Mon Sep 22 07:52 EDT 1997
Weekend Update: September 19-21

Summer's last gasp was on Saturday and the Autumn has come with a 20
degree drop in temperature.  While the teenagers were climbing
Mount Manadanock, Joy and I set about closing the pool.  We drained
the pool down to the skimmers then met with a puzzle.  Not having
an in-ground pool before, that happened to be in the lowest spot on
the property, we didn't know how to lower the level of the pool
further.  We tried siphoning, but physics were against us.  We even
began using the Wet/Dry vac (thanks, Rich!) but abandoned that after
three buckets (just too slow).  Finally, I donned my bathing suit
and jumped into the shallow end with a bucket and bailed, bailed,
bailed.    The air was warm and the water was cool so i didn't think of
it as much of a chore.  I did a pretty good job although ibuprofen was
my friend the next day.

The chicken coop is now gutted and cleaned, too, and we'll store our pool
stuff in there over the winter.  Next Spring, we'll turn that into a
bath house for people to change in.  (For those who haven't seen the place,
the previous owners made a coop out of a nice shed off the pool gardens.)

The younguns stacked a cord of hard wood out on the deck, helped by the
teens when they got home from the mountain climb.  We're really getting
ready for winter, now.  We'll probably need another cord (or two) for
our winter needs and wants.

We ended our chores late that afternoon to wash up for the 32nd running
of the Toonerville Rook Tournament, held at the Manor at 6 o'clock.  We
had a good crowd around 6 tables.  Going into Round 11, six people were
within 50 points of the lead.  Mark Hamlin, in sixth place going into
the round, took the crown by 25 points.

The mail came on Saturday with news that at the Herald of Holiness,
things are a-changing.  This was in part due to the vote at General
Assembly to combine the HH with World Mission magazine.  Anyway, I
got a nice letter from Wes Tracy informing me that the December issue
of the HH will be the last for the Masculine Journey articles.  It's
been a great trip, stretched to two years from a trial period of six
months.

A few side notes:

My grandmother, Leona Metcalfe (93) had a heart attack this past week
and is "not out of  the woods, yet" according to my uncle who is
keeping the family informed.

Also, some of you don't know yet that Joy has a new cyst that is giving
her some problems.  She is back on medication with hopes to control and
shrink it.  As you can tell from the weekend update, we haven't slowed
down much, but we need to, and she needs to.  We're not out of the woods
on this.  We are thankful for the "time off" we've had from this trouble.

This week: harvest, canning, jamming, and winterizing.

Mark
              __                                          __
           __/_/\_           Mark Metcalfe             __/\_\__
,       __/_/\_\/_/\__ Cadence Design Systems, Inc. __/\ \/_/\_\__       ,
\_0__, /_/\_\/_/\_\/_/\  270 Billerica Road MS 04  /\_\/_/\_\/_/\_\ ,__0_/
  M    \_\/_/\_\/_/\_\/    Chelmsford, MA 01824    \/_/\ \/_/\_\/_/    M
 .|\.     \_\/_/\_\/         (978) 446-6451           \/_/\_\/_/     ./|.
             \_\/         metcalfe@cadence.com           \/_/