Today is my son James's 24th birthday, and he is currently stuck at JFK in New York. On Thursday I dropped him off at the Rutland airport and kept going toward Portland, but when I was two hours down the road he called and said that his flight had been canceled due to thunderstorms. Fortunately my brother-in-law was able to rescue him, and he was rerouted through Burlington the next day. But once he got into NYC on Friday, he discovered that his connecting flight had also been canceled due to storms. I'm hoping that this morning is the charm. The poor child: what a bad way to spend two days, especially after the tension of being with his grandfather in the ICU.

I caught up with gardening yesterday, and harvested a big crop of chard and basil, both of which went into the freezer. Everything is wet and mildewy and hot and sticky and humid, but on the bright side we are finally getting some substantial rain. I picked an sweet little artichoke, and a bowl full of string beans, and a cucumber, plus a swath of herbs and green onions and flowers. A tomato is close to ripening, and the peppers and eggplant are swelling. The little front-yard farm is full of enthusiasm.

My dad had a bad day yesterday, primarily just symptoms associated with his recovering digestive system but unpleasant nonetheless. So no hospital release yet. At least I can telephone him this morning with good Red Sox news.

I'm heading up north this afternoon for an evening gig at a private party, then home again tomorrow. Thank goodness for Tina the Subaru's sturdy new transmission. Three times was the charm, apparently.