No further puzzling incidents to report.
Boxer had started to develop some interesting behaviors. When I open the bathroom door after taking a shower, he will make a dash for the bathtub, hp over the edge, and sit down near the faucet. And I thought cats didn’t like water. He will do this whether the shower curtain is open or closed. Lately, though, I’ve been discouraging him from doing this.
At night, after JoAnna and I have settled into bed, Boxer will join us, placing himself magisterially onto an open space of blanket between us. And there he remains for the rest of the night. He used to try to get our attention as soon as he was awake, but now he is content to watch us sleep until one of us stirs. Previously, whenever he made unwanted contact, one of us would take him out of the bedroom and close the door. Boxer has decided if he wants to stay with “Mommy” and “Daddy”, it’s paws off.
As you can see from one of the enclosed pictures, Boxer likes to laze on the windowsill. He seems very curious about the out-of-doors. Occasionally he’ll try to escape through an open door, but so far we’ve always been able to grab him before he can make a getaway.
Having neither the time nor the inclination – or the tools or the skill – I called a plumber earlier in the week and scheduled an appointment for Wednesday. A number of things needed attention. The kitchen faucet has been leaking, but stopped all of a sudden a few weeks ago. I still had the plumber look at it. As a result, we now actually have some water pressure. The pipe under the utility room sink was leaking, so he replaced that. He installed a new faucet in the full bathroom, a disc-type assembly, replacing the relic that the original residents of the house used. Finally, he replaced the outside faucet by the patio, which we were never able to use unless we wanted to mop up a pool of water underneath the kitchen sink. We’re very pleased with the work. It was almost startling to lift the handle on the kitchen faucet and see a stream of water charging out of it with the force of Niagara Falls.
Staying at the cabin sounds like a good idea. Tell Larry and Kim we appreciate the offer. I need to sit down with JoAnna and finalize our summer schedule, but let me give you a tentative rundown anyway.
The Richard family reunion is scheduled for July 31st through August 2nd. Andy has a baseball tournament in Reedsburg that weekend, so the two of us won’t be going to Two Rivers. If JoAnna and Eddie return to Middleton late Sunday afternoon, we can get on the road to Pennsylvania by 6:00 and try to do the all-night red-eye, not a mode of travel I favor anymore. The target is to get to Warren sometime on Monday, the 3rd. On Saturday, the 8th, Renee (Shulman) Prayzer is having her bat mitzvah, a decision she was moved to make as a result of the success of her bone marrow transplant, I would guess. JoAnna and I would like to attend that. I’d like to be able to have the boys stay in Warren through the 15th, a Saturday. I have a WLA board meeting in La Crosse, 140 miles west of Middleton, on the 14th, which will add a couple hours to the trip to Warren. It’s likely that JoANna will stay home at that time as I’m sure they’ll be some campaign to work on. At this time, it does sound like she can take a week off at the beginning of August, but things could change, this being an election year with three or four hotly contested state senate races. After attending Renee’s event, JoAnna and I would return to Middleton, since I have a library board meeting on Tuesday, the 11th, and JoAnna probably needs to be at Chuck’s fundraiser on the following day. Part of me really hates to think that far ahead. I’m really enjoying this summer and just want to enjoy the leisurely pace. When I look back over June, to the beginning of the month, our trip to a Brewers game seems so long ago. We have made good use of our time – play, work, and just lazin’ around sometimes. The first third of summer has been pleasurable, productive and rewarding. The next week will be hectic, and more than likely very fast-paced, we as prepare for our Bastille Day party. Cooking. Cleaning. Shopping.
On Sunday, the day after the fourth, we are invited to a picnic and bocce ball tournament. Lance and Sue, the friends of ours who are hosting this party, live a block from Warner Park in Madison, site of the spectacular Rhythm ‘n’ Booms fireworks display. This year marks the 3rd annual, and based on the previous two, it should be a very eventful and enjoyable but long and exhausting day. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take Monday morning off, as a couple other staff members will be on vacation.
One of the frustrations of learning a new word processing program is figuring out how to do what was a very simple procedure in the old one. For example, you’ll notice that this letter starts with page 6, and I did continue it in the same document that I started on Monday. In WordPerfect, it was very easy for reformat page numbers. In Microsoft Word, even after consulting the Help topics, I still don’t know what to do. So you just have to consider this a continuation of the previous letter you received.
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