This is the greeting I receive from approximately half of the customers who come in to Front Porch – most recently a very jovial old fellow who is originally from New Jersey and immediately identified me as a fellow northerner. I find the constant remarks about my paleness rather amusing, because I am now so tan in comparison to my December self that my mother would be astounded (note: this is still not tan at all). Anyway, time for the weekly day-off post! I actually can’t believe it’s been a whole week since the last one… the time is flying by here already. The tourist crowd has begun trickling in, so work has been busier than usual lately. It’s still nothing near the craziness that we’ll be dealing with in the middle of July, though! Recent work-related incidents of note include the arrival of creme de menthe so I can make my favorite New Zealand coffee drink, a woman who spent half an hour in the shop before any of us noticed she had a cat in her handbag, and daily visits from Tim Reynolds (I’m essentially over being starstruck when he comes in… but his first visit of every summer always brings it back a little!).
Sarah’s friend Jennifer was visiting from Richmond for most of the past week, which was nice because she got us to be a little more social than usual! I always work so early and Sarah always works so late that we tend to spend our free time just hanging out at home and catching up on sleep, but having a visitor was a fun excuse to do something different. We went out for late-night appetizers at the Brewing Station on Friday night and had a few people over to grill out on Saturday – many thanks to Sarah’s dad for bringing over the grill! It was a fun, full weekend that left me struggling to get out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:45 on Monday morning (a wake-up call I’ve surprisingly gotten used to otherwise).
This morning was all about Townes. I hadn’t seen him in almost two weeks because Paul and Susannah had taken him camping in West Virginia for a long trip, so we had some cousin catch-up time today! It was another beautifully sunny yet cool and breezy day, so we took Shadow for a walk on the new bike path to the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It’s over a mile walk one way, and I figured that either Shadow, Townes, or both would get tired before we got all the way there, but they did great! We watched a little red biplane take off from the airfield before heading home again. After a quick break to read I Spy and another hour or so on the swings, we had lunch and then I headed home – despite his frequent exclamations of “I’m hyper! I’m hyper!”, Townes needed a nap.
I spent this afternoon getting my weekly errands and chores done – how domestic of me! It was a pain during the process, but now it’s very nice to have clean sheets, a freshly made bed, and a fully stocked fridge. Irie and I took a quick walk down to Front Porch for an iced latte and a milkbone (guess who had which!), and now we’re hanging out at home. Spending most of the day with a six-year-old tired me out just as much as a day at work would have, so I think I’m going to spend the rest of the evening firmly planted on our comfy couch, with a Netflix movie and some good company.