Summer over?

Sigh .... our intention was to try to post weekly, now we're hoping we can at least post seasonally!

One of our summer activities is giving the dogs their haircut. Well, we should say, getting our pal Janet to give the dogs their haircut. They always look several years younger and happier once the process is done, but getting them to hold still and get their long coats combed out is an exhausting process for the dogs, and until this summer, for Jim. Again, thanks to Janet, grooming got a lot easier for Jim. Janet pointed us at a little device that keeps the critters from scooting, sitting or otherwise making it difficult to get at areas they'd rather we didn't. The harness Nellie and Bingley wear below, which we're able to anchor to stair rails, has a loop to go around the head and another to hold the body up. We have to watch placement of the back loop on Bingley, or it is hump-a-rama :-)




So what did we do this summer? We started summer with a visit to Erie. Then we spent a lovely weekend with our pals Scott and Andy to celebrate Scott's birthday. Then the start of tennis mania: Jim and pal John spent several Saturday mornings this summer wearing themselves out playing 5 sets of tennis. Besides John, we had many other summer visitors, including Dick's sister Nancy, friends Fred and Joan and Marilyn, our pals Lee and Mary Anne, and the birthday gang for Dick's birthday. We subsequently spent another birthday weekend at Janet and Rusty's, took Rich and Clay to Great Adventure, and will finish the summer with a day at the US Open and a Labor Day trip to Erie by way of the "Grand Canyon of PA".

This summer also saw us switch yard duties a bit; Dick took over for the pool, Jim took on a lot more of the yard work chores. We got a lot cleaned up, and Jim is eager to continue trimming back some of our more overgrown spots.