The End

Sadly, this is our last morning here.  Everyone is walking around with a twinge of sadness on their faces.  Part of it is that we have to spend part of this morning cleaning up but mostly they know that our short summer vacation is nearly over.

We hit the Chinese take out last night after a little shopping (aloe was needed for the son’s lobster legs due to too much kayaking).  It was not a good as I remember it.  We brought it back to the late house and watched season 9 episode 20 of Little House on the Prairie.  It was laugh out loud funny as Mr. Edwards meets a man on the road who ends up dying but not before he gets Mr. Edwards to promise to take care of Blanch (who turns out to be an orangutan).  Chaos ensues as Blanches hijinks cause and uproar in Walnut Grove (including some funny scenes with Blanch and Mrs. Olsen).  After the kids went to bed, the wife and I watched Unstoppable which was pretty good although a good 1/3 of the movie had to be stock footage of random trains going down the track.

The wife and I are ready to return home to our own bed.  She misses the dogs too I imagine though Pepper (the dog from the next lake house) visits us often, including this morning during coffee.

This place is very welcoming as this small sign says that is hanging in the kitchen.

We are looking forward to returning next year if possible.  Thanks to my friend for lending us his lake house for the week.  Your “standard rental payment” is waiting for your on the kitchen counter.

Jon

A Teenager Amongst Us

In about 1 hour, I will technically be the parent of a teenager.  Our son was born at 4:22 PM on this date back in 1998.  Since Indiana did not observe daylight saving time back then and since it is / was summertime, that would mean that he was born at 5:22 New York time.  This little trick just puts off having a teenager in our midst by an hour but the wife and I will take what we can get.

This lake house trip was planned so his birthday would occur while we were here.  We were going to come here sometime in July but the timing makes it more special for him.  He is having the time of his life (as is his sister).

There is a cake cooling on the counter and a “1” and “3” candle waiting in a bag for a little celebration later tonight.  I do not have any deep (or any random) thoughts about being the father of a teenager.  I am sure it will make for some interesting blogging down the road though.

Jon

Rituals

This is the 4th time the wife and I have come to this lake house.  Our first two trips were sans children (and, don’t tell the kids, we are hoping the next one will be as well).  Since we have been here a few times, we now the layout of Spencer, IN (the town 10 miles down the road).  Also, we have a few rituals (or traditions maybe) that we do.  One of them is visiting the local Chinese take out (which we probably will do tonight).  Their sweet-n-sour chicken is very good.  Another ritual involves popcorn.

Jiffy Pop is something that is not allowed in our house back home for whatever reason but get the wife here to this location and it is a must.  We bought it on a whim the first time we were down here and just have made it a habit.  We set up the netbook / 20” monitor / external hard drive / speakers with subwoofer and watched on of the final episodes of Little House on the Prairie and enjoyed our Jiffy Pop.  We also bought a bag of Hershey’s Miniatures (not really a ritual, yet) and I offered the kids an option: 2 mini candy bars of their choosing (Hershey’s Chocolate, Hershey’s Special Dark, Krackle, of Mr. Goodbar) or 3 mini candy bars randomly chosen by me.  Everyone chose quantity over quality and we watched episode 19 of season 9.

Well, it is time for breakfast and to see what the day holds for us.

Jon

Nothing Pressing

We woke up this morning with nothing that needed to be done and that trend continues on still.  Breakfast, of course, was on the list but other than the making of the French press coffee, it was not a big bother what with instance oatmeal being the main course.  The breakfast was going to be eggs and sausage but the sausage did not survive the night in the fridge as the light on the inside of the fridge was on all night and the sausage took the brunt of the light’s heat.  Eggs by themselves did not seem appetizing and the would just remind us of the loss of the sausage.

We each took our turn in the shower and then (after a few rounds of Uno) we took a walk up the gravel road to the “main” road and back again.  The daughter forged ahead of us.

Last summer when we were at the lake house, all these fields were full of wildflowers and we had a great walk.  Unfortunately they were all recently mowed down so we only saw a few flowers.

When we got back, it seemed close enough to lunchtime to worry about it and sandwiches were made.  The kids discovered a stash of VHS movies and bickered a bit over which to watch first, Peter Pan or Aladdin (a games of odds and evens determined Peter Pan the premiere).  After lunch, the wife and I headed to the deck for a nap (where she still is at the time of the writing of the blog).

The only thing on our agenda now is to take a swim in the lake and find a decent place for dinner tonight.  This level of nothing pressing is just what the wife and I needed, a perfect vacation.

Jon

Half the Fun Is Getting There

We had a plan.  It was simple.  I would work for 1/2 a day and then we would be on vacation for the duration of the week.  It is good to have a plan.  The problem with this plan is that everything had to go right at work for the first 1/2 of the day.  As you might have guessed, that did not happen.

I am taking over a small job at work that involves about 2 hours of my time every month on the 8th business day of the month.  As luck would have it, yesterday was the 8th business day of the month.  Last month I sort of receive some training but I did not pick up everything I needed to know so that I could do this solo this month.  My manager knows what to do but he does not have the access to do it.  So we were stuck with him looking over my shoulder (virtually) and trying to walk me through it.  It did not help that he was driving to Houston yesterday and had a full day of meetings.  Anyway, long story short, it was 2 pm before I was able to log off and start the vacation.

We had planned to have lunch around 1:00 in Indianapolis and that turned into an early dinner around 3:30 ad Red Robin.  We needed to stop by the lake house owner’s house to pick up some sheets and towels.  After a short visit with him and his new lab puppy, Lego, we were on our way.  We rolled into Spencer, IN, around 6:00 and hit the local grocery store for vacation food (food never allowed in our house in Kokomo, you know, like food that comes in boxes and cans and has words like “instant” on the label).  We finally got to the lake house around 7:00 and got unpacked.  It was very hot and since the house was shut up it was also hot.  We opened all the windows, turned on all the fans and then hit the deck by the lake to enjoy a little breeze while the house cooled down.

The water was calm and peaceful and the bugs were few (though the fish were plenty).  After about 30 minutes the house was tolerable and we did what any family would do while on vacation at a remote lake house, we set up the netbook, external hard drive containing movies, 20” monitor and 2.1 speakers and watched a movie (Flipped, a very good movie) on the screened in porch.  I sipped my Peach Faygo (on sale at Babb’s SuperValu) and the kids enjoyed Black Cherry Faygo and all was good.

The wife and I have been here several times but last year was the first year that we brought the kids.  They have been looking forward to this trip since the day that I mentioned it last month.  Every day one of them would tell me how many days were left before the lake house trip.  Their faces were quite distraught yesterday when I kept working well past noon.  If stares and looks could make me work faster then I would have been done on time.

It is supposed to rain today but clear up by early afternoon.  Hopefully the kids can get some swimming done in the lake then.  There are only 3 good restaurants in Spencer I think so it is not a matter of where to eat but in what order we eat at each place over the next few nights.

Well, the daughter has the Uno deck out and is shuffling (or trying to shuffle) the cards right next to me.  I can take a hint.

Jon