Scattered thoughts

Vacation has started. But it's not time to relax yet. We leave for a camping trip on Tuesday, so there's plenty of work to be done before any sitting around can be done. Of course, I'll probably still do it anyway.

The kitchen is trashed, and the rest of the place isn't much better. It was kind of a rough time at work for the last 2 weeks for the both of us. Between instruments and the computer breaking down, huge workloads, and Tim having to go into work last weekend, and then be on call babysitting a stupid emergency cell phone (which rang incessantly with one person after another having a crisis all hours of the day and night)....we are just a little tired.

Last weekend we did get to go up north to Grayling. We had planned long ago to go up to visit our good friends Sharon and Rodney, and Dave and Joanne, and see the start of the Weyerhaeuser Ausable River Grayling to Oscoda Canoe Marathon (link). I had seen it 20 years ago on a visit to Sharon back during college, and it was nothing then compared to what it's grown into now. Thousands more people come into town for the weekend, and it has become a whole festival, the biggest event on the town's entire calendar for the year.

Tim got out of work late that Saturday, so we didn't hit the road until 4pm. We made it to Grayling in time to have a dinner of Sharon's wonderful deep-dish pizza and beer before heading to town. We got to see some of the canoes and racers up close. These canoes are the oddest looking things, but they only weigh 35 pounds and cost up to $5000. And the racers are buff. Think about the upper body strength and stamina you need to paddle for up to 19 hours straight, after running several blocks with your partner carrying your canoe and gear and putting in at the river. Not to mention the 4 or 5 grueling portages that need to be made at several points down river.

Yes, we thought long and hard about all that grueling physical activity Sunday as we sat on our butts in Sharon and Rodney's back yard drinking Bone Relaxers from about 11 in the morning until roughly 7 that night, at which time we enjoyed a dinner of grilled steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and Sharon's Margarita Pie. Tim's work phone was in one hand while he held a drink in the other. The only thing that really marred the day was having to move quickly to escape the swarm of wasps that the dogs disturbed in a ground nest we happened to be near. One of the dogs got nailed on the nose, and Tim got stung on the wrist, but the rest of us escaped. Sharon had gotten stung last year near this persistent nest. Rodney used wasp spray and the garden hose, but the next day the wasps were still merrily flying around back there. Okay, the message is clear: They own the world, we tread on it at our own risk.

Dave is a member of the ham radio club there, and contributes to the annual event by working all through the night to record canoe times at race headquarters. We had visited him there and wished him and all the other volunteers good luck before going back to Sharon and Rodney's Saturday night. He enjoyed dinner and a couple beers Sunday before going home to collapse of exhaustion.

What else has gone on lately? My jewelry habit continues unabated. Okay, I swear I won't order anything else. For a while. I've been adding to my chocolate diamond collection (or champagne, or cognac diamonds as they are also known). I had been trying to win a cognac diamond line bracelet on e-Bay for a while, and last Friday night I scored one. I sniped in a bid 6 or 7 minutes before the auction ended. Someone else wanted that bracelet too, and tried to catch me, but I won. Ha!!!

Okay, so they aren't perfect stones. I'm starting to think chocolate diamonds just come that way. But you can't see the inclusions/surface nicks unless you get your nose right up to them. And if you're looking for movie-star bright white bling, these aren't for you. They're more subtle. It's more of an earthy, metallic bling. They must be really hard to match in color too, because there's about every tone of brown represented in this bracelet. At first I didn't like this 'flaw' in my pieces, but a coworker/friend who is a quilter pointed out that a good quilter will seek out varying shades of a color in fabric, because it gives the finished work more depth and dimension. Hmm. Good point, and this feature has actually grown on me. I don't like the way cognacs look in yellow gold. It's got to be white gold for me, so I've spent quite some time scouring the net/shopping networks for pieces. Yes, time I probably should have spent doing something more constructive. But hey, I now own a diamond tennis bracelet, something I thought I wouldn't own for many years.

I am still laughing about an 'out of the mouths of babes' moment I had last week. The Grand Prix needed an oil change, so I'm sitting at the car dealer waiting the 45 minutes or so with my book (I decided I really 'need' to read the entire 'Harry Potter' series all over again), and here's this young guy with his toddler in the waiting room, too. I'd had a bad night at work again, and of course my first thought was 'oh, maaaaaan....' But the kid was so cute, and after all, I only had to spend an hour or so with him, as opposed to 24/7 like his parents. The cherubic blonde curls and big brown eyes had all the women in the customer waiting area waving flags of surrender in about 2 minutes. No fear of strangers whatsoever. He picks up a book and trots right up to me, asking 'Will you read this to me?' Dad apologetically asked him to leave me alone, and I'm like 'Who, me??!' But who could have possibly said no? So we went through a Bible Stories book, admiring the pictures of all the animals, and the nude Adam and Eve strategically placed behind bushes and trees. Good drawings, actually. Good enough that the kid recognized the corresponding anatomical part on Adam's chest, and called it by the one and only name he knew, which was 'Boob!'. Another not-so-good rendering made it look almost as though Adam was squatting in a bush, and little Colin voiced aloud his thoughts to me on Adam relieving his bowels. By this time, dad has both hands over his mouth to hold in the laughter, and I'm biting my lip to hold it in too. Luckily he lost interest in the book before things got really hard to explain.

I managed to get a wasp sting last week, too. I was watering the flowers on the deck, and unfortunately I walked right into one. It got me on the right ring finger, then got me on the left arm. Not sure if it was the same one or not, but I didn't hang around to find out. I dropped the watering can and ran. I've seen them swarm before, and know how fast they can move. Three stings at once was painful enough, I didn't care for any more.

Despite baking soda, ice and ibuprofen, in a few hours my hand looked like a pink pillow with fingers for tassels. It looked way worse than it felt, because the pain was gone by then. It just felt like I was wearing a too-tight glove. There's some powerful crap in wasp venom. Phospholipidase, cholinesterase and other enzymes. Then you get the body's retaliation of histamine, and it's chemical warfare.

I called the exterminator we had come out in June, and left a message. In it, I pointed out our paperwork claimed a 60 day guarantee. He never called back, and we found no note on the door, but the next day we found a few wasp nests laying around on the deck and a whole lot fewer wasps flying around. But I'm still going to make sure I get everything watered out there before the day gets too warm, and they get active. Like I said, they own the earth, and we're just here blundering along.

Saturday, we went to Tim's company picnic for the first time in about 12 years. It was held at an orchard near Ypsilanti, and was nice. Probably the most exciting thing about it was all the WWII planes that flew overhead (Detroit News article).

If I don't get moving and start getting ready for our camping trip to Harrisville this week, I'm going to be up until the wee hours tomorrow. Gotta cook stuff, freeze stuff, pack stuff...

Be back Sunday!