2006-08-19

Saturdays are such a blessing in our little community of three! After Morning Offering, Jim cooked a salmon loaf for the week while I came upstairs to do some ordering of goods. Jim needed a pair of work shoes and some work pants. Now you would think this would be easy to accomplish as he had chosen what he wanted out of catalogs.

The shoes were in stock, but the software on the Sierra site balled up. After 40 minutes of trying to make the system function, to no avail, I called Sierra’s customer service and the representative complimented me on having created a snarl no one there had seen before. In fact, they could not solve it. Finally I got that order together another way and moved on to ordering the pants.

This time the venerable L. L. Bean Company had run out of Jim’s size pants in the style he preferred. I tried every combination for six style colors, but in his size, they were sold out. Consultation with Mick created an alternate plan and I got those pants ordered as well so much for colors! He shall have to be satisfied with denim indigo and a good fit. Creative patching on his old jeans is attractive in its retro hippie way but the patches are wearing patches these days and it is time for anew generation of jeans!

About the time I straightened out that order Jim called lunch time and we enjoyed a leisurely, Saturday kind of midday meal, with stretching afterwards. Then Jim was off to an afternoon of planting the remainder of the arbor vitae trees, trimming up our lawn, er, meadow, and generally spiffing up the old homestead. Meanwhile I came up again and worked on Christmas shopping, as some very good sale catalogs have come in. By gardening time I had found some thoughtful gifts for loved ones.

Let me say again, Saturdays are wonderful! This sort of “work” is strictly personal and on Monday through Friday I stay clear of it. It is great to have one day a week to get this kind of thing done.

I also consulted at some length with Gary, who was on admin hours, and Melissa, who had come over for some volunteer time. Melissa wanted to get the tee shirt order finished. It has been hanging fire for almost a year now and Jamie finally sent us the news that the shirts are on their way. The cost of the order has gone up a lot just since we made the order, as their wholesale prices underwent a change. The pressure to raise the amount of our suggested donations is absolutely inevitable and I am glad we are doing so across the board, as our own costs for products are skyrocketing.

We also discussed how to list the new tees in the new order form, as there are five new models, three for unisex and two just for women. We got the logo on the back, “All Is One”, made 30% smaller on the women’s tees, since the styles are more body conscious and much more trim.

The old models of tees will be kept at the lower cost and sold as sale items until they are gone, we decided.

PayPal is some time off yet on the new order form, but Gary assured me he was targeting getting that option going as he looks ahead at his L/L admin work. It is quite a lot of work to set that up but it will be very handy for our customers. Today he was getting the material for the packets for our Homecoming together, for the most part.

I joined Jim in the yard for weeding at afternoon’s end and finished the lily patch along the south side of the garage. Next I will cross that doorway into the potting shed part of the garage and tackle the garage corner. There are lilies there and the burgeoning wisteria vines. Clearing the clots of leaves and other debris from that corner patch and trimming the wisteria around the corner and on to the back of the garage are my next gardening goals.

While Jim cleaned the kitchen after supper I made plans to attend the MacDuffie reunion this October. One of my buddies from school, Beth, will receive the Distinguished Alumna award and I want to cheer her on. I think my other school friends – Ann B., my roomie, Ann P, the woman who introduced me to the headmaster and got me a scholarship chance and Helen, my best friend at school, are also coming to support Beth so it should be a total blast for us old gals.

We are the class of 1961, so it’s our 45th reunion! I have never been to a MacDuffie reunion. When I was there it was a girls’ school and had nine campus buildings. Now it is co-ed and has enlarged dramatically. It’ll be great fun to see what’s happened there and to catch up with my friends, all of whom have done excellent things with their lives and who remain vital and fascinating women. And we are all still alive, which is a signal blessing at our age!

I remember so many good times with them. One memory that surfaces with great clarity is from the early May days before graduation in ‘61. Helen, Beth and I had a book which had just come in the mail, given to me by my very first love. It was The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. We went with it to a nearby cemetery where the landscaping was superb. We sat under a tree and read that sweet and powerful book to each other, taking turns, that whole afternoon, while the young New England sun filtered through the pale green of the new leaves and dappled across our skirts. We touched deep places together that day. I celebrate my old friends!

Gary joined Jim and me for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation and we said good night around 11:30.