September: Paper, Parents, and PT

This is the month when I finally feel as if I'm on sabbatical, mainly because I know my colleagues are all back at work. So I have time to get caught up on my blog, which profiles 100-year-old companies and explains the results of my research on common behaviors, or strategies, employed by these old firms. (See http://howoldcompaniessurvive.blogspot.com/) I also put the finishing touches on the paper I'm to present at a conference in October and got the PowerPoint all set.

The month flew by. We all enjoyed a special visit by my parents, who drove up from Florida with my brother. John and I drove to Ann Arbor to pick them up and enjoyed a family gathering and Packer game in the process.
                                 
                                            My Mom & Dad at Holland State Park

Then came the Watervale weekend with my friends that we've been doing for nearly 20 years. Watervale Inn is an old-fashioned resort in Arcadia, Michigan, tucked between Lake Michigan and Lower Herring Lake and we always have a wonderful time with good food, good conversation, lots of shopping in Frankfort, Beulah, and Benzonia, and long walks along the beach and through the woods.

The Margaret - "our" cottage

 Lower Herring Lake

 The garden at BeeDazzled, one of our regular shopping stops

Gorgeous weather, good times with friends and relatives - and the start of twice weekly physical therapy to try to resolve my lower back pain.