No Swimming.
This is the ninth consecutive summer with below-normal rainfall. The Blackwater River is a long, stagnant pool with grass sprouting from exposed sandbars.
Lawns are brown. Wells are running dry. To complicate matters--with all the media coverage of shark attacks--folks can't deal with the hassles of beach-going. This is Andover's Town Beach at Highland Lake:
I try not to play favorites with students, but my son's buddy Parker earned special points when--two years ago--he declared that I was his spiritual Savior. Parker is off to college on the West Coast, and his folks had a bunch of us over for a party the other night. Purveyors of the finest gourmet products in New London, they offered a French Shiraz call Fat Bastard.
Parker (L) and his posse:
