1) Any Sunday on which I can complete and post a column by 11 AM is a good Sunday.
2) Yesterday afternoon a friend came out to JP and we tromped through the cemetery for about two hours, going where we would, not with any particular goal (beyond me wanting him to see the two Creepy Children’s Graves). He discovered a random staircase up a hillside which I had not noticed before. We took it, found a large grouping of Perkins tombstones, found another short staircase, and popped up near the monument to Col. Joseph Warren (which I had seen before), who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill and was an ancestor of the founder of the Gibson House, Charlie Junior. My friend, roaming more freely than I, discovered more Warrens behind the monument, including Charlie’s maternal grandparents, Dr. Something Something Warren and his wife Annie Crowninshield Warren. What a bonus!
2a) Headed downhill, we found this stone in someone’s family plot for Josie, Our Darling. Mother’s nickname in her family was Josie - and really, I think everyone called her Josie before she graduated from college. Certainly by the time my sister and I came along everyone called her JoAnn except her mother and brother. So this discovery was a poignant one for me.
3) In spite of that tromp through the cemetery, yesterday was Low Energy Day, and I fell into bed like a cracked hunk of concrete. Since 6:30 (!) I have been lounging on the Robert B. Dimmick Memorial Banquette West, reading and writing, but I am going to have to shift from first gear to high for the afternoon, whether I like it or not. The kitchen and pantry must be empty before end of day Monday - and that’s tomorrow!
3a) This Joyous Ritual has led to many discoveries (and the surprising-to-those-who-know-me question “Why on earth do I own all this stuff?”). The latest is a pair of glass coffee mugs from the 1993 wedding of a dear friend which a) I use very rarely and b) they’re no longer together, so I am casting them out. They have served their purpose.