Remembrance of summer in the old house

i must have written this draft at our old house, when i still had a job, and it was summer!!

i think of my father when i adjust the bamboo shades on the porch. because the strings go around little cleats!  i love tying the string around the cleats and love knowing how to do it. it makes me think of my father and sailing and the cleats someone invented that you didn't have to make the knot around (boo!)
i like pulleys too, and the shades have pulleys. it's a chore adjusting all the windows and shades before i go to work. and then everything is open in the evening to let the cool in.
Vermont people who laugh in the face of 30 below 0 Farenheit get crazy when it is 90!  they never heard of drinks with ice in them, cold washcloth on the neck, wearing shorts and sandals (not black) and a hat, sitting in the shade, or god forbid, keeping the windows and curtains closed!
they want to let a little air in!  BUY AN AIR-CONDITIONER they scream!!
i can't imagine why my friend thought 85 degree weather was a good day to bake a pie, and then complained because her house was so hot, and would not believe that her rayon dress was not the coolest clothing she owns!
 mostly they wait it out. my neighbor used to take a cooler and pillow out back and sleep on his trampoline!
best place to sit out the afternoon heat is on a rock in the middle of the frigid stream.
when it's gone on being hot for more than a week, i have run out of summer recipes, and cool clothes to wear to work!
but i love it....all too soon we will have good sledding weather back!

Mom and Dad Clocks Ticking Along at New House

I have two clocks that tick, one treasured by my mother, one made by my father.
My mother bought hers in an antiques shop near Annapolis when my brother was a baby. It was moved at least three times in Maryland, then to Florida and three more moves there, then mailed to me in Vermont, where I have moved it once now.  I had it in for repairs before the move, it had stopped, but it was nothing serious. Some of the wood decoration needed regluing, too. Now it works perfectly, except for two tiny missing wood bits, and one mysterious left over wood bit, oh and I haven't been able to calibrate the time, so it keeps relative time, But it ticks beautifuly and tocks too as the pendulum swings, and it bongs with a very lovely tone. Clocks like this are musical instruments, as much as is a violin's casing or a guitar's wood box.
The other clock Dad made from a computer circuit board, which he thought was beautiful, which  indeed it is, altho possibly toxic. He got a clock mechanism, a brushed aluminum display box frame, and made nice looking clocks for all us kids plus some for the church bazaar.  Mine has survived a number of moves, too, and then hung for years on my wall as art after it stopped working.  At this new house, I stuck in a battery just for the heck of it, and lo and behold, it started right up.  It ticks to count the seconds as electric clocks do.  Keeps good time, too!