Making the best of Vacation

Last week was the week that I always go up to the camp in Maine. This year was a bit different for two reasons. The first being that it was the first one in a long time that my sister and nieces weren't able to come up from Tennessee. Since Jeanne was out of work for 12 weeks with her surgery, she has to build up her time off and spare change fund :) We certainly missed them and I know they missed being able to come as well.

The weather was also a major bummer. As I complained about earlier...we just have had so much rain. Last week the weather was gray and gloomy with pretty much a high of 62, except for Friday when Auntie and I actually caught some rays. We kept turning the chairs to get every last bit of it. The rain and cold didn't keep the boys away from the water though as you can see. I also got to have my niece for a couple of days and she was right there with them in the water. Auntie even went in one day...claiming the water always feels warmer when it is cold out. Needless to say, I did not make my swim across the lake. I will wait for a much longer string of warm weather.

This was a big catch of the week. They did get bigger ones, but mostly sunfish. Those suckers were just sucking off the worm as soon as we put it in. It seems the bass are eating all the fish. It used to be we would throw out the line and get hornpout after hornpout, but we haven't seen one in years.

The month of crappy weather we have had also meant wet wood...so no campfires. Who can go up to camp and no marshmellow or s'mores. We made do. We used the microwave. I have done them many times with my students in summer school. They were Yum-O if you ask me. Did you ever see a marshmellow blow up...a fun one for the kids to watch.

Oh, I have to add a third difference. We do not have cable in Maine. We have always had about three channels. Channel 13 was the clearest, but of course had all of those crime shows I can't stand and that are not good for the kids to see anyway, unless I want them both sleeping with us in the full size bed. Then we got a PBS like channel and ABC but it was scrambled. Then we brought up my Dad's TV and ABC became unscrambled but we lost Channel 13. AFter Jim redid the roof and unhooked and reattached the antenna on the roof...we lost all channels...only to be reminded from Auntie about the digital transition. The TV is good, but the antenna is a problem. So we pretty much watch a movie each night after the kids went to bed...hint to all...library...that was where I got most of the movies we watched. The no TV thing was a killer to Jim. I was really hoping to be able to get direct tv here and then bring a receiver and dish up to the camp...two birds with one bill :) but we have toooooo many freaken trees. So bumming.

We did not get to any fireworks. We went riding in the day and got wet, wet, wet. Jim wanted to take the loooonnnnnnngggggg way home so it was late by the time we got back. The paper said there weren't any in town until the 18th, but there was...we didn't want to drive the further distance into Gorham so the boys did sparklers...and really didn't ask about fireworks anyway. We'll catch some soon.