John and I get a kick out of the Sally Forth comic strip. She and her husband Ted have no friends. They invite neighbors for barbecues but no one comes. They are at their wits ends to figure out how to make--and keep--friends. It's kind of like John and me. This past week our social life consisted of visiting John's mom at the nursing home and John's second in-laws, Mom and Dad Kraker, at their farm. We had a quick pizza at Riverside Park one evening and then hiked and picked up trash, and on Sunday had dinner with Sarah (John's daughter) and family at their home west of town. Not too many "friends" in that picture, and that's so typical. Nevertheless, life is very good, and John is always saying he can't distinguish between work and play---though work, fun as it is, seems to be about all we do. Writing a book and tending Carlton Gardens keeps us busy at least 12 hours a day. Our favorite time of the day is the half hour before we turn out the light at night. John reads to me. The best book in a long time has been
The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball. It's the memoir of a Harvard grad with a good writing job in New York City who interviews an organic farmer and ends up marrying him. Amazon gives it a full 5 stars with 147 customer reviews. Not bad. She's very honest and open, has an incredible gift with words, and is often hysterically funny.
