“Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take”*

by chuckofish

It is August now and our summer has been a hot one. I am thinking how nice it would be to be floating in a lake in Maine with my Massachusetts cousins (see above). Alas, I am not. Sixty or so years have passed since that picture was taken–hard to believe.

Happily, the temperatures came down this weekend to a very respectable low eighties. It was overcast, but pleasant enough to sit outside on the patio and contemplate the passage of time. I was happy that daughter #1 could join me for happy hour.

I spent a good part of Saturday attending an online auction where I was glad to see some vigorous bidding on “brown furniture.” This meant that I didn’t get anything, but c’est la vie. I was glad to see that there is still a market for tall case clocks. The prices are still amazingly low compared to twenty years ago, but they are, nevertheless, more than I am willing to pay for a rescue. I did buy a nice wing chair for $25. I mean, nobody wants a wing chair these days. Nobody but me.

On Sunday we went to church and were joined by the boy and his two wild monkeys. They checked their depravity and behaved, but when we got home they let loose and wreaked some havoc. (Note that our wing chairs took quite a beating.)

At some point the havoc moved outside (thankfully).

I am out of breath just looking at these pictures! When the wee babes headed home, daughter #1 also headed back to Jeff City, and the OM and I crashed for awhile before heading back to church that evening to celebrate the assistant pastor who is leaving with his family for a new job in Tuscaloosa.

Sunrise, sunset.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us;
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

–Martin Luther, Ein Feste Burg

*T.S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton”