Sunday Snippet: The Focusing Elsewhere for a Minute Edition

This week, writing, finding my creative escape has been really hard as current events have overwhelmed me. But if I am the writer that I claim to be, that I want to be, shouldn’t I be able to write, no matter what? I always maintain that writing is essential to who I am and it is, but there are days, now and again, where I want the people in my head to just sit quietly for just a little bit, while I take a deep breath and recenter. So, I’ve been focused elsewhere the past couple of days–getting ready to close up the lake cottage.

It’s November 10 and it’s chilly and a little breezy here at the lake—crisp autumn chilly. The sun has been shining all weekend, until today. Clouds are rolling in and I think we’re due some rain. We raked leaves on Friday, and hauled 15 golf-cart loads to the detritus pile up on the hill. It’s truly fall… and now I’m wondering what the hell happened to summer?

I know summer was here—after all the cottage is still open (although we’re closing up soon). I vaguely remember a boat ride or two, several swims in the lake, although not nearly as many as previous years, and a lot of editing work, and writing and promoting new River’s Edge stories.

But it is well and truly fall now, and here at the lake, autumn begins and ends with leaves. Gorgeous, colorful leaves everywhere–in the lake, on the road, on the docks, and particularly on our deck! Husband used the leaf blower yesterday morning and within an hour, the deck was covered again. The umbrella, the table, the chairs, even our car became repositories for orange, red, yellow, and crispy brown maple leaves. Those leaves are on the pile in the field now but there will be more, I’m certain.

It’s hard to think of closing up—the thought of leaving for several months makes us both kinda pouty and sad. But we’re in the business of happy here, so we just remind one another that we’ve had a lovely summer, spent time with our lake friends, and we’ll be back next year…ready for another season of lake life.

We’re finishing up our 13th year, 14th season here at the lake. It’s hard to believe we’ve had our cottage for so long, particularly given that we waited for so long to buy one. It seemed like whenever we were ready to buy, cottages were just out of our reach and when they were in our reach, we weren’t in a position to consider buying one. Thirteen years ago, when this marriage-long dream came true, we were overjoyed.

We still are, although the realities of lake life are a little different from the fantasies. The fantasies didn’t include having to scrub the cottage down a couple of times a year because the trees and the road dust and mildew can make it look truly dreadful. The fantasies didn’t include having to stain the deck every couple of years or spraying the driveway for weeds once a month in the summer or sweeping cobwebs off the boat lift before we uncover the boat for a ride or scrubbing the boat down or weeding the gardens around the cottage or stomping down the mole hills or spraying for spiders and ants or checking all the kitchen drawers for mouse droppings. It didn’t include needing a new roof or new boards on the deck or repairing a tired and ancient boat lift or getting stung by the wasps that nest behind the cottage shutters and under the eaves of the shed. Basically, the fantasy forgot that cottage ownership, at times, might be just as arduous as home or vehicle ownership.

When we’d been here about five years or so, somehow, the word got out (after ninety-some odd years) about how wonderful our bay was for swimming. Suddenly, we became the party bay for the whole lake and now every hot weekend, our bay is filled with boats and swimmers., We are now, apparently, officially the weekend party bay on the lake. When Mo and I go out to swim, there are sometimes a bunch of boats and music so loud it echoes all the way across the bay. Also a part of lake life that we hadn’t anticipated.

I sound a little but whiny and disenchanted, but I’m not, truly. I’m simply more in reality about what lake life is all about and about the different reasons people love it here. We love being near the water so we can swim and fish whenever we like, so for us, being here during the mid-week works best. For others, who are here for the water sports and the party atmosphere, weekends are the time to come up (or down, depending on where you live) to the lake.

Those confessions/observations aside, we are still crazy about being at the lake and about our little community, which has turned over a lot in the thirteen years we’ve been here. We love our big deep bay on this beautiful lake. It’s the perfect place to swim and fish. Watching the moon make a path across the water still takes my breath away. Being able to walk down and sit on the dock to simply watch the ripples on the surface of the water and breath in the scent of the lake is all I need to know all will be well.

The lake is still our dream vacation–and how blessed we are to be able to come up whenever we like and enjoy our life here. We feel equally blessed in our snug little home in our beautiful neighborhood in the city, though, and can’t wait for fires in the fireplace, watching old movies, and putting up holiday decorations.

Life doesn’t always take the turns you plan for when you are first married and starting out together full of dreams, but after 51 years of marriage, our life, both here at the lake and in the city, is pretty darn good.

Tomorrow, remember to hold our veterans in your hearts–those who fought and even died for our democracy and our Constitution. Thanks to all who served–we respect and honor you.

Gratitude for this Week: Believing with all my heart and knowing that (in the words of VP Kamala Harris), we “do not concede the fight … the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people, a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.” Nor will I.

Stay well, stay safe (Vaccines!), remember that kindness is always a good choice, and most of all, mes amis, stay grateful,