The story of our trip to Houghton Lake last weekend is that the weather was unexpectedly gorgeous and I went on boat rides that didn’t involve my own muscles pushing a double-ended paddle through the water and I even drove a gargantuan pontoon boat for a while. I actually think that the Uncly Uncle sets me up behind the wheel of that big boy just because it makes for funny photooo ops. And that’s okay with me. Actually, one of those is my latest facebook profile photooo. As long as he takes over when we have to maneuver in tight spaces. Like when there are duck blinds within a mile of us. Whatever. It was a beautiful weekend and I had a wonderful time and I wish all weekends could be like last weekend.

Another little story thread that I have been alluding to is cheese. I made enchiladas Saturday night. To put my enchiladas together, I needed a cheese grater. To grate the cheese, don’tcha know. I could *not* find a cheese grater at the Houghton Lake Crazy House Group Home to save my life. I have been hanging around at HL for 30 years and I could swear that there was a cheese grater in the moldy old sinking-into-the-ground cabin. I could *not* find a cheese grater this weekend.

A chorus of suggestions bubbled up! Did you look in all the drawers? Yes. Did you look in all the cupboards? Yes. What about the moldy old shed? You know, the shed where we shoved everything that didn’t fit into the loverly new cabin when we built it. No dice. Old glubs. A broken chair that somehow made its way to the Planet Ann Arbor. Boxes labeled “kitchen stuff” and filled with random collections of cups of various sorts. No cheese grater.

I said, “it’s okay, I’ll cut the cheese.” I meant with a knife. Gales of laughter. Do you know what “cutting the cheese” means? Well, yeah, sorta. At least I think I do. And yes, I did. There was quite a bit of testosterone around when I was growing up.

The problem-solving shifted a bit to who was at KMart or going to KMart and could they pick up a cheese grater. I did not want *anyone* to make a special trip around Houghton Lake (27 mile circumference) to pick up a blasted cheese grater when I could just, uh, cut the cheese, uh, with a knife… Nevertheless, when we took the “green boat” out of the water at the boat launch, which is conveniently (or not) near KMart, I had to talk people down off the ledge. “Do you want to go to KMart to get a cheese grater?” “Are you *sure* you don’t want to go to KMart to get a cheese grater?” This became a *joke* by the end of the day but NO NO NO NO!!! It is a GORGEOUS day and the last thing I want to do is spend any nano-second of it in KMart and I don’t want anyone else to have to do that either! Let’s go back to the cabin and get the trenormous pontoon boat out in the lake for a ride! And I will cut the blasted cheese with a blasted knife! (Not to dis KMart. If it had been a cold, drippy, crappy day, I would’ve probably been happy to make a foray into KMart to get a cheese grater.)

We did not get a cheese grater last weekend and I cut the cheese (with a serrated knife) and was totally happy! We have one now. I bet that when I take this cheese grater to Houghton Lake five old cheese graters will resurface.

Good night,
–KW

This entry was posted on Monday, September 26th, 2011 at 6:27 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.