I have never been to the Topsfield fair, although checking out their website, it looks *very* established, and any fair that has 4-H and beekeeping near the top of its list of attractions is fine by me. Sadly, I realize (thinking over the past years) I don't really tend to go, on my own, distances of more than an hour without a whole lot of special planning. I have friends in the Boston area whom I haven't seen in years. I should do something about this, but I end up with a mental donkey-between-two-bales-of-hay dilemma. Given that a trip is a rare thing, and given that I'll be taking the car and spending the time all for myself (i.e., not taking a family member to the airport, not combining it with some other duty or requirement), how do I spend this precious journey?? And then, unable to choose, I just don't make a visit at all.

... more than you needed to know... but it just happened that in writing the reply I was able to articulate it. (It's something that's bothered me for years. Why don't I visit people more?)

Speaking of pearl divers, the Japanese "morning drama" this year (there's a special serial on TV each year, each morning) is called "Ama-chan," and it's about a young girl who decides to take up the role of pearl diver in an area where there haven't been any young women joining the ranks, so to speak. I haven't seen it, but Wakanomori was telling me about it, and it sounds cool.

ETA: pearl. Peal divers dive for drowned bells?