The Apple has fallen!

All through the gorgeous summer months the Inn is humming with vacationing guests; some staying for two nights and some for as long as a week. I don’t think that we were quite prepared for how exhausting it was going to be. Our few opportunities for free time was spent on our backs in a cool place under a fan or we escaped in the late afternoon down to the lake with a couple of beers, pushing the paddle boat into the middle to drift around out of earshot of the phone and the needy people. We ached for signs that summer was waning, which meant that our work load would ease up somewhat. And now here we are in the full flourish of autumn colours telling us that the cold and quiet time will soon be here. Memories of summer is all that is left.

I dislike wishing time away and I am made more aware of the folly of that with the untimely death of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. His illness and passing has pulled me up and made me pay more attention to each day that I am here, even when I am exhausted and exasperated with my day and it seems so like a steep uphill climb. At least I have my health and an amazing partner and our children who are a constant source of hope in a struggling world. If I didn’t have this job to hold down I would grab a back pack and go off to ‘occupy’ Wall Street. It is a movement full of desperation with the times, people with their backs against an unyielding wall and it may drag on and on much like the Vietnam War protests, maybe getting ugly before something positive happens. Meanwhile our little boat is in need of us. We are taking some time off and will be going back to Deltaville, VA in November to do some maintenance and to cover her up again against the imminent snow and ice. We are looking forward to our children coming to the Inn over Christmas and to a winter season in this beautiful part of the country. Time marches on, the seasons do not waver from their proscribed time, all we can do is to hold fast and do the best with every moment we are given.