Labor Day weekend in Rehoboth

Dan & I are spending Labor Day weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware with our friends Howard & Patrick and a whole cast of other close friends and dogs. The weather's been beautiful enough to make me almost forget rest of the scorching summer. It's been temperate, breezy, and sunny since we arrived Saturday morning. After three days at the beach my freckles are starting to coalesce.

Time here is pleasantly unstructured, but it's always anchored by morning coffee and newspapers on the front porch. The newspapers don't seem to get a thorough read until later in the day because this initial perusal is always accompanied by politically astute, extremely liberal, terribly erudite, and witheringly witty conversation. It's 4-8 gay men in their 40s and 50s holding forth on politics (local, national, and international) Washington gossip, theatre, film, literature, food, and of course the lives, wardrobes, and foibles of friends. It can be a bit intimidating at times, but always interesting. I've heard a lot of ideas expressed on this porch over the years: love, happiness, frustration, anger, but never hate. I think that says something about the shared values of my family of friends.

It's been a nice time to catch up with friends, eat and drink a descent amount, and do not too much of anything else. I always bring things to read and they almost always go untouched. I've done a few overdue e-mails to friends. Now I'm writing this from the front porch, enjoying a few moments of late afternoon solitude. By sunset they'll be 4 of us left from the group of 10 yesterday. It's the beginning of a quiet end to a quiet weekend before we return to work on Wednesday. Not bad. Not too bad at all.