#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

River Morning

Election day, and it’s summery, deliciously summery. We’re all up early; turns out the boy hasn’t slept and so his mother gives him a day of rest. I go out early for my long walk, seven miles today through woods. I run into some friends on the trail and it’s fun to stop and chat briefly about election day in our small town. My dear friend takes. me for my birthday lunch and it’s sunny and cheerful and I feel treated and loved. We have so much catching up. Another excellent part of this day is going to the polls with my daughters and Wave in the late afternoon. It doesn’t start out well. Problem was, Wave had to be extracted from Gabe’s house before he was ready, and he’s never ready. I grabbed bathing suits and towels for our swim and we met up with Perri and Wave at the Town Hall to vote, which all went smoothly. But Wave was distressed to hear, in the parking lot as we tried to head to Farm Pond for our annual post-voting plunge, that I had not brought him a bathing suit. I couldn’t find one, and grabbed briefs and this was not acceptable to him. So we had a lot of negotiating and explaining about how no one would be there on the beach. . . finally, we got him talked into at least getting to Farm Pond. Then we got him changed and we all ran up the hill and the beach was mostly deserted; one man, a swimmer who wanted to plunge, showed up and joined our fun. We all plunged! It was achingly cold and numbingly cold, but we screamed and laughed and truly enjoyed ourselves. A wonderful time, then I ran to the market, then ran home, and I brought dinner, and there was a movie for Wave and I led my group tonight, which was very moving and now I can’t wait to pay attention to voting results!