End of September Update

It was a busy month. The highlight was the ten days we spent in Aruba, where we have a timeshare. Lynette's sister Amy and her husband Alan have the week before ours, which allows each couple to overlap with the other and have a few extra days beyond our individual weeks.

We flew out on Tuesday, September 10th, on a redeye to Miami, then caught a morning flight to Aruba that got us there at around 1:30 pm. Amy and Alan picked us up, and we headed to our usual first stop, an open-air beer-garden-like place called the Paddock, where we had lunch and a drink or two. Then it was on to Costa Linda, the resort where we have the timeshares.

It's a great place, right on the ocean, where we would spend mornings under a thatched shelter - I read three Phillip Roth novels while we were there - with frequent dips in the clear, crisp ocean water to cool off. Then we'd go up to the pool, have lunch at the Turtle's Nest Cafe there (the grilled grouper was fabulous), and spend the afternoon alternating between reading in the shade and cooling down in the pool. At four o'clock the cafe would ring the happy hour bell, and the waitress would come around and take drink orders.

At around five-thirty or six we'd go up and get dressed for dinner, then head out to some perfect place, often either on the water's edge or actually over it, on a dock suspended above the ocean. Our favorite was a place called Pincho's, where we would have a rum punch or pino colada and watch the sunset. Then, at the end of the night, we'd take a walk along the water's edge and look at the moon and stars.

On the home front, we had the wood floor in the "great room" (what we now like to call the kitchen and family room) refinished, my office and some of the upstairs bedrooms painted, and new carpet installed. It all came out very well, and we are happy with it. In the process we are getting rid of lots of stuff we have collected over the years - things we thought we had to hold onto but now don't. I've sold or given away hundreds of books and some old memorabilia that I thought I'd never part with, but now that it's gone I'm okay with it. It's nice to have less clutter and some extra space.

Now that October is looming, Lynette will be going to Kentucky on Saturday, to be there to help out with her mother's treatment for her various health problems. She will be there for three weeks; I will join her there for the third week. We will look at some houses in Indiana, just north of the Kentucky border, where we are thinking about moving to pretty soon.

We watched the debate between Barak Obama and John McCain last Friday; I thought it was either a draw or at best a very slight edge for Obama. Can't wait for the veeps debate this week.

Meanwhile, I was fairly busy with work, writing screening reports for new movies. I brought my laptop with me to Aruba and was able to write a couple of reports there - it wasn't bad, working in the timeshare unit for a few hours in the morning with the ocean breeze in the background. Since we've been back I've had three or four other pieces of work, including a screening I put together myself for a new client. It was fun, and a little exciting, and in the end the client was happy.