Tuesday, September 1, 2009

End of Summer Insanity

Where to begin? The end of summer is fast upon us, although if you have been in the upper peninsula this year you could argue that summer never truly arrived as it has been so cool, and of course, with the end of summer comes all different levels of insanity. So, I will just plunge right in.


We have the typical child variety of insanity with preparing for another year of preschool. For instance, Isabelle has apparently grown a ridiculous amount (again). The kid is all legs and it certainly does not come from me, so virtually all of her pants are too short, necessitating "school clothes shopping." When did my little girl need size five pants? And of course, we had all the necessary appointments, including her yearly health exam, and then her dental cleaning and now this week she is having her hearing and vision tested. We will culminate all of this with a haircut from her Grandma Helen and she will officially be "spit and polished" for the classroom. I feel kind of like I am having a car detailed!


Then there is our on-going camp project insanity, which anyone who has built anything knows sort of develops a life of its own. (Or it takes over the one you already have). The camp is really coming into being now and is looking wonderful. The electrical is almost complete and next will come the plumbing. I just finished painting the front door as well as all of the trim on the six exterior windows to match the roof which is a dark evergreen (the windows could only be ordered in white, of course). This little task would seem like no big deal except it involved coordinating with my dear mother-in-law to watch Isabelle whenever I wished to paint, as trying to do rather meticulous and careful work with a brush while simultaneously watching a human tornado is somewhat challenging. I also did all work on a ladder with the exception of the two front windows on the porch and had no access to water for easy brush cleaning since we have no plumbing yet. So, I was filling empty milk jugs and lugging them with me from here, doing a little cleaning on site and then bringing stuff home for the big scrub down. Tedious yes, but yesterday as I observed my completed paint job (hands on my hips, paint-smeared cut-off shorts and all) I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. And more this time then ever because unlike painting a room in my house, this is not a building or property that we will EVER sell. It will be OURS until the day we die and there is something so solid and comforting about that.

Even with the snakes. Yes, I said snakes. And that brings me to the next piece of my insanity. We have snakes in the well. Among our other camp projects is resurrecting the old, original well on the property, which is from the time when Clay's grandfather had a house on the land. It would seem that in all of our building and moving of earth and the old trailer and demolishing of some of the old, original foundation that was Clay's grandfather's house we disturbed a nest of snakes, who for lack of a better place, fled to the well. Apparently, they are Fox snakes, otherwise, known as Pine snakes, and we theorise they actually became trapped in the well when we moved more dirt with the excavator and essentially buried all of their escape routes because when we drained the well ...... lets just say we found quite a "pile" at the bottom. I will also inform you that Clay has lifted the lid on the well on a couple of occasions to find one or two curled up in the lip at the top. The best one though was when he and one of our good friends were digging around the well last week as they decided they were going to lay a cement pad all around it and going a few feet down into the ground. In the course of digging they unearthed a huge snake who had been trapped. It measured five feet. Add four inches and the snake is as tall as me. (Ewww.)

This might be the time to mention that my husband has a rather strong phobia towards snakes. He comes by it honestly. His mother is over the moon afraid. Clay is capable of being around them and can kill them when necessary, but is in no way, shape, or form, comfortable. Since encountering our "problem" at camp he has been dreaming about snakes at night, talking about it non-stop to anyone and everyone, and I swear he periodically gives full-body shudders. Suffice it to say I have found his hell and it is straight out of an Indiana Jones movie..... him in a well full of snakes. (My hell, you ask? Lets just say it would probably involve something like a very small crowded elevator, piping in Rod Stewart music or even worse Rod Stewart himself, singing, but I digress)

Despite the snake issue, the well is still sound and we are confident after a very thorough cleaning it will serve our needs just beautifully. We had never planned on using it for drinking water regardless, and in light of what has recently been taking up residence within I think it will be a very long time before we could think of it.

In the middle of all of this my computer crashed on me this past weekend, and I had a momentary freak out (yes, more insanity). After all, this computer is not very old. And how does a computer go from working perfectly one day to just totally NOT the next? I mean, shouldn't it give you at least some hints that it isn't feeling well.... a few glitches as a head's up? Instead it was like a drive-by-shooting, completely random and out of no where. I had visions of a major problem, being without a computer or e-mail for an extended period of time (Gasp! You might laugh, but for someone who at times has limited adult contact this is huge) Thankfully, my local computer guy is wonderful and had it up and running quickly and for not a ton of money, which was also huge.

Anyway, the end of summer is drawing to a close and I suppose this current level of insanity will pass .... most likely to make way for another level. But then again its kind of fun. There is a new country song out by Darryl Worley, I believe, called, "Sounds Like Life to Me." In the song his friend is complaining about all this "stuff" going on in his life, bills due, car breaking down, baby whining, wife pregnant again, like it is all some tragedy. Worley sings the chorus and reminds his friend life is about enjoying the ride and the unpredictability, not to get bogged down in the details. I like the song.

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