Labor Day

Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend. I'm in the office with the door open, of course, writing at my desk which is about 10 feet from the sunshine. I had an open house on Carlton's Cliff and spent the early afternoon sitting in the sun under brilliant blue skies.

"It's over," some people say. "Labor Day. Take in the docks, shrink-wrap the boats, go home to the real world and work for another nine months."

You wouldn't know it by this village. The streets are alive with people, some here for the end of the Skaneateles Festival last night at Brook Farm, some for the amusments at the park, others for the shopping and eating at Rosalie's or Mirbeau or The Glen Haven down the lake.

I printed out 15 booklets at 11:00 AM of property listings by the seven of us in this office - all gone when I returned, so I printed another 20 to carry through the evening. People stop and tap the window, comment on prices and shake their heads, or are pleasantly surprised. The Post Standard says the mortgage crunch passed Syracuse and the area. Certainly Skaneateles - the overall price of homes climbed 12% in the past year. And still there are the 20-some homes over one million to be sold and closed.

It doesn't matter. The day is waning but not the summer fun. I smell Doug's Fish Fry wafting through the door - they don't close until January! A client turned recent resident stuck his head in the door earlier, delighted to be going to the firemen's exhibition on the lake, walking from his new home. It doesn't get much better than this!