The lake hit flood stage this year.   Cooler, wetter weather and a late snow melt caused a lot of docks to be under water.

Like this one, last week.

This dock belongs to my friend Janou.  Some of you have met her and some of you have heard me talk about her.   She speaks French.  She cooks French.  She decorates French.

Guess where she was born?

Unfortunately, as wonderful a friend as she is, she is not perfect.  And all because of her very strange Mexican Train dominoes rules.   Knocking on the table?  Double-blank counts 60 points?  The Mexican train starts at the other end of the table?  Really?  Huh?  You read it on the internet?

She took this photo while we were standing on her deck last week looking down at the water.  And she let me post it here, though I can’t figure out how to enlarge it.  I’ll try again tomorrow, because I really want you to see this picture with its reflections of the sky.

Fortunately, her dock is now above water.  I checked it this morning while Janou was relaxing.

She doesn’t relax very often. None of my friends here are very good at it. They garden. Cook jam. Pick berries. Grow enormous amounts of happy flowers. Make wine. Freeze everything that pops out of the ground or drops off the trees or creeps into their yards or gets stuck on their fish hooks.

Since I don’t do any of those things, I make it my mission in life to force my friends to take a break from their earthy pursuits and do something else.

Or do nothing.

Doing nothing is an art and should be respected. I don’t do nothing (pardon my grammar) in the fall, winter or spring. But I do do nothing–and am very good at it, she said modestly–in the summer.

Son #2 was with me here two years ago and he was shocked–shocked, I tell you!–to observe that his mother could do nothing so well.

It’s a gift I want to share with the world.

Especially with these guys, who appear to be very fast learners.
Bless their hearts, I think they want more bean dip.