The end of Summer

Hi,
I just came back from a weekend in Strathmere. The weather is still nice and Summery, but you can't miss the signs that Summer is almost over. The biggest clue in Strathmere is the trailer park. The town has a Summer trailer resort there where people set up about 90-100 trailers for the Summer. This week people are starting to pack up and move out for the Winter, always a sad sight. There are less and less people there during the weekend too, which I actually like. September is a great time to go to the shore, because the weather is nice and it's not too crowded. Still can't take the dogs up on the beach until the 30th though. Boris has been bugging me all Summer to go for a swim. He's a swimming dog you know. Actually he goes in up to his belly, but once his feet leave the bottom he panics and comes back to the beach. But he think's that he is a very big deal. He's finished with his Lyme disease antibiotics now. Luckily we caught it early and it appears that it hasn't had any affect on him at all. He's still is usually naughty self.

It looks like the hummingbirds are leaving too, we haven't seen any lately. I read online that they fly south for the winter. I'll miss our bossy little guy who sat in the bush most of the day and chased away any other hummingbirds that came near 'his' feeder. Who knew hummingbirds were so tough and brave. Next Summer I want to get more feeders (now we have one hanging in the bush and another that suction-cups right onto the window) and I want to plant some flowers that attract more hummingbirds, and butterflies too, we have some really pretty and big butterflies around here. I got a coupon for $25 worth of free bulbs from www.brecks.com
so I took advantage of the freebies and order some, only chose $25 worth, including shipping. I have big plans for the front and back yards next year. Let's see if I actually follow through on the plans! I do want to get a bunch of hydrangeas planted out here, I love them.

So my Dad, who retired last December is working again this week. His old job called him back in to help repair some equipment that apprarently no one else in the plant knows how to fix. This is the 2nd time they've called him for help since he retired. He doesn't mind really, he likes to work and he really likes that they need him after the company treated the older employees like him so poorly right before many of them left last year. The company wanted to get rid of all the 'old timers' and hire younger guys for cheaper pay. The company made things tough for the guys and pushed out many of them. When will companies realize that it's worthwhile to pay those guy with actual longtime hands-on experience, it saves them money on the long run. Anyway, it's a little tougher on my Dad now because we live an hour further from his work now, so he has to get up earlier and trek back and forth there.


MSN has a good list of charities for Hurrican Katrina donations - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179805/

I had been hoping to send a care package like the ones that I've sent to troups through www.anysoldier.com
- most of the places that I've been looking at seem to prefer boxes of single item donations (like a box full of socks, or a box full of peroxide etc.) they don't have the manpower to sort the items, so everything in the box has to be the same. They even have a list of pet charities too.


Bye for now, Carol