Fleeta Foote is back

Two weeks ago, my 17-year-old daughter, Kelsey, aka Fleeta Foote, returned from her one-year stint as an exchange student in Costa Rica. This called for celebration and visits from numerous relatives and friends eager to see her. My brother-in-law, Roger, asked me if I could foresee anytime in the future that I would be able to work on my boat, and I assured him that progress would proceed much more rapidly now that I had an extra set of hands to help me. He laughed and said, “I thought you’d have less time because you’d be busy doing things with Kelsey.” He was right, of course. In the two weeks that Kelsey has been home, I’ve accomplished very little on the boat, but I have gone wine tasting in Healdsburg (with Kelsey as the designated, resentful driver), shopping with both daughters, to Monterey for the Fourth of July, read books, and with Kelsey watched numerous episodes of her favorite TV show, “Friends.” We also went to see The Devil Wears Prada and enjoyed every minute of it.