Summer always ends too soon. These last days of the season have been different for me this year. The demise of my printer changed the way I write. No more revising printed chapters in comfort on my sofa or on the screened porch. While waiting for a new printer to arrive, I'm been writing and revising on the computer screen. With my vision not at its best, it's been slow going.

 

The first cataract surgery went well, but my vision is distorted. Every day it's a little better. Another disadvantage? Eye drops every day and no eye makeup for two weeks, which will amount to a month because I have the second eye surgery scheduled for September 9. I don't wear a lot of mascara, but a little makes a big difference when your eyes are a light color, at least from my point of view.

 

A revelation: I always knew I had a streak of gray in my bangs but didn't know I had more in the layers on either side of my face. They were there all along. I just didn't see them. Either that or the surgery turned my hair gray.

 

My poor heroine, Jennet, finds herself stalled in a precarious situation as she tries to solve the mystery of the ghostly gunfire and other school problems, along with one of those Twilight Zone mysteries for which Foxglove Corners is famous. In other words, I'm working on Chapter 27 and 28. Forever, it seems. I'm writing in slow motion and reading in slow motion as well. I find reading the AOL news and Facebook posts difficult so I've been doing a lot of skimming.

 

I finished If Catfish Had Nine Lives-delightful-and began a time travel book that sounded good but turned out to be so bad I stopped reading it. I don't make many mistakes in ordering my books, but in this case I fell for the premise which was intriguing. The premise turned out to be the only intriguing thing about the book. And it isn't often that I don't finish a book I started.

 

Fascinated by the hype for the television series based on Outlander, I read the book and thought it would never end. I'm not a fan of super-long novels. The only novels I wished would never end were Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis. Close to two thousand pages weren't enough for me. I will say, though, that the cliffhangers kept me reading Outlander in spite of its length. For example, how could I quit reading and go to bed when Claire was about to be condemned to be burned at as a witch?

 

What else did I do on my summer vacation? I sat on a bee. They say there's a shortage of bees in the world. Not in my yard. They especially like my fading purple coneflowers and the glorious goldenrod that's in full bloom. Once for some strange reason (knowing my aversion to bees) I planted bee balm. I guess I thought it was just a plant with a pretty name.

 

One evening I went out with Kinder and sat in my lawn bench and immediately felt as if someone had driven a needle into my flesh and kept it there. Thank heavens for Poison Control and thank heavens this sting didn't result in a trip to Emergency with an allergic reaction. I've been there before. It's a very unpleasant way to end a day.  

 

What else happened this summer? My temperamental cuckoo clock from Germany, the subject of my unfinished novel of romantic suspense, tentatively, titled The Eidelweiss Lure, refuses to allow its pendulum to swing. Last year, it stopped playing its music. Its only redeeming feature is that it looks good against my white wall. My previous cuckoo clock from the Black Forest lasted for several decades before it gave up the ghost.

 

To tell time during the day, I use a small battery-operated clock that I received as a gift many years ago or the clock on the stove. At night I use an electric alarm clock. I think the cuckoos are overrated.

But the quirks of this strange timepiece are inspiring me to go to work on that book again.

 

These last days of summer might as well be fall. In my yard, leaves have started turning and falling from the linden trees, and the only flowers flourishing are the goldenrods. In the ground, that is. The plants in the container are gorgeous.

 

New flash! The printer arrived, has been installed, and is printing. I'm back in business as usual.

Until October and the real fall, I hope you enjoy these last pleasant days before the cold weather arrives. Today we're promised a steamy morning and late afternoon storms. That sounds like summer.

 

Dorothy



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