Sylvia's Journal

We started father’s Day with a Tessa-led yoga exercise in the living room for all but Sita and Jim. I have not done any yoga for years. I knew I had gotten very stiff but was dismayed at how bad it was. We did two sun salutations which is all Axel and I could handle. I repeated it this morning on my own with an intent to do this every day.

We celebrated Father’s Day in a way that was a little different from what was planned. Tessa had organized an outing on a Schooner from Rockport but the crew had called off all scheduled departures because of inclement weather. It was actually not that inclement except that the sun was not shining. Instead we went to a restaurant that claims to be entirely ‘green’ and has the best sushi in Gloucester. For the occasion Axel ordered a ‘one daughter’ sake that came in a small wooden box (nothing but sipping possible) while the girls competed for who was the one daughter. He could have ordered two drinks but he did not, getting quite disciplined about alcohol consumption, especially at midday. All our foods were served in small (tiny, according to Axel) quantities, cleverly displayed in three dimensions and unusual combinations.

We took the scenic route to Rockport, Tessa’s second home, and did the Bearskin Neck loop. We entered several shops, touching at least 20 things exclaiming how nice or how pretty or how cool and then walked out again. Tessa hates people like that. Axel counted the fathers who had been taken, like him, on a Father’s Day shopping adventure by their daughters, wives or girlfriends. You could tell they had been sold a load of goods; billed as if it was fun or lured to Rockport under some pretext or another, you could see whole bunches of them leaning against shop windows or doors, looking bored out of their minds. You could tell that they wanted to be home watching a game or rummaging in their workshops or doing something else, anything but shopping in tourist knick-knack stores.

Eventually our path lead to Val’s store and then to DJ’s leather goods store and we girls made sure we touched at least 20 things there as well. DJ is one of my faithful blog readers so he knows everything about us, sometimes even before Axel, Sita and Tessa know. Axel started saying that we had just come back from a conference but did not need to finish his sentence as DJ said, “I know.” It makes for efficient conversation as there is no need for preliminaries; you can cut straight to the chase.

Back home Axel received his present from Sita, an oil painting set. He has been admiring the paintings by John Walker (also at Bearskin Neck); we are hoping for an as yet unrevealed talent. I returned to the garden and ‘hilled’ the potatoes while Axel got the guestroom ready for Joe Sterling who has returned to the East Coast for a short consultancy with MSH and another in Worcester. The place where he built the ramp last year is still somehwat recognizable but the grass is growing nicely in, covering up memories of being wheelchair-bound.