Flip a switch and it’s summer

jiggerI managed to change out the glass insert in our front storm door for a screen today. All. By. Myself. (Full disclosure, it required a couple of text messages to the Great Still-a-wee-bit-white North.) Why did I think this would be so dern hard? It’s really similar to changing out the windows for the screens and vice versa at the moomincabin and I’ve been known to accomplish that task multiple times per day. Different tool required, that’s all. That tool (pliers) is now in one of my Chitchen Drawers. Where I can find it again! The hardest part was getting the *heavy* glass insert down the stairs to its summer home in the Landfill Dungeon without breaking it or dropping it on my foot or something. Somehow I made it. Slow as she goes…

I was a bit apprehensive about being spacified this weekend. When I was a “kid”, being alone with my babies for a weekend could be daunting. The GG was always very interactive with the beach urchins, a guy who, despite working a full time job, probably changed more diapers than I did. He *certainly* provided them with more adventures than I. As the beach urchins grew into schoolchildren and then teenagers, the pendulum swung a bit. I was less apprehensive and more likely to say, “Go play with your brother” (aka The Uncly Uncle / identical twin). Team Estrogen would be just fine alone and there was usually something going on with YAG or school or friends to keep us busy.

The space-time continuum shifted again when the kids left home, the older generation grew frail and started dying and I sold my soul back to a very welcoming corporate America. Those years? I *needed* space. You want to go camping? Go! Come back in a couple months! Sometimes it was meeee who took off. One summer before I went back to work, I swung back and forth between the yooperland and The Planet Ann Arbor 10 days there, 10 days here. All summer. A couple years ago, when The Commander started to need our help for real, we were both working and we had to tag-team a lot. One of us in the yooperland, the other on The Planet Ann Arbor. I began staying out at the moomincabin after Memorial Day that year and, as much as I loved being there, I was lonely (and it was COLD but that’s a whole ‘nother story). I mean I was busy during the day telecommuting to work from the long term care rehab facility and hanging out with The Commander. At the end of the day, I would be back out at our beloved cabin. But missing having the GG around to hang out with, watching the shipping traffic traverse the upper St. Marys, cocktail in hand with the grill going. Since that time, when I have spent weekends alone, I have appreciated the space but there’s this creeping sense of loneliness…

This weekend? Perfection. It turned out I had plenty of spacification. And I needed that because there is soooo much to do around here. Cleaning, flinging, organizing and reorganizing, gardening (what? me?), packing for next weekend. Loneliness? Not. No chance for that, thanks to the beach urchins. Friday afternoon and evening with Mouse. Gardening “with” Mouse every day (i.e., Mouse gardens, KW rakes and weeds and pulls out poison ivy and waters things when asked). And my quick green lizard made the trek over here from megalopolis today for a belated mother’s day dinner. No I did not wear my best lavender pantsuit and we did not eat at a restaurant. We walked over to the Plum Market to buy ingredients for veggie tacos and she cooked them here in the Landfill Chitchen. And made me a loverly “summer cooler” cocktail. I keep a bottle of gin around for just such occasions. We ate in the actually quite loverly back yard gossiping (shh!) and reminiscing and watching mama birds feed their families.

Am I glad I stayed on the planet this weekend? Yes. Although a video on the C Fam facebook page of people at Houghton Lake heading over to the tiki bar in the pontoon boat gave me pause… Did I get a lot done this weekend? Yes. Did I get *everything* done that I wanted to? Of course not. If only I could just tinkle-tinkle-tink my nose like B-Witch used to do, it would all be done.

My beautiful but not fancy neighborhood is now as green as summer and this post was not in any way a “hint” to the beach urchins to come over and entertain their moom every time she spends a weekend alone. As I said in my Mother’s Day post, the greatest gift I could receive from my children is that they are independent adults who do their best to make positive contributions to society. And this post is really not all that “deep”. I’m just navel-gazing again. Isn’t that what blahgs are for?

Love y’all,
Kayak Woman

2 Responses to “Flip a switch and it’s summer”

  1. Margaret Says:

    It sounds like a lovely weekend!! I know what you mean about space. As a teacher and someone around people all day, I craved solitude when I lived in a full house and credit that for my running habit. 🙂 However, I feel lonely now, so company is always great–especially of our kids who share our life story with us.

  2. Sarah Piazza Says:

    I can’t wait for a weekend to myself! It actually sounds blissful to me. Not every weekend, of course, but once in a while…