feast or famine...

I swear it seems like when I have no time to post, I have about a hundred posts I want to write. When I actually have time to post, well, there's nothing I feel like babbling about. Does that happen to anyone else? I'm sure it must. I guess on the surface it makes sense--I mean, if there's a lot going on then it seems like there ought to be a lot of fodder for blogging and vice versa. But that really doesn't seem to be the case. The things that are keeping me busy are not the things I feel like blathering on about.

Anyway, we have had a busy couple weeks. Some really good stuff. Some decidedly not-so-good stuff.

Highest on the not-so-good list would be Gray's bike accident. (If you're not in the mood to be grossed out, I suggest skipping the rest of this paragraph.) Last Sunday, Rich and the boys went on a bike ride. They weren't really gone all that long before I get a phone call from Rich saying that Gray had fallen off his bike and we needed to get him to the hospital as soon as possible. I could tell from his voice that it was bad. But then I also knew that it wasn't catastrophic or Rich would have called 911 instead. Anyway, I jumped right in the car and drove the few miles to where they were. Gray was sobbing and shaking and scared to death. Rich told me not to even look at his injury. It was hard to tell how long the laceration was simply because it was so deep it just gaped open into almost an "O" shape. They needed to put in four stabilizing sutures inside and then there were eleven more surface stitches. As bad as it was though, it could have been worse. Oddly enough, he was wearing long pants (not that it's odd for Gray to be wearing long pants--the whole sensory processing disorder thing) and yet the pants were not cut or ripped at all. Maybe the cut would have been no worse had he been wearing shorts, but if he had he would have had to see the injury the whole time. And that was the last thing he could handle. (He couldn't wear his pants home though as there were chunks of fat and tissue stuck on the inside of them. Warned you it was gross.) But what was *really* lucky was the exact place he landed on that handlebar, because had it been on an artery or on his abdomen things would have been considerably worse.

Anyway, it's healing well, as you can see in this recent photo. He'll have a nice scar, of course. And hopefully by next summer he'll even have the desire to hop on his bike again. (At present, he swears he will never ride a bike again.) Poor kiddo.




As for good stuff, we decided somewhat spontaneously to head to Maine for a few days. Well, our hotel was in Maine, but we spent most of the first full day in New Hampshire and then most of the second full day in Maine. The weather was positively scrumptious! Seriously perfect. It took about 11 1/2 hours to get there, when it should have taken 7. This was due to all the flooding from Hurricane Irene--while here we felt no effects from Irene and the coast where we were going felt very little, much of the in between part was devastated. A 120 mile stretch of the New York thruway was still closed and, of course, so were many of the smaller roads, so it was tough to get around it. But we just kept telling ourselves that we were incredibly lucky to have travel delays and traffic jams be our only problem when so many people were truly suffering.

Okay, here's the photo inundation:

Day 1 (total travel day)

The view for much of the day.

Picnic supper at a truck stop. They looked so thrilled, don't they? :P

Okay, this is one of those "you had to be there" moments. Driving down the Massachusetts Turnpike, Rich and I were admiring this lovely great blue heron flying by overhead ahead of us. Seconds later we were bombed. Seriously, I have no freakin' idea how a single bird could have so much to unleash. The worst of it hit the windshield. Wish I could have gotten a picture, but of course Rich had to immediately hit the windshield wipers and use lots of spray to get it off because it was covered. Even in this picture you can't tell that it goes down each side of the car and back the roof. I swear I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants. I know--I am easily amused. :) I'm really going to bummed when it gets washed off by the rain because it still makes me smile every time I see it.

Day 2:

Odiorne State Park.

Seacoast Science Center.

A brief swim in the Atlantic at Rye, New Hampshire for Annie and Max. (Gray couldn't because of his stitches.)

Tidal pools in Rye, New Hampshire.

Day 3:

Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge in Wells, Maine.

Ferry Beach State Park in Saco, Maine...where Rich took Max and Annie swimming in the Atlantic...

and Gray and I went on a photographic nature walk.

So yeah, our little mini vacation definitely qualifies for the good stuff category. Hopefully these last two days of "summer" will add a few more good things to the list. Along with way too much to do to prepare for the first day of school, there's still more laundry to catch up on and canning to do (hopefully both some quarts of plain old tomatoes and some pints of salsa). But I also hope to send a few long overdue emails, join RIP :D, catch up on some blog reading (finally!), hit the farmer's market, and do some just-for-fun reading. Should be a full weekend!

I so hope everyone else is having a truly fantastic weekend!!! And I can't wait to get around to see what you all have been up to. :D