Reading: The Best of Friends by Joanna Trollope. She is the five times great niece of novelist Anthony Trollope. Like her illustrious ancestor, her work is set in the English countryside. This is the first book of hers I have read, and I am enjoying it.

Weather: Hot and humid. This is Maine? We left New Jersey to escape weather like this. It has rained off and on today and is supposed to rain more tonight.

Background courtesy of
Ace of Space

Stars and Rain

One of the things I had been hoping to do while we're up here was to look for falling stars. Our visits to Maine often coincide with the annual Perseid meteor showers; one year Tab and I counted more than fifty meteorites in less than an hour as we lay out on the chaise longues on Mom's deck.

The weather is not cooperating with my sky-watching plans, however. The skies were overcast all yesterday, and a storm came through last night. I'm hoping for clear weather later in the week so that we can take the boys outside to see the wealth of stars visible here. Only a few of the brightest stars and planets can be seen back home these days. My sons never get to see a sky bedizened with stars except when we are up here, away from the city lights and haze.

The lead story on the local TV news last night and on the front page of the newspaper this morning was the accident we drove by yesterday. The truck driver, a 27-year-old Canadian man, was pronounced dead at the scene, but his 11-year-old nephew, who was riding with him, was rescued and rushed to the hospital.

Poor Tab had trouble falling asleep last night; in his mind's eye, he kept seeing the wreckage of the truck, the wheels spinning lazily in the air, and the flames leaping up.

The sound of rain falling on leaves outside lulled me to sleep quickly, however. Having had almost no rain at home for months, I'd almost forgotten what a restful sound a gentle rain can be.

My two-year-old nephew, Isaac, the son of my youngest sister, Susannah, spent most of the day with us. With his blue eyes and blond hair as fair as Daniel's, he looks like he could be one of my sons. It was interesting to watch the interactions of the kids. The twins weren't particularly fond of Isaac; as a child nearly two years younger, he was merely a nuisance to them. Daniel, however, was far more tolerant of Isaac than he is of his own brothers, and Isaac, in turn, idolized Daniel. He followed him everywhere like a little puppy dog. "I took good care of him," Daniel informed Susannah when she arrived later to pick Isaac up.

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