Do I want to go to Houghton Lake this weekend? Yes. But. Alas. I am not psychically ready for the process of going to Houghton Lake this weekend. I am not ready to do all of the packing that is required for a trip to Houghton Lake in the winter and the dark and probably snow driving it’ll take to get there. It practically takes two great big duffle bags to take just the clothing I might need at Houghton Lake. I flew to San Francisco for five days in October with all I needed in a small carry-on bag. The Great White North is a whole different story. Snowpants? Maybe or maybe not. Balaclava? Probably but maybe not. Inner and outer ski jacket. Ski band and mad bomber hat. A bunch of those magic gloves which is just about all I ever wear in the winter any more. Boots. And then there’s all that other stuff. Ski gear. Snow shoes. Sleeping bags. Food. I don’t even want to think about food. Technology-related gear. How many computers? Three? I forget how many cameras. Phones. Power cords, memory card readers, blah-de-blah-de-blah. Reading material? Unfinished prodjects intentionally misspelled. FROGGY and friends. grok grok grook grodko! And I do not know what is in all those bags that the GG travels with. He did manage to fly to California without them.

Blarg. Then there’s the whole thing about how it takes three blasted hours to get to Houghton Lake. I want to go to Houghton Lake but I have to work tomorrow and we are going to The Commander’s house next weekend and, after this week of viruses and whatnot, I am not ready for a weekend trip. I bet people won’t miss me much because, especially after this week, I will no doubt be more likely than ever to hide grumpily behind my laptop computer.

I will not be going to Houghton Lake this weekend but the GG will and that is all okay. Heck, he’ll fix the webcam. What I wish I could do this weekend is take a smaller, less-encumbered road trip. Like the trips we took to Kalamazoo while our kids attended college at K. I loved having my kids at college in Kalamazoo. At 100 miles from us, it was both close and far away. Mouse’s last couple of years in college, we frequently drove over there on Sundays to watch plays she acted in or directed. We would leave the Landfill around 7:00 AM and hit the Zeeb Road McD’s for coffee. We would call just before our exit to say we were just outside of Kalamazoo and then call again before our turn onto Westnedge. We would pick up Mouse for breakfast at the Crow’s Nest and then we would hang around her wonderful little apartment. We would take a walk around the neighborhood if we had time and/or the GG would take a nap. At some point, Mouse would have to be at the theatre and we would usually walk around the campus a bit or hang out in the library coffee shop, using the wireless. After the show, in the late afternoon, we would roll home in time for a cocktail and dinner.

I miss those days and I sometimes can’t believe we don’t have a child in college any more. We can still see Mouse act, since she is acting here and there on the Planet Ann Arbor. You could even say it’s easier that we just have to drive down to the Lydia Mendelssohn or over to the Riverside Theatre. But I miss those days of rolling clunking along on the rickety-rackety I94 18-Wheel Slogway over to Kalamazoo.

Anyway, it is Garbage Night here on the Planet Ann Arbor. I wish Garbage Night was still Monday.

Good night,
Garbage Woman

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 7:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.