Home, Reluctantly

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend. Not to be a jerk, but I’m sure you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks to generous friends, I spent Thursday to Sunday steps away from a lake in Old Forge, New York. (The photo to the right captures the general area pretty well. I foolishly left my camera at home, but one of our hosts is a professional photographer, and I hope to share some of his shots in the coming days...)

There were eleven of us there (including a four-month-old), and even though some friendships go back much further than others, the group got along as if we had all gone to college together. In the sun, it was warm; in the shade, it was cool; at night, it was cold. In other words, my perfect weather system. The days were filled with an honor roll of leisure activities. It was an all-time great weekend.

Coming back on Sunday afternoon -- a 300-something mile trip that, with a stop at Denny’s, took nine hours -- we heard Casey Kasem on the radio. Did everybody know that Casey was still going strong? (He’s 76. I could have sworn he was 76 in the mid-’80s.) The long-distance dedication was Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” -- sent from a man to his recently deceased cat. I had no idea the dedication could be so long-distance as to reach the great kitty beyond.

Re-entering Manhattan, the smell of rotting garbage wafted through the car window. Today, leaving the apartment was like diving into a bog, and the next two days are supposed to be even more humid. I head up to Saratoga in 43 days, but who’s counting?