stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2017-07-27 08:41 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2017-07-27 08:41 pm
Entry tags:
The Missing Vacation
A couple weeks ago, while Aran was at camp, Darwin and Max and I went on vacation. I didn't report it here well, did I?
We rented a cottage up near Harbor Springs for a week. The cottage overlooks Lake Michigan in the northern LP. The cottage was very nice, but not situated as well as we had hoped. It didn't have much a lake view, and to get to the lake, you had to go down many, many wooden steps, which were picturesque but serious work on the way back up! Also, that far north, the lake is still cold and not very swimmable. The beach itself was beautiful, though, and private, with only the occasional bear to keep us company.
It was a relax-acation. We slept late and drove to nearby towns for window shopping and movies and walks on their piers. I picked up some books at a used book sale at the local library and turned down an invitation to appear at a local book festival. (Forty other authors were going to be there, so I'd be one face in a huge crowd, and anyway I've never known book festivals to even pay transportation and hotel costs, let alone noticeably boost sales). We ate a lot of ice cream and I cooked local foods in the cottage's well-appointed kitchen. My mother and her husband Gene came up for an overnight visit as well, and we played euchre well into the night. Later, we hit Mackinaw Island, which is one of our favorite day-
Darwin and I explored a tiny local cemetery at one point and had a misadventure. The cemetery hadn't been mowed a while, and I stepped backward onto what I thought was level ground. It turned out to be a collapsed grave with grass that had grown up to ground level. The unexpected level change made me lose my balance, and I reflexively snatched at a pillar-style headstone in front of me. But the pillar turned out not to be fastened down to the base by mortar or metal bars and it tipped right toward me. I felt my ankle give way. I managed to twist a little, and both I and the pillar, which weighed several hundred pounds, landed in the collapsed grave with a thunk.
Darwin thought the pillar had landed on me. It had missed me by a hair. But my ankle was sprained. I couldn't get up at first. We were a gazillion miles from nowhere, and Darwin had visions of trying to carry me to the car. But I managed to stand. My ankle was weak and sore but functional.
The pillar, which was shaped like the Washington Monument and for an 80-year-old grandmother who died 100 years ago, still lay in the indented ground. Darwin and I tried to lift it, but no way. Too heavy, and my ankle was an impediment. Feeling bad about it, we left. What choice did we have?
But a couple days later, we were driving around and passed the graveyard again. My ankle was much improved and Maksim was with us. The pillar was still down. We decided to see if the three of us could right it on its base. And lo, we did it! Granny's grave was restored!
At the end of the week, we came home. It was a nice break!
We rented a cottage up near Harbor Springs for a week. The cottage overlooks Lake Michigan in the northern LP. The cottage was very nice, but not situated as well as we had hoped. It didn't have much a lake view, and to get to the lake, you had to go down many, many wooden steps, which were picturesque but serious work on the way back up! Also, that far north, the lake is still cold and not very swimmable. The beach itself was beautiful, though, and private, with only the occasional bear to keep us company.
It was a relax-acation. We slept late and drove to nearby towns for window shopping and movies and walks on their piers. I picked up some books at a used book sale at the local library and turned down an invitation to appear at a local book festival. (Forty other authors were going to be there, so I'd be one face in a huge crowd, and anyway I've never known book festivals to even pay transportation and hotel costs, let alone noticeably boost sales). We ate a lot of ice cream and I cooked local foods in the cottage's well-appointed kitchen. My mother and her husband Gene came up for an overnight visit as well, and we played euchre well into the night. Later, we hit Mackinaw Island, which is one of our favorite day-
Darwin and I explored a tiny local cemetery at one point and had a misadventure. The cemetery hadn't been mowed a while, and I stepped backward onto what I thought was level ground. It turned out to be a collapsed grave with grass that had grown up to ground level. The unexpected level change made me lose my balance, and I reflexively snatched at a pillar-style headstone in front of me. But the pillar turned out not to be fastened down to the base by mortar or metal bars and it tipped right toward me. I felt my ankle give way. I managed to twist a little, and both I and the pillar, which weighed several hundred pounds, landed in the collapsed grave with a thunk.
Darwin thought the pillar had landed on me. It had missed me by a hair. But my ankle was sprained. I couldn't get up at first. We were a gazillion miles from nowhere, and Darwin had visions of trying to carry me to the car. But I managed to stand. My ankle was weak and sore but functional.
The pillar, which was shaped like the Washington Monument and for an 80-year-old grandmother who died 100 years ago, still lay in the indented ground. Darwin and I tried to lift it, but no way. Too heavy, and my ankle was an impediment. Feeling bad about it, we left. What choice did we have?
But a couple days later, we were driving around and passed the graveyard again. My ankle was much improved and Maksim was with us. The pillar was still down. We decided to see if the three of us could right it on its base. And lo, we did it! Granny's grave was restored!
At the end of the week, we came home. It was a nice break!