1) When the store that has always sold pre-made sandwiches has no sandwiches and you settle for a large bag of potato chips and a banana.
2) I cut the trek into Herring Cove a little shorter by continuing along the back of the dunes longer than usual. Far fewer men than Sunday, but they all seemed engaged with each other.
3) Once I flung out my beach spread and ground my umbrella into the sand, I recognized an acquaintance nearby and went over to talk. He said, "I saw your boater and thought 'Well, that's Robert, or someone with his sensibility."
4) The realization that every poem Walt Whitman ever wrote is about every group of young men at this beach.
5) I wrote, I napped, I kept replaying the theme song of Island in the Sun even though I don't know all the words.
6) The light on Cape beaches - at least on this one - lights good and evil with an intensity beyond Time. Today especially the clarity of the light, the glittering, glassy sea - a torrent of light almost impossible to bear.
7) I hiked back home a bit earlier than anticipated. The sun was intense, and I needed to make myself beautiful for dinner.
8) Hostly dialogue:
Hochmina (looking at my white pants): “Could you make those pants any tighter?”
Me: “Actually I did! I put them away in the closet last fall, and when I took them out a month ago they were a lot tighter."
9) After a couple vodka tonics the dinner guests arrived: a brother and a sister, each with a husband. Steak, asparagus, potatoes - a delicious, and deliciously simple, dinner.
10) Red wine and brownies.
11) Almost got caught up in The Paradine Case, but was persuaded to go into town. The usual crazy of a holiday week. Much conversation about how long the lines were in front of some of the bars, and how none of us wanted to deal with that. #agingactressyesterdaysglamourqueen
12) Ice cream is the wrong habit to acquire, but such a tasty habit.
13) And for a Little Night Music, Mary Ellis sings "Glamorous Night" from Ivor Novello's musical of the same name. "Can't we regain that delight? Let us kiss and RECAPTURE THAT RAPTUROUS, GLAMOROUS NIGHT!"