We're here at soggy, wet Lakeside

We left Columbus about 10:30 and were unpacked and settled about 2:30.  We're nursing along one of the two potted flowers (impatiens) we brought along, because it apparently hadn't been watered at home! The one we had on the deck looks fine.  Loretta (gardener) has put in some lovely plants along the east side of the cottage, but some of the plants didn't make it through the winter that were put in Spring 2018. We always put impatiens along the street, but this year also turned that over to Loretta. Bob's knees just can't handle it anymore, and besides, ours never looked good until about October.  She brought in a lot of additional soil, but as I look out the window, I think it looks about the same they did for the last 30 years when Bob planted them.

We didn't stop down at the car show on the lakefront--it was just too wet.  In the evening we attended a "Hawaiian" event at Wesley Lodge for donors and heard a nice pep talk by Kevin the president of Lakeside.  Things are moving briskly--the pickle ball courts are finished, the new Lago café across from the pool and exercise gym which opened in 2017, is open, the "front door" of Lakeside has a new fence and all new landscaping, the gazebo in the park, a favorite spot for weddings, has been completely renovated and a concrete base for all the new park benches installed, the park itself was renamed for the donors who supplied the funds and it's getting a face lift with new basketball courts and sand volleyball courts plus more landscaping, and there are unseen things being done to the infrastructure.  The terrible spring storms have held back some of the grass planting, so there's a lot of straw around.  Kevin says the section on the back of the Hoover auditorium needs to be replaced.  It's where all the back stage magic happens, and it was a "temporary" structure--now 91 years old. There is an old school house in south Lakeside, which has been boarded up for years

Even with all the rain, there's no way to be bored in Lakeside.  Kevin says there are over 4,000 distinct programs and activities to do here in the summer, or 6,000 if you add all the classes at the Rhein Center where Bob teaches for 2 weeks.  And you can still do nothing. . . but that's becoming harder all the time.