LAKES

Today was beautiful, high about 80, sunny no humidity.

Went into work this morning at 9 and worked until 3. I actually did a written letter of resignation. I put a copy in the Administrator's mailbox, she is still on medical leave. A copy to the Director of Nursing, a copy to the Assistant Director of Nursing, a copy to the girl in HR, she is still out on sick leave and a copy to the girl who does payroll. I dated it today and made it effective July 2, 2010. Now everyone is clear on my intentions and there is no question about when I was leaving. I did tell them that if the Administrative Assistant was not back by then from her medical leave I would extend the effective date to accommodate them.

Husband took me to a really nice restaurant one of our favorites for dinner. It sits overlooking one of the many lakes in our area. We are so lucky to have so many lakes in this area.

When I was growing up my parents didn't have a car. As a matter of fact my father didn't get his driver's license until about the time I did. We lived in the city and everything was within walking distance. My father walked to work and my mother called the local grocery store, placed an order and they delivered it. So because we didn't have a car we had to be very creative with our vacation plans. My father would take two weeks off, probably one week at the end of June and one week at the beginning of July. As a matter of fact I think the company totally shut down during those weeks and they had to take their vacations then. One of the many lakes in our area was very conveniently on a public transportation line........a bus. So everyday for two weeks my mother would pack a picnic lunch and a beach bag full of towels, suntan lotion (back then we used suntan lotion not sun screen) and sand toys. My mother, father and my brother and I would walk to the corner of the block we lived on and hop on the busy, probably pay a dime each to ride, and get off just a few steps from the sandy beach. We would stay there all day.

After those two weeks were over we would hook up with a group of relatives from the block we lived on and we would pile into a few cars early on a Sunday morning for an all day stay at another lake that was not on a bus line. There was a female relative who was in charge of planning the food for the day and believe me it wasn't just sandwiches or hamburgers and hot dogs. We started with breakfast. Fried eggs, bacon, home fries and fresh hard rolls with butter. Coffee was made in a percolator on the little Coleman stove. Of course fresh donuts from the bakery were brought too. Then for lunch she would bring out the biggest pot, fill it with water and we would feast on her homemade meatballs and sausage and tomato sauce. My mother would always bring her famous chocolate cake. The one that I love to recreate with the mocha frosting. She always put strong black coffee in her made from scratch cake and strong black coffee in the frosting. We would have floats and tubes and row boats. There had to be at least 25 of us.

Tonight I had the most refreshing ice cream treat. We went to our local ice cream shop and picked up a half gallon of vanilla ice cream and a bottle of root beer. We took it home and made root beer floats, wow were they cool and refreshing.