A Day in the Country

Taking a ride in Eric's childhood friend  -  Ty Buchanan's  -- 70s era Ford pickup truck with a 90s era Corvette engine under the hood. Lynn declared the sound of the big, rumbling engine "Sexy!"

Sunday night under the Clemson Snuggie Lynn bought.

So much to catch up on.  I still haven't made Eric's birthday cake. Turns out, he prefers homemade Gingerbread or Indian Pudding (go look it up, you non-New Englanders), and I didn't have the ingredients. We're really spreading out these celebrations. He'll get his treats sometime this week if he stays home some evening.

We didn't end up going to Nami, after all. Instead, we dined at the restaurant owned by the property owners of our community. We all had seafood; Harry had Lobster cakes and the rest of us had seared Ahi Tuna. "Very rare, please." Delicious.  Then we just hung around together in the living room, listening to music and reading. Lynn ate the tuna leftovers for breakfast the next day.

Saturday was Eric's "guys day."  Lynn decided to pass on another football game. She slept in and Eric got up early to join the Whitleys again for tailgating, this time taking a dozen of my blueberry muffins to share. Harry ran his usual Saturday morning errands (recycling, etc.) and Lynn and I had fun doing some shopping at WALMART.  While there, we sat in the Dunkin' Donuts cafe' (Lynn had --  you guessed it: hot tea, and I had hot chocolate) and we enjoyed Girl Talk. She's familiar with the book Men are From Mars -Women are From Venus. It's very popular in China!  We discussed how much more independent people are here (even couples), and how important it is for each person to have some "alone time" in the apartment and to have time to go out with friends without one's partner. She and Eric both do that in China, and she said it didn't bother her that he had the entire day and evening with his buddies in Clemson.

She asked me what my first job was.  That took a while to remember (summer cashier at Al Payne's Lobster Shop in Harwichport, on Cape Cod). And then she wanted to know about subsequent jobs, so I gave her the whole story.  Tried to reassure her that it took quite a while to find my niche.  She studied music in college, but says that looking back she would have preferred economics!  She wants to take a night course in it. We discussed the worldwide situation young people find themselves in now: so many career choices that it's overwhelming. I told her about the many engineering students I advised at Clemson who discovered it wasn't their thing, and how I worked with them to find a better fit.  She said that type of advising doesn't exist in China and she wishes it did. 

Then home to heat up some ribs and make corn-on-the-cob for dinner, just Harry, Lynn, and me. A quiet night with the old folks! 

Sunday I dashed in to church early and didn't see Harry or the kids until about 2:00 when some very dear friends hosted a drop-in at one friend's fabulous restored 18th C. family farmhouse (6 generations have occupied it).  About 20 friends ("old" and new) came. Dad and some of his friends came too. We had punch and dessert and caught up. Again we celebrated Dad's birthday and Eric's birthday, and our anniversary. And Eric called the event Lynn's Coming Out Party (in the old fashioned, traditional meaning of coming out!).  She has weathered all this exposure so well. But she's ready to spend a little more time in what passes for a city in SC, and to be around more young people. I can understand that very well.  (We think we're still "with it" but come on, get real!) They'll hang out in Greenville tonight, taking in the downtown scene.

We were going to rent a pontoon boat on our lake this afternoon, but it's cool and cloudy, so we postponed it until next Sunday.  Tonight Harry and I will just kick back and watch a Netflix that we've had for weeks. Life in the slow lane is very appealing to us right now.