June 2008

Howdy!

More updates. Nicely enough, the weather has settled down, although we still have random thunderstorms (sometimes just the rain, sometimes just the thunder beneath sunny skies, sometimes a combination) for about an hour, every other day or so. The humidity comes and goes, but we are getting used to it. We do a lot the first and last hours of daylight, which can be challenging at nightfall, because it does not really get dark until about 9:30 or so.

We still spend a lot of time outside: breakfast and the newspaper (such as it is) in the morning, walks around the lake or the neighborhood in the evening. And our yard keeps revealing itself. We have identified many more plants, and new things pop up all the time; we’ve even started a compost heap. There were these wonderful flowers coming up in several places; it turned out they are astilbe, which Stephen discovered because it was featured in the newest “Martha Stewart Living.” Our magnolia on the side of the house has started to bloom, which is just as well, since the roses are already done. It’s nice that we have so much going on, since nothing ever seems to last for more than a week or so, except for the tons of daylilies that have been going strong (excepting the ones Maisie and Rosie have trampled in their pursuit of squirrels) and look likely to continue. A few nights ago, to our delight we found that we have fireflies at dusk; they are magical, but baffle the poor dogs. And we also get a lot of pleasure discussing future (Immediate, One Day, Never) plans for the backyard, everything from a hammock to building in terraces and low stone walls on the grade at the back. Today we dragged our patio chairs all over, trying out spots for a hypothetical future bench.

Not that we have to do anything anytime soon. Nevertheless, the pressure is on, as the former owners left us a lot to live up to. We have discovered by meeting several of our neighbors that almost all of them are familiar with our yard, and admit it is one of the nicest on the block. And apparently, our street is considered one of the “better” streets: two City Council members and the former City Manager live on Bayham as well. We went to a specially held board meeting for the Historical Society (although we were not yet even members, but were invited by two of the board!) because the new City Manager, Jane Berry, was going to be there. In the past, there has been some friction between “The Village” and the Historical Society, so this was a chance to get someone on “our” side. Anyway, it turns out she has lived here just three months, having moved here from somewhere in New York, and upon being introduced, and learning that we were newcomers on Bayham, shocked us by telling us that we had taken “her” house: she and her husband had seen it online and were seriously considering it, but we bought it just before they were able to look at it! It is all so small-town: the President of the Historical Society lives on Handel Lane, just two doors down from my old house (although they didn’t move in until 1987). He also continued the chain of coincidence by producing some Greenhills memorabilia from the 'fifties that had just been given to him at church (of course!), by a nice woman named Alma Muller who used to live on Gambier Court. Bear in mind, I only know a few people in Ohio, either members of the Historical Society, or working at Starbucks. Alma Muller is the grandmother of a friend of mine at work! I only knew that because he had mentioned that his dad had grown up in Greenhills, on Gambier, which was the only reason he had heard of our little village.

Speaking of work, I am midway through my training, and although Starbucks itself is great, I’m not sure that my trainer, Todd, and I are a good fit. Although a Store Manager himself, I am the first manager he has trained, and he doesn’t seem very well prepared. He has also told me (more than once) that he is burnt-out by his job; I am wondering if the District Manager gave me to him to give him something new to do. I am training in a store in Loveland (really—the names here are great. There is also a Mt Healthy, Rabbit Hash, and so on), which is a fairly affluent area near to a lot of recreational areas. The other claim to fame for Loveland is that it is the home of Tom Wilson, creator of the cartoon “Ziggy,” who is one of our regular customers (Tom, not Ziggy). Stephen is still looking for work, but has interviews all the time. We anticipated that it would take him a little longer since his job doesn’t really have an applicable equivalent, so we’re not too worried.

I’ve got to go, as Stephen wants to run over to Jungle Jim’s, this enormous four acre grocery store that defies description (it’s the one that has the twelve-foot butter case, a six foot singing soup can over the Campbell’s aisle, and offers alligator meat, among other things), and then we have to get our picnic dinner ready to walk up to the Concert on the Green, held on alternate Wednesdays during summer. Tonight is some big band group from 7 until 9, which should be fun.

Remind me about how happy we are these days when I call sometime crying about being snowed in!
Love, Rob't