Last night we visited with Ruth and Wes and Ruth's mom Emily who is visiting from the Buffalo area. She is 93 and such a joy. The only particular health problem she has is macular degeneration. She lives alone, cooks, cleans. I'll take that back, she lives with her youngest daughter, Mindy. Or I should say Mindy lives with her, as Emily's in the same house she's lived in since she was married umpty-ump years ago. Wes and Ruth invited us for dinner and Wes cooked steak on the grill. Ruth was hoping that we could go in their pool, but the water was too cold! It hasn't been a good summer for pools up here. They have a solar cover, but the water just hasn't warmed up enough most of the time. The nights have been cool and any warmth from the day is depleted then. Paul and I have become rather spoiled with the hottub, (which is beside the point). We would have gone in, but the consensus was "no."
It was a nice visit, and I know a lot of you know Ruth and Wes and would enjoy seeing their picture with Emily. My cousins, Carol and Alice, stayed with them, for the weekend Paul and I were married. Ruth and Wes are very good people. Their family, I consider my second family. I've spent many holidays with them and watched their children and grandchildren grow.

I see that I have 49 posts so far, so doing the math, it looks like this will be the 50th! That doesn't seem possible. Especially since I write about the most mundane things. Of course we've had wonderful experiences, like watching the grass and flowers grow, the driveway become blacktopped, a new hottub in our lives.
Speaking of hottubs, Carol O. came today for lunch and a dip in the "tub". She was on her way to an appointment in Elmira and suggested we meet at the Olive Garden for lunch. I extended the invitation to her to come here. Paul, she and I had a good time just sitting around, eating, talking, and then tubbing before she continued on to Elmira.
Carol has visited us in Florida for numerous years and has wanted to rent in Venice for a couple of months. She's so very excited because she will be able to! It seems my cleaning lady, Debby's grandmother, is renting out her house this year for the first time. Carol has been on the phone with Debby's mom, who is taking care of all the particulars, and she and Carol are on first-name basis. Carol will be renting February and March. How wonderful that will be! I am so excited for her.
Bill, who prefers to be called Jil (a masculine nordic name) and his wife, Epril had a really great picture of themselves in his blog- junglejil, at a formal dinner for expatriots living in Cagayan De Oro, a couple of days ago. I requested and Epril sent me a copy of it through e-mail. Paul made me a copy and I am going to frame it. I can't get over the fact that they're in the Philippines, went to this dinner, and I have a frameable picture of them the next time I looked at my e-mail.