4th of July Weekend at the Lake!

Just got back from a LOVELY final 4th of July weekend at the lake. I say final, because, it appears, the lake home REALLY is going to be sold sometime in the next few months. Can't TELL you how sad this makes me...we've been going to Doris and Charles lake home for the last THIRTY years, and, now we're counting down to Labor Day Weekend, which appears to be the FINAL visit to Sun Valley.

I did a little "guesstamating" today, and...if you figure we've been going to the lake for each of the major summer holidays (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day) for a total of THREE days each weekend for THIRY years...that equals A YEAR total (plus a few days!) that we've spent there. You could take away a few days (when I was in Japan, and Robin and David lived in California), and it would STILL be safe to say that we've all spent approximately THREE QUARTERS of a year of our lives there...wow!

I'll get WAY more maudlin in September...for now...here's how the weekend "played out":

We arrived around 10:00 P.M. on Thursday (at mom and dad's), and IMMEDIATELY went to bed (having had a LONG 5 1/2 hour drive, only interrupted by a dinner break at Carlos O'Kelly's in Storm Lake).

Friday morning, we headed to the lake, and had a LOVELY early morning (well...okay...9-ish, so not so very early) ride in the speed boat. We try to go early in the morning, or later in the evening, on the 4th of July weekend, since there is SO MUCH BOAT TRAFFIC on the lake.

Abigail, mom, and Emilie

An interesting aside: there are a BUNCH of "newbies" on the lake. Very odd...there are the "oldies" (I guess you'd call them) who have been on the lake for 30 years, and have been there since the begining (and only paid about $30,000.00 for their lots AND houses), and the "newbies", who, because of the SKYROCKETING price of lots and houses on the lake, have ended up paying about $500,00.00 for their lots.

SUCH a difference between to two...the "newbies" are SO "priveledged" and CLUELESS! They don't understand that we DON'T care to hear their music blasted through their expensive sound systems all the way down the cove, and we DON'T care to hear them yelling to their other "newbie" buddies further down the cove, and we DON'T care to see their beer bottles and alcoholic beverage bottles thrown around their yards, and we DON'T care to see them walking through our yards to get to each other like they OWN the place, and we DON'T care to deal with their CLUELESS behavior on the lake (no flags when someone is in the water, going CLOCKWISE instead of COUNTERCLOCKWISE, as the rules state, filling their PRETENTIOUS big boats with WAY too many people, etc.)...what a bunch of CLUELESS simpletons!!! We HATE them (or it might just be me that hates them...LOSERS!).

Anyhoo...we spent MOST of the day just relaxing. I read a new book that I got for the media center. It's called "100 Cupboards", and was REALLY good. I'd tell you who wrote it, but Emilie took it when I was finished, and it's at her house right now so that she can read it.

We ate LOTS of great food, and had a lovely time just "hanging out"...no schedules, no agenda...just avoiding the (MANY!) gnats, and sitting around. I spent most of the day sticking ears of corn on the nails in the tree next to the deck, and watching chipmunks stuff their cheeks with kernels of corn to get them through the time between NOW, and when Doris and Charles come back again.

It was a REALLY interesting (??!!) experience. In the time that I observed, I saw TWO chipmunks, with ONE (larger chipmunk) bullying the other whenever it came back for more corn, and found the smaller one trying to load his cheeks. I saw a blue jay land, and steal a few kernels between chipmunks visits. I also saw a tiny wren "dive bomb" one of the chipmunks for no apparent reason...very INTERESTING (in a lame sort of way!).

The lake fireworks were Friday evening, and I ALWAYS love going out on the boat (with everyone ELSE on the lake), dropping anchor, and watching the "show" from the middle of the lake...SO cool! Lots of very DAZZLING bursts of color, and HOW COOL that we're in the middle of a lake in southwestern Iowa watching this!!!!

Saturday, was more of the same...lying around, reading, eating, and enjoying doing NOTHING. Started ANOTHER book...this one was called "Standard Hero Behavior" by John David Anderson (Emilie DIDN'T read this one, so I was able to find out who the author was!). It was REALLY good, and I recommend it HIGHLY...dragons, bards, bullies in drag...what a HOOT!

David, Emilie, and Robin riding the " tube"!

Emilie, Abigail, and I walked to the dam, and looked for fossils (in the rocks along the edge of the dam), took pictures of some of the wildflowers, and tossed sticks in the spillway to watch them float to the bottom. It was "warmish", but the humidity was VERY un-Iowa-like for early July...VERY delightful!!!

Today started with David and me moving furniture around in the living room for mom, and pulling up the carpet in dad's bathroom, so that we can TILE it over Labor Day. Isn't it INTERESTING that a simple project like pulling up carpet can manifest into a MAJOR ordeal??!!

I pulled up the carpet, only to find a HIDEOUS 70's design carpet underneath (that needed to be pulled up), only to find a LINOLEUM floor under that, only to find a base board layer under that. We (David and me) pulled it ALL up, to get to the original wood floor, so that we can lay down a NEW layer of plywood, then TILE the floor next month. What an ORDEAL!!!! I also had to use a crowbar (how butch!) to pry up all the wood, with nails sticking out of it, onto which the original carpet was attached...glad I got my tetanus shot last month...ouch!

We also decided that the wallpaper (above the TILE part of the lower wall) needed to go (with the intent of PAINTING the upper part of the wall), only to find that there was duct tape and LAYERS of old, hideous wallpaper underneath. So...instead of painting, we're going to RE-WALLPAPER with something a little less HIDEOUS!!!!

Ish!

We DID eventually get to the lake, and TRIED to take the boat out, but only got a short way around before seeing lightning, so headed in, sat around, and, eventually, went out again (after the storm passed!).

We ate a quick lunch, then headed back to the cities. So...here I sit...typing this, waiting for the washer and dryer downstairs to open up, so that I can wash everything to REPACK, because TOMORROW Duane and I are headed to Achorage, Alaska for a few days...oy!!!!