Today, my neighbors leave. We've gotten used to them. They are teachers at a boarding school and generally are just here summers. They came for spring break in early March or late February (I've lost track) and ended up staying home due to COVID all this time. At first, they said spring break would be extended for about 2 or 3 weeks and then, oops, they just have been here over 6 months. Before they would breeze in and out of here and we hardly knew them. We had such a nice long stretch and lots of socially distanced chats out in the yard. We even had them over to our lake for a swim on a couple of hot days, they socially distanced and brought their own picnic lunch. The boys loved our place and Mark took them "tubing" with our boat. The kids loved Gladys the paddle boat too. Lucky thing I hadn't gotten to the local farm stand as I'd planned as I was the recipient, yesterday, of the remains of her garden in a big bag. More tomatoes.... I am swimming in tomatoes, just about every meal we have had these last few weeks has been tomato based. : ) That's OK. I'll miss our neighbors and their kids, who have amused us throughout the summer. In particular, their enthusiasm, when the eldest son got a boat (and trolling motor thanks to my buddy Barbara G.) for his high school graduation gift. He had always wanted a boat and the great passion for this made us wonder why the family waited so long to own one. It's been so fun to see the comings and goings of this cheerful family. We, who have owned boats all our lives, forget that it is so cool when you finally have a chance to get out on the water if you have never had that chance. The dad and one kid had to leave over a week ago and she leaves with the youngest child today. We become accidental caretakers and watch their place a bit while they are not around, lots of things can happen when you leave a house for months. In this electronic age, though, they have remote cameras, even a stand by generator that gives them text messages if it goes on or off, etc. Their thermostats can be adjusted remotely as well, they keep an eye on things, even motion sensors work remotely nowadays. I hope the school year, for them, goes normally. Though their son, who was supposed to be off to an out of state college, stayed home and will be doing school remotely this year. They just felt moving him to a place that would take a day and a half's drive to get to if he needed to be moved out quickly was crazy. Times sure are different. We wondered if they would even leave for this school year and they joked with us that they could be back in two weeks and spend the entire school year here doing everything remotely. It still could happen. I hope not. I hope all the COVID-19 precautions all kinds of schools are taking just works and everyone can calm down and have a decent school experience. We'll miss our cheerful neighbors up here on top of the mountain. We wish them a healthy and organized school year. Speaking of school, I have to say we learned that lots of the school systems around here are erecting big "party" tents on the grounds and certain classes are going to be outdoors. If you have kids, make sure they have sweaters and stuff and are prepared for outdoor chilly fall days in an outdoor open air classroom. Goodness knows what they'll do when it gets really cold? My prayers go out to those who are teaching and to students of all kinds. I hope, when they grow up, the kids whose lives have been altered so much by COVID-19 have fond memories of these "special" times. I hope they don't remember the conflicts our nation has and the horrible unrest, I hope they remember interesting school settings and special family adventures. I hope these circumstances net happy memories instead of sadness for the kids. One last thought on this is that our nation needs to pull on it's collective big girl/boy panties and put a stop to all the anger and move forward from this time period. It's bad enough to have this pandemic, but I shudder to think about the impressions being made on children when they see and reflect on what is happening in our world. Be good to one another. Listen, learn and stop the hate.