One small step for Poppy.

I usually don't do a whole lot when I'm in New Hampshire. But it's so picturesque around here that if you read my August blog entries, you can't tell.

I take pictures of the cute little 18th century houses, window box plants, peoples' gardens, the seacoast ... so in a single hour's walk I can come up with material for several blog entries.

This is not happening this year. All I have is words, and as that Extreme song you always hear at weddings puts it, you need "more than words."

The problem is my camera. It's not working. And it's fully charged. I'm wondering whether I need a new battery. But in the meantime, I can't take pictures.

Not even when I actually get off my duff and go somewhere. Yesterday we drove to Charlestown and visited the U. S. S. Constitution. Which might not strike you as all that fascinating, but I haven't spent the past several years buried up to my earlobes in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels without developing a taste for the Age of Sail. And being a strong-minded woman, I'm more than capable of dragging my entire family through a complete tour of the ship, the National Parks Service gift shop, the Constitution Museum, their gift shop, with a short stop to gawk at the oldest dry dock in the United States. I know! How fascinating!

But they knew that if I heard even a hint of protest, I'd keelhaul them.

And I took all kinds of pictures--with my husband's camera. Because my camera isn't working. And now? My husband tells me that his left the computer cable in Illinois. So I can't upload any photographic proof of the cruel and unusual punishment my family has suffered at my hands.

So. A lot of good that will do this blog entry.

As for the rest of my vacation, it's been one long cycle of cooking and eating. I'm up to my earlobes in seafood.

Also my family will be descending on me tomorrow.

Wednesday we go to Rhode Island to visit my husband's family.

And after that, we're going to land on the moon.

(Well, what the hell. All of this could be a complete fabrication on my part. So, since I can offer no evidence whatsoever that anything I mention is real, I might as well do it right.)