to help out.  (Getting up
is one thing; getting down is another, but he did all
right.)  While we dismantled the scaffold, Emily popped
back into the room.  She had come back because Andrew had
forgotten his bag. They had to come all the way back from
the church to get it. Fortunately for us, Eric Pape drove
out to Pepperell with the neglectful child and then took
the back roads to Camp.  (The back roads up Route 31 are
much nicer and even a little bit faster than the way others
in our church take, I think.) With the younguns gone for real
this time, the five of us went out to dinner at Friendly's
and Mom and Dad treated!

On Saturday, the home chores beckoned once again, but this
weekend I kept both feet on the ground. Melissa visited Mandy
and they traded school teacher stories, and went and got
both of their cars' oil changed before shopping.  That left
me and Joy to fend for ourselves again, but we didn't mind
because we like being together, even in work!

Joy put a Virginia baked ham in the sink to soak.  The Youngs
gifted us with it during their visit.  Apparently, you have
to soak it for hours, then cook it for hours, and then slice
it and store it until you want some.  We have enough to last
us through a hard New England winter.

I cut the lawn and dumped grass into Compost Heap 2, where Joy
had already dumped a good third of the top layer of Compost
Heap 1.  She had prepared H1 for me to roto-till.  I tilled;
she shoveled, dumped, and spread.  The roto-blades found
all kinds of sticks, strings, plastics and other junk down
in the precambian layers of the heap, and I had to stop and
take the junk out periodically.  However, what we dumped
onto the area beyond the basketball court was really nice,
brown dirt.

Towards evening, Joy put the ham in the oven and then
we ordered Chinese food.  The girls rented a movie for
the evening.  Mom and Dad returned for a good soaking
in the tub hoping that they wouldn't be shoved in the oven
afterward. ;-) I packed my suitcase for my trip to California
on Sunday morning. The ham would be ready at about 11pm but
Mandy graciously offered to take it out of the oven.

At 4:45am, I rose to catch a limosine to the airport.  I told
Joy that I'd call her when I arrived.  When I did, she told me
that our waterbed had burst a seam and she and my father
spent time cleaning that up.  Joy said that she was very
grateful to Dad for being there. (He even helped by
slicing the ham.)  Something always seems to go wrong
when I am away.  :-( Thankfully, the flights were not one
of those things. :-)

Mark