Monday, September 6, 2021

Labor Day 2021 - the Ideal and the Real

To all our friends celebrating, Happy Rosh Hashanah!  

Shanah tovah um'tukah.  


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Labor Day is truly the Janus of holidays. New Year’s Day actually takes place in the month named for the double-faced god who looks both ahead and behind, but nowadays we tend to do most of our reminiscing about the previous year in the run-up to New Year’s, and save the actual day for black eyed peas, hangovers and planning for the days to come.


But Labor Day is genuinely divided between looking back to the summer now gone and looking forward to the fall. So, for a change, I’d like to pause directly on the day itself. Usually part of the last long weekend for a while, Labor Day Monday is often spent mostly on the road by travelers who need to get back to the city from the shore/lake/mountains. But this year, of course, a lot of us are staging closer to home. And the mass get-togethers of the past are also fewer and further between right now; ball games, big BBQs, outdoor concerts. After all, it’s not just an ongoing pandemic out there - to paraphrase a tweet I saw, half the country is on fire and the other half is underwater.


So Reds, let’s plan our ideal Labor Day for 2021. Where would you be? What would you be doing? And most importantly, who would you be doing it with? 


LUCY BURDETTE: I know what I’ll actually doing--not much! I will be making fried shrimp tacos for the back of book #12, and maybe lying around reading:). However, I read an interesting article in the Real Estate section of the New York Times on Saturday about how renovating old motels is a new trend. There was a photo of one with ten rooms and a big outdoor kitchen and lounging area--wouldn’t that be a perfect place for a Jungle Red writer get-together and writing retreat? I think I’ll go with that… 


 

JENN McKINLAY: I’m on deadline so that’s what I’ll be doing. Wah! Although, I’m planning what would be my ideal Labor Day weekend for Thanksgiving. A family vacation to San Diego with a house on Mission Bay/Beach near Belmont Park (amusement park). Hub and I will ride bikes, skateboard, boogie board, and stand up paddle board and then eat our body weight in fish tacos. The Hooligans will join us with their Plus Ones - for the first time on a family trip - and I expect we’ll only see them at meals or when I badger the bravest among them to go on the old wooden rollercoaster with me because I love that stupid thing so much. Let’s hope this trip actually comes to fruition because...2021 has not proven much better than 2020, at least to me, and frankly I could use a break. 


 

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Lucy, LOVE the retreat idea. I am now in fact, in full retreat. I have so much to do that this morning it crossed my mind--what if I simply don’t do it? What would it really matter? And then I went back to work.

What I’d love to do:  float on rafts in the pool and read in the sun, with maybe lemonade and bird song. If the baby children came to visit--that would be great. 

What I will do: Labor. Type type type type type.  And in the evening, we will have a gin and tonic, and prosciutto and melon, and cook out, and count blessings that we are not sick, not underwater, and not on fire. And that the lights go on. YIKES. 


JULIA: Hank, that should be our new standard for complaining. Am I sick? Am I underwater? Am I on fire? If no, then all is well.



HALLIE EPHRON: I’m just back from a week on Peaks Island in Maine - the perfect end of summer break with walks and beach and time out for special meals in Portland. The grands doing cartwheels on the lawn. It was nippy enough to need my sweatshirt,and we were only grazed by Ida. And when I got home my basement wasn’t flooded. Come Labor Day I’ll be home… which is pretty much my favorite place to be right now. Boring, I know. But it’s my cozy place and as the weather turns, it’s what I yearn for.


RHYS BOWEN: Jenn, your wish was exactly what we did this summer with the whole family. Big house on Mission Beach. Lots of paddle boarding, kayaking,boogie boarding and eating. Perfect

But Labor Day usually depresses me as it means darker days are coming. This year I’ll be packing for a trip up the coast the next day ( a consolation prize for the canceled trip to Hawaii). A few days getaway over the ocean should revive my spirits 


DEBORAH CROMBIE: Lucy, sign me up for the motel REDS get-together! I wonder how much of the motel renovation trend is due to Covid and how much to Schitt's Creek?

 

But until then, I'm voting for somewhere at least fifteen degrees cooler than it is here in Texas.  Whenever I hear about other people's Maine adventures, I think that sounds perfect. Maybe we'd get a couple of cabins, one for us, one for the kids, and do all that beach/lobster stuff that sounds like so much fun--especially the part where you don't melt the second you walk outside...

 

 

JULIA: So far this weekend, I've gotten to have a pretty-close-to-perfect Labor Day experience, with a lobster bake at friend-of-Reds Celia Wakefield's place, and the following day a luncheon (and private communion service, which probably isn't everyone's ideal) on her deck overlooking the lake. The only thing missing is my traditional visit to Maine's largest white sand beach, Old Orchard, but I'll be hanging out there later this week with author Jessica Ellicott!

 

How about you, dear readers? Share your ideal - or actual - Labor Day! 

 






76 comments:

  1. Like Jenn and Rhys, my ideal Labor Day would be for all the family to be somewhere [anywhere] together.
    In reality, it will be a quiet day, just the two of us [and maybe a couple of phone calls to chat with the girls and the grandbabies] . . . .

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    1. That reflects what I'll be doing today, Joan, if you substitute the husband for two Shih Tzus :-D

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  2. What wonderful plans - or dreams of plans! I'll be here quietly working, but we do have a steak to grill later and I might pop up to the farm and get corn, because we haven't had enough of it yesterday.

    I did have a perfect gathering of three long-time women friends on my deck yesterday, with all kinds of yummy food. We adjourned inside when it got dark and drizzly and ended up visiting for almost six hours. It was a much-needed balm on a day I heard that a dear friend died after a massive stroke earlier in the week. Hug your lovies, people, while you have them.

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    1. Also, Julia - can I join you at OOB? That sounds delightful.

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    2. Edith, losing dear friends is happening more and more lately. Sending you big hugs.

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    3. Thank you, Karen. It was and is such a shock.

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    4. Oh, Edith, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend! Agreed we need to reach out to our loved ones while we can. As my priest likes to quote for his benediction, “Life is short. We don't have much time to gladden the hearts of those who walk this way with us. So, be swift to love and make haste to be kind.”

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    5. Thank you, Julia. That's a lovely and much needed benediction.

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    6. So sorry to hear about your friend, Edith . . . many thoughts and prayers are with you . . . .

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    1. Dru, I don't know about you, but I've been so unexpectedly busy of late, a quite day is quite appealing!

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  4. My actual Labor Day is going to my daughter’s house to cook her abundance of vegetables.
    It is also my ideal Labor Day because we will be together.

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    1. That’s my version of a good Labor Day too

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    2. I think - I hope - we're all going to appreciate the simple joys of just being together after the past 18 months (and, sigh, counting...)

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  5. My ideal Labor Day is on Cape Cod, waving goodbye to summer visitors. The sky is a brilliant sapphire blue, the marsh grass turning golden. The beach belongs to the sanderlings and sandpipers.
    In reality, with temps finally below 80, I'm doing a month's worth of weeding in Cincinnati.

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    1. Margaret, the contrast between the ideal and real made me laugh! Oh, well, at least you'll have the pleasure of seeing the job done. A well-weeded bed is a joy forever (if by "forever" you mean a couple of weeks.)

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  6. I’m living The Revenge of the Fruit Flies - they’ve colonized the house while I wS in Maine

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    1. Oh, no. They're the worst. Ross always liked to use the wine or cider vinegar in a narrow-necked container trick, but honestly, I never thought it worked very well. Good luck!!!

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    2. I've had luck with adding Dawn dish soap to cider vinegar in a small open dish. Fruit flies, gnats & ants are the worst! Ugh. (Borax soap & brown sugar for ants.) Good luck!

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    3. I read that wine corks will discourage them, and so I put them in the banana bowl and where we put grapes and such. No fruit flies for the last few months since.

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    4. Karen - just wine corks? Do they have to be well saturated with wine?

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    5. They just have to have been used, apparently.

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  7. In the past I have suggested a Labor Day Weekend Challenge: How long can a person go without doing"work" over this weekend? Most people don't attempt this challenge. It is fun to look at our behavior - what is 'work' and what is non/work? Today I will be preparing food for people who are finishing a 5 day spiritual retreat. Later on I will be writing reviews, and maybe creating a new pie recipe. oh yes, and reading always reading.

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    1. New pie recipe? Sounds intriguing.

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    2. That IS an intriguing challenge, Coralee. Back in the day, I used to try to keep the Sabbath by not doing any work, but honestly, it was pretty impossible with kids in the house. Even if I hadn't had to make a meal or two, it was always just TOO good of a time for yard work or picking up groceries. Not to mention the inevitable homework that someone needed help with.

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  8. Hope that testing post means that Blogger approval has been restored after an earlier rejection.
    Julia, so agree that September is the Janus month as I labor today packing up for a home renovation. Looking forward to a new beginning in a home that is more mine than the previous owner’s. Enjoy your Labor Day all.

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    1. Elisabeth, that's an exciting new beginning indeed! Let us know how it goes!

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  9. For most of my life, I considered Labor Day to be New Year's Day. My childhood school system started classes on the day after the holiday. That made Labor Day the fulcrum between carefree and nose to the grindstone. It was also the day pools and the Jersey shore closed. Well, the shore didn't close really, the Atlantic was still there, but the lifeguards were gone.

    This year will be quiet. We're anticipating rain so I'll be grilling hamburgers indoors and maybe baking some sweet potatoes. As for laboring, yes, like Hallie, it will be type, type, type. Have a splendid day, Reds and readers!

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    1. Yes, Kait, I always started school after Labor Day as well. I was actually going to blog about the change in the school systems - the earlier and earlier openings began happening in the late 80s - but Debs nipped in with her conversation about first day of school last week. I'll put the topic on the back burner and pull it out next time I have this week!

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  10. Ideal: lazing away the day at the cottage, with lots of sitting on the deck and enjoying the warmth of the sun and the expanse of the view over Lake Winnipeg

    Actual: puttering at the city home and tidying up the garden.

    Either way, it's an outdoor day, so that's good. Enjoy this last blast of summer, everyone, regardless of location and weather!

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    1. Amanda, you remind me of another pleasure of Labor Day ushering in the transitional season - from this point on, in the north and northeast, we're happy for every warm day, as opposed to July, when we moan and groan about it being too darn hot.

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    2. Labor is usually the turning point for us, Julia, when we can look forward to just hot instead of "don't go outside!" And tomorrow morning it is supposed to be below 70!!! Only for about an hour, but I'll take it!

      My actual was just puttering. A little work in the yard, but the humidity was just unbearable. Cleaned out fridge, etc. Last night we had our burgers--which were so good--and corn and I made quick pickles which were also delish.

      Today I have to FINISH MY TAXES. Argh.

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    3. Ah, the joys of the self-employed quarterly payments... :-)

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  11. I'm not sick, not on fire, and not underwater, so all is good here! Like Margaret, the humidity and temps are finally low enough to make pottering about in the yard/flowerbeds a pleasurable activity. We'll have brats with garlic pasta salad, potato salad, and peach crisp later, after we pick up our little firecracker from his mom's.

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    1. Oh, dang, Flora, that sounds SO good! Tell me what I can bring, I'm coming over. ;-)

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    2. The more the merrier, Julia! Just bring your beverage of choice :-)

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  12. Janus is the perfect visual for Labor Day, Julia. It has always felt more of a beginning-of-the-year to me than January 1st has.

    Our social life is pretty dead these days. We have become hermits, alas. This morning we are going to load up wood chips from someone's downed and ground oak tree, and then I will be putting into place Phase Three of my raised bed garden. This will entail smothering the grass around the beds with cardboard and loading wood chips on top of it. Which means no more fidgety trimming around the beds (I hope), and no more mud when the weather is bad.

    But we did grill burgers last night, and had our "goodbye to summer" Aperol spritzes.

    My daughter has been bugging me to decide how I want to celebrate my next milestone birthday, which is in four weeks now. I've thought of and rejected half a dozen ideas. But we are also going to have a 40th anniversary coming up in March, so I'm thinking we might have to combine holidays then. How does a 70th/Halloween/Christmas/April Fool's/40th anniversary party sound?

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    1. Sounds perfect, Karen. Can I come?

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    2. Holy cow, Karen! I'm just trying to imagine the decor for that party and my brain whited out. I think you need to add a disco theme to it as well, just to be complete.

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    3. Disco! Of course! Brilliant addition to the mad mix, Julia.

      Last November my oldest daughter turned 50, and she was very upset that we couldn't all be together to celebrate. So my son-in-law invited us all the a Zoom "all the parties". It was hilarious. They had crazy headgear and other costume items that they changed periodically, and props everywhere--including a 5'-tall blow-up rainbow unicorn that kept parading in the background. I had our Zoom background decorated with birthday, Fourth of July, Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and you name it, plus had additional costume things here.

      Of course you can come. Wouldn't that be a blast? Be prepared, though. Our family has a high bar for participation! LOL

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    4. A high bar can mean only one thing. You need to have a limbo contest!

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  13. Labor Day doesn't have much meaning for me, perhaps because, when I was a real nurse, I worked it like any other day. Here we have traditionally got together with Julie's family for a barbeque, burgers and dogs, corn and baked beans, homemade ice cream. But that hasn't happened for a couple of years.

    We are enjoying the attack to the killer tomatoes -- huge tomatoes -- pecks if not bushels -- picking several pounds a day. And they are all yellow! As an original southerner, yellow tomatoes are a treat, and every year I've planted a couple. Last year we talked about how much better thy are than red, and this year put in five plants. Never fertilized, not watered after the first few days, no pesticide, they grew 5-6 feet tall, and their burden of fruit pulled their stakes right out of the ground. Erin our PhD musicologist gardener ties them back up every couple of weeks, all the while munching on one. Cheryl our friend and dog handler takes home bags every few days. They are covering our kitchen window sill and there are bowls on the island. I eat one several times a day, and we have BLTs every other day. I could easily set up a stand at the bottom of the drive and make some pin money with the extras. It's flipping glorious!

    But what are we doing today other that something involving yellow tomatoes? We are springing Sgt. Pepper from boot camp! He's been in two week residence training with our friend Melissa Dog Whisperer. She worked with Toby and then Penny. Now our third canine generation has received her ministrations. We took her a rambunctious puppy and we will be picking up a polite and well behaved adult who obeys our every command.

    I hope. It is bloody pricey.

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    1. We want a full report on the new graduate after you've had a chance to try him on his paces, Ann!

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  14. Also, to those of you who celebrate, Shana Tova!

    May this New Year be a significant improvement over the last.

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    1. Ann, thank you for the reminder! I updated our opening to reflect the holiday. And yes, we're all hoping for better times ahead. Since March of 2020, every time another holiday/season/event/opportunity passes by fruitlessly, I think, "Okay. Next year in Jerusalem..."

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  15. Labor Day weekend HAD plans of working in the house. I swear it's never going to be finished but then I read Coralee's challenge in Facebook and it was all I needed for Saturday's "stay in the bedroom and just read" day. So today, I do need to get something done. At least the grocery store and laundry will be accomplished before I return to work tomorrow.

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    1. Sounds like a good, healthy balance, Deana.

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  16. And it always seems like tomorrow must be the first day of school, right?

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    1. Absolutely, Hank! I don't know why school systems in New England start just a few days before Labor Day - Ross used to say absolutely nothing got done until the next Tuesday, and that's not counting the parents who pull their kids out on Friday to make it a four-day holiday. Start well before or after, that makes more sense.

      (I'm in the "start after" column!)

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    2. Yes! Labor Day was always the last hurrah before returning to school. But we always had home made, hand cranked, ice cream.

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  17. I don't know that I have an ideal Labor Day. It's not a holiday that I really get all that excited about except for the notion of an extra day off.

    What I'll be doing however is this: I've written a book review on Goodreads and a new article in my Cassette Chronicles series. Then I'll be taking a ride to the bookstore to pick up a book that isn't officially out until tomorrow but they have it available now. And shock among shocks, it isn't a thriller or mystery. Mark this day on your calendar everyone, it's the one day all year where I'm buying a book that doesn't involve blood, bodies and bullets!

    Once I come home from that brief trip, it will be a continuation of the usual. Low-key day with reading, watching TV (currently watching the first season of Lou Grant on DVD), napping and figuring out what I'm going to have for dinner.

    It will be alone as I don't hang out with many people especially for the past, you know, 18 months but that's okay. Oh, but I do have to figure out my schedule for Thursday night because for the first time in almost exactly 18 months, the 99 is bringing back trivia and the surviving team members (RIP my friend Brian) are looking forward to going to this week's re-start. Sadly, the ethereally beautiful waitress who is just back from maternity leave doesn't work on Thursdays anymore so that's a bummer but the hoped for return to conquering and pillaging at trivia will be nice.

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    1. Jay, trivia nights are one of the things my oldest daughter misses as well. Some of the bars have restarted their teams, but since she's been working an insane schedule of 6 or 7 days a week (with an hour commute each way) I think she's just too pooped to attend.

      Lou Grant is SUCH a great show, and when I went looking for it after Mr. Asner died, I discovered it wasn't streaming anywhere. I'm putting the DVDs on my Christmas list right now.

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    2. Julia, Shout! Factory has all five seasons of Lou Grant (individual seasons, no complete series set) on their website. They are $30 a set but if you spend $50 bucks at a time you get free shipping.

      As for trivia nights, your daughter works a lot harder than I do so I'm not surprised she's tired. As for me, I have to get out of work and race home to clean up then I'll be racing to pick up Maureen (Brian's wife) and then head to trivia. With Maureen not driving, I said I'd pick her up whenever trivia restarted. Which in all honesty, I really didn't expect would be coming so soon with all the rising rates.

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    3. Well, people are pretty desperate to get out. You're a good guy for driving Maureen; my dad has a friend in his former neighborhood that doesn't drive, and he used to take her shopping, to mass, etc. It's a real gift.

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  18. And by the way, a friend posted this link on Facebook today.
    https://www.optimistdaily.com/2021/09/why-you-should-consider-setting-your-resolutions-in-the-fall/?utm_source=Production&utm_campaign=fb732a33fa-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_10_06_45_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d79d73a3a7-fb732a33fa-28598749

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    1. Fall is a great time for resolutions, Karen!

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  19. Happy Labor Day, everyone!!! Back to deadline...

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    1. Jenn, if I could insert videos here, I'd treat you to Lee Dorsey singing "Working in the coal mine."

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  20. No plans today. My husband was up early to meet workmen at my little brother's house and get them started. This guy has a regular job and works for himself only on weekends. We had quite a terrific shock and awe thunderstorm early this morning. Woke me up and almost immediately a noise started in the attic over the corner of our bedroom. A rhythmic metallic banging noise. It stopped when the A/C blower stopped. Started when it started again then stopped a minute later and that was it. Of course Frank didn't hear it as he was exercising a room over. I don't know of anything up there that would make noise like that. I will have to send one of the "boys" up to scout around.

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    1. Let us know how you solve "The Mystery of the Banging Blower," Pat!

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  21. Coffee and sweet rolls in the garden in the morning, grill steaks about 1:00, watch a baseball game, fresh peach pie later. It’s in the low 80s here in Portland (OR), so a fine day.

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    1. Dang, Rick, that also sounds like a pretty ideal version of Labor Day!

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  22. JULIA,

    Sorry I am late to the party again. Still recovering from my cold/flu. My ideal Labor Day would be that all of us are healthy, vaccinated and able to get together for a picnic with Clean Air and NO FIRES.

    The actual weekend has been full of SPARE THE AIR Days. Because of the Wildfires in the Lake Tahoe area, five hours away, the air is still bad enough to warrant Spare the Air Days. We all are staying enscouned inside our comfy places and reading books. I cannot focus on reading so I have been watching movies on my laptop.

    Diana

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    1. Oh, Diana, that's tough. We're fortunate out here in the northeast, I suppose - the humidity is awful in July and August, but I've never even heard of "Spare the Air" days. I hope you're enjoying movies and taking things easy as you recover! - Julia

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  23. Ah, Edith, Hugs and condolences . . . a reminder that, as Kathryn Windham said, it's such a short journey, like passengers on a train, so we should be good company for each other . . . carefully gathering right now. Missouri is a hot spot.
    Reading and reviewing, and perhaps later I'll join neighbors at their fire pit for her birthday . . . on their driveway, as they do not have a patio, but then we decided that a driveway has much in common with a patio, so there!

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    1. Mary, I say a driveway is just a patio with a day job! - Julia

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  24. As a retired teacher, I agree that fall is the start of the new year.

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