Sunday Snippet: The Lake Life Reality Edition

We are in our 10th year, 11th 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. Ten 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 have 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 replacing 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 Moe and I went out to swim yesterday, there were a bunch of boats and music so loud it echoed 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 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 ten 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 new home in our beautiful neighborhood in the city.

Life doesn’t always take the turns you plan for when you are first married and starting out together full of dreams, but after 48 years of marriage, our life, both here at the lake and in the city, is pretty darn good.

Stay well, stay safe, wear your mask, and most of, mes amies, find the good in your life and be grateful!