You ever have the kind of day that just makes you grateful to be alive?  Everything is beautiful, you feel good, no aches or pains and the weather seems to be cooperating and food even tastes better?  Friday was that kind of day for us and we haven’t had one like that in a long time…way too long.  

We woke to blue skies and warm sun shining in the windows of the Bluebird waking us from an unusually peaceful slumber  There haven’t been many days this summer (and I use the term ‘summer’ loosely) when it’s been warm enough first thing in the morning to put shorts on but I did that day.  My coffee was the perfect brew, I like my java like I like my men, strong, creamy, sweet and thick with the ability to get me moving…on several levels but we won’t get into my bathroom habits tonight.  

While Heiny did some piddling around on the cabin I read a magazine and did crossword puzzles, helping him intermittently as he needed my assistance.  He likes it when I can anticipate his needs and like a great OR nurse I have the tools and vital fluids (beer in his case) ready before he asks for them.  Once we get to the interior there will be more for me to do but for now I am little more than his gopher/holder/cook/bottle opener.  We make a good team.   

Later while he split some firewood I chopped some kindling…seriously I work harder there than I do at home….or at work.  It does not do my body any favors to be hacking up cedar (or anything else for that matter) but I wanted to impress my man with my axe wielding prowess like he was impressing me with his.  It was getting very hot out as we watched each other work up a sweat.  Ha!  Not likely.

After lunch we decided to go for a dip.  We didn’t even wait half an hour, we’re rebels that way.  Since we were the only ones out there my husband simply stripped off all of his duds and proudly hung his gear in the wind as we walked down to the dock.  I know there is a great feeling of liberty that comes with nudity but for me there is also the fear of someone seeing my wobbly bits or worse with a camera and the internet.  I practice my nekkidness more carefully.  I remove my bathing suit when I am in the water so that I may enjoy the freedom of swimming unrestrained and unfettered.  Skinny (fluffy?!) dipping is absolutely on my list of top ten most enjoyable nudist activities although it really isn’t skinny dipping if you’re not nude so it can’t really be a clothing optional activity.  But I digress.  We swam until my husband wigged out at the size of the fish beneath us, I think he feared they’d mistake his winkie for a grub.  Fortunately he is not the kind of kinky fucker who’d be thrilled to get a mouth wrapped around his worm…any mouth.  Gross.  

Since I don’t really have any dangly bits I wasn’t too concerned with all of the squawfish around the dock so I took the opportunity to laze in the water and soak in as much vitamin D as I could, careful not to burn anything that is not used to solar exposure.  Once I was sufficiently chilled and refreshed (it is glacial water) I had my husband hold the towel for me so that even if someone was peeking from behind a shrubbery somewhere (paparazzi maybe??!!) that they’d not be given an opportunity to see anything naughty or wobbly.  Heiny however only used the towel to dry his face and he hung his boys in the breeze and strutted back up to camp.  I have to say that the best part of his nudity is the little white bum that is so prominent when the rest of him is so tanned.  I really dig his heiny.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards and simply enjoying the peace and our time alone together in our happy place.  There was a christening of the cabin but details are not forthcoming…I’ve already freaked people out about the picnic table, I don’t want them to be afraid of the cabin too.  

It was one of those days that are rare but you know that it will stay with you as a very pleasant memory for a very long time.  I am thankful we had that because it appears there are some dark days ahead.  There have been more cutbacks where my husband works and he is now being bumped to the shittiest job in the mill and he’ll be doing it for less money.  It’s the position where they put the strapping young bucks because they have all of the braun and energy and not much brain or pain of age to know that what they are doing is grunt shit work.  He is getting old and he will seriously suffer at and hate such back breaking work.  He has an option to take a voluntary layoff which means they will continue his benefits for six months but he will be without a job.  This would be fine if he had somewhere else to go but at the moment there is nothing.  Again we don’t really want to leave here, especially now that we (almost) have our cabin built, not that we can make that a priority when our priority when our choices are so limited.  The other shitty thing about moving is that with about 150 employees now out of work the housing market is suddenly flooded and there is no way in the current climate that we’d get anywhere near what our home is worth…if we could sell it at all.  

I’ve been working hard to reduce my stress and worry levels this summer, my new mantra (thank you Jeremy) is “let it go” and I have been pretty successful at doing so.  I am learning to not get worked up about things that are out of my control and I have been feeling lighter without the weight of the planet on my back.  Now however the strain has returned along with a headache, anxiety and fear.  I know we’ll be ok, we always are, I’m just ready for the road to ok to stop being so fucking bumpy.

Speaking of bumps in the road and on a lighter note…in my previous post I casually mentioned the ground squirrels that entertain me at the lake.  Well it seems that one (Stubby, the short tailed one) decided he needed a road trip.  It’s a forty minute drive from the cabin to the house and when we came home on Sunday he hitched a ride.  The second the truck stopped we saw our little stowaway bolt from under the vehicle and right toward the shed where he quickly found a pile of lumber to hide beneath.    The poor little bugger looked scared shitless.  I looked at my husband and said, “He followed us home, can we keep him?”

There are so many cats, coyotes, hawks and eagles in this area that the poor little thing won’t have a popcicle’s chance in Hades of surviving here.  We aren’t very far from the lake but the conditions on the island are obviously more conducive to the critters survival as we always see them there and we never have any here…unless they happen to hijack a pickup to go on an adventure.  I have decided I will go all Marlon Perkins and trap the ground squirrel and return him to his natural habitat tomorrow when we go back out for the weekend.  

I know how to catch a squirrel

Climb up a tree and act like a nut.

But how do you catch a ground squirrel?

Climb into a bucket and show him your nuts?

I think I’ll try the peanut butter in a five gallon pail trick (like the homemade mousetrap without the water) and slap a lid on him.  Don’t worry I will put some holes in the lid and food in the bucket (I have been feeding him fruit and veggies all week so he hasn’t had to go foraging…into my garden!).  My mom thought it might be a little uncomfortable for him in such a small space (she has claustrophobia issues) but I imagine his ride here under a hot dusty truck, dodging moving parts was no picnic in the park either.  The bucket will be like first class compared to his last voyage.

I can’t help but wonder however if the chipper is some kind of sign.  Like maybe it’s the universe telling us to be brave, take some chances, make a move and make the best of it even if it’s scary or perhaps not the optimal situation.  Then again it could be a sign that if we leave the safety and security of the life we know we could be lunch.  I wish the universe would be more clear.