Go, go, go!
With the built-in entertainment of cousins removed we had to work a bit harder to keep everyone going today. We started with a quick spin down Monagon to see the humongous new house being built just before the tun to the Bible camp. Then back via Division & Chappel (spelling soon to be corrected due to a recently-passes ordinance) with a brief diversion to hunt for my baseball cap which had blown off near the school.
I drove the empty cart back to the Casino dock and walked slowly down a very quiet Division Street. I started to run at Chappel, went as far as I could go before turning and heading home through the campground. I ran along the campsite beach and the North Pond beach, first time I'd done that.
Later: everyone to North Pond beach and back, moments before a big storm; a ton of leftovers for lunch; hot tub; making chocolate chip cookies; eating pizza; drinking beer; storybooks for the kids, followed by over-tired running & jumping around; and finally bed for short people around 10. Except for me, big people followed within the hour, and I'm not going to do this much longer.
Reading: The Dream of Perpetual Motion, by Dexter Palmer. Seemed like dark steampunk sci-fi that was a little too full of itself. Planned to give it a few chapters before I could legitimately say it wasn't worth my time, but... I'm now caught up in a world where a girl gets a live unicorn for her birthday and one of the boys at the party tells of his dream to grow up and be a vitrioleur.
A what? You don't know what that is either? From the vitrio part I guessed something to do with glass, but Wikipedia reveals something much, much darker: vitriolage is a type of violence against women. The too-long list explains it as the act of throwing acid on a woman's face. Grim pictures illustrate.
Not sure where this is headed, but this subversive little sidenote that I'm sure will be missed by most readers has me curious.
Near bedtime, nearing midnight I walked down to the shore where the waves have been crashing since late afternoon. On this windy moonless night, with the air a little too cool to encourage a long stay, some primitive urge said feel this all over your skin. So I took off my clothes and became part of the water and the sky and the stars, for a few minutes at least.
