#307 - Cottage Week

I managed to sleep in until ten AM. And after staying up until three thirty AM, it felt like I hadn’t slept at all.

But it was the day we headed to the cottage, and I still had to finish packing my things and gathering items still left unchecked on my list. I started by grabbing my laundry from the dryer in the basement and packing all my clothes.

Next, I tackled all the frozen goods and put them into a cooler, followed by the refrigerated items into a second cooler. I loaded the coolers into my car first as they are the heaviest things we will be transport other than ourselves.

I stacked Robyn and my own luggage in next and filled the rest of the space with grocery bags of food and drinks. I brought two cases of Perrier and a case of Dr. Pepper Zero for myself and for Robyn a 24 case of Diet Coke. I would like to drink more water this week to help my body recover while I am off.

The kids packed their car with all the things the wanted and needed for the trip. With the second car added we didn’t have to worry about finding places to pack things. I probably didn’t need my cargo carrier with the second car. But I added the usual items up there. The hammock and the water bag. The water bag contains all our floaties, water shoes, mosquito masks and some sunscreen. Sometimes I have an electric pump in there as well to make my life a little easier.

We left exactly when we had planned to, at eleven thirty and made our way to the nearest Tim Hortons. Three out of four of us can’t go anywhere in a car with their Tim Horton’s. Guess which one of the four I am.

There was a Dollarama Store in the same plaza and knowing how painfully long it takes to go through a Tim Hortons drive-thru, Robyn and I made a detour to buy some chocolate bars. It’s nice to have something a little sweet at the cottage and it’s a pain to get it as we’d have to drive twenty minutes into town to find anything.

We finally got on the highway, and Google Maps took us a different way than usual that turned out to be a lot less stressful than being on the 401 for a long stretch. It took us through Kleinberg on the 25 to the 400 North bypassing most of the crazy longweekend traffic. I don’t know if we saved anytime, but the detour through Kleinberg was lovely. It looked like a really nice town.The main street was very quaintly dotted with little shops and restaurants.

Some other time, we might stop there and have some lunch.

But we were on course to stop a Weber’s Grill off the 11 in Orillia. It’s become a family tradition that we all look forward to. We made it to Weber’s in decent time arriving at 2:30 PM and since I had skipped breakfast, I was more than ready to eat something.

We all got cheeseburgers and fries except for Robyn who always gets a plain hamburger. Kiddo #2 and I both got chocolate shakes as well. The have great shakes there.

We were back on the road for another our and a half. The second stretch of the road is a more peaceful drive with less traffic and more trees. The roads rise and fall and twist and turn which makes the driving more interesting.

We arrived at the cottage around four forty-five and noticed Bill and Anne, the cottage owners had a little tent up with garage sale items on display.

It felt great to finally be here. I was exhausted from writing last nihgt, the lack of sleep and the long drive and the general stress of travelling. Everyone knew what to do and the kids no longer need to be told to help. We all pitched in and in no time the cars were emptied, and all the groceries were put away.

All the windows were closed and the cottage felt hot and stuffy. I cracked open a few windows and the door to the screened in porch to get some air flowing.

The owner Bill came over to greet us and update us on things. He mentioned that his wife Anne, a sweet lady, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and was remitted into care. They had noticed that she was forgetting things for some time but just chalked it up to old age. Bill is turning ninety-five this year. He’s walking with a cane now and seems to be slowing down a bit. His daughter, who recently lost her husband had moved in with Bill. I was glad to hear that he wasn’t lining here all alone.

The news explained the garage sale and why I hadn’t seen the complimentary maple syrup on the kitchen table this year. Sounds like they have had more than enough to deal with over the last year. Bill thought he would likely be selling the place in a year or two depending on how things went. Neither his son or daughter have any interest in living here or running the place.

Bill seemed to be taking it all in stride, keeping a positive attitude. He visits Anne everyday at three, since she is in a facility not to far from the cottage.

Once Bill sells the property it is unlikely that we will be able to come back here. It has become our little sanctuary. A place where we can recover and Bill and Anne were a part of what made this place so great. I hope Anne does well and Bill continues to take things in stride in his practical way.

Robyn and the kids immediately changed into their swimsuits and jumped into the lake. The day had been warm, about 29C to 31C all day. Even the breeze felt hot.

I was overheated from the unpacking, yet I couldn’t muster the energy to put on my swimsuit. I lay down on the bed and shut my eyes. By the time I got out of the bed, every9one was done with swimming and back up at the cottage.

My body definitely felt warm after the short nap, and I decided the best way to cool down and refresh myself was to take a dip in the lake. A massive thunderclap rumbled through the sky and some drops of rain began to fall.

Undeterred, I headed for the dock, grabbed a floaty and waded into the freezing cold water. My body was so overheated that I thought I was taking a polar bear plunge. But in a moment the all the heated started bleeding from me and I was content to float there.

I didn’t stay out too long, just long enough that I was starting to feel cold. Heading back up the short walk to the cottage with a towel wrapped around me, I joined Robyn out on the screened in porch. The cool air against my damp skin felt good. I sat in a cushioned wicker chair and closed my eyes. The lake may have refreshed me, but I was still dog tired.

I change clothes and headed back to the room to take another nap.

It’s only day one and I have already taken two naps.

I passed out until about nine PM when I smelled something burning. The kids were in the kitchen making us dinner. Another unusual treat for me at the cottage. A dinner I didn’t have to make. They made the spaghetti and fried up some ground beef to add to the jar of sauce we brought. It was a small dinner because the package of spaghetti was small. But it hit the spot and I was thankful for it non-the-less. It was a decent meal, but not enough to satisfy me. In their defence, I ate my food faster than an inmate at Folsom Prison. I grabbed a bag of Sour cream and onion chips and Dr. Pepper and moved into one of the living room chairs. I set up my iPad with a connection to the little TV the owners provided and played an episode of Lucky from the Apple TV app.

The episode was a bit of a downer filled with unrealistic chase scenes, plenty of yelling and screaming and some setups that took us out of the story. Which was too bad since it had been pretty good up until that point.

The rain was coming down in buckets at that point, so I found a documentary about the bombing of a Pan AM flight over Lockerby in the UK. It didn’t seem like the right kind of show for our first night at the cottage. Robyn and I both agreed we would be better served to read and for me to start writing for the day. I hadn’t yet written a word for the August day one of the challenge. I didn’t want to start the month off in a deficit, particularly after what I went through this week making up the quota in massive writing session that went into the early mornings.

Kiddo #1 has the upstairs room and disappeared up there to play video games on her iPad. Kiddo #2 got all dressed up, mosquito net and all to go look for frogs in the dark rainy night. It’s a thing he likes to do. He takes photos of them and shows them to Robyn.

When he returned, he got into one of the Sudoku books. I think he may have found his newest obsession. He’s sitting at the kitchen table; ear phoned head bent in concentration.

The tracking Google Sheet I use needed to be updated. I always forget to make the next month’s entry. I took a break from writing to get this all-in place. At this point I have all the formulas in working, so it’s not the worst thing to do. I just needed to do some copy and pasting and the group the previous month’s entry so I can collapse the cells and keep them out of the way.

And if I can state a goal here; I plan to meet the daily quota ever single day this month. It can’t be any harder than the grueling week I’ve had getting over thirty thousand words written in a single week. Never again! Again!

I’ve said this almost every month since January. Maybe it has finally sunk in this time. I just need to remember the pain of this week every time I think I can let things slide. I will give no ground this month!

And, since I have to write my mentor assignment tomorrow there is a good chance that I will get a head of the quota for once. And that would be an amazing feeling. I certainly have the time this week to do a little extra.

The weather is forecast to be rainy this week where we are, so there may be more inside the cabin stuff to do that normal. Which is all good for me.

My plan for tomorrow is to write and nap all day. I’ll start much earlier than usual and use the naps to help my brain come up with the next part of the story or to figure out how it all ends. I won’t have anytime to read until the assignment is done and sent.

It’s unlikely that I will be in full cottage mode until Monday. Then the real vacation begins for me.

I suppose the theme of August is all about discipline and implementing the things I have learned while excising the things that aren’t working for me. Writing in chucks feels good and seems to be working. It’s less stressful but also harder to schedule when I am busy. Long bursts have their place. They can be incredibly valuable, particularly when the writing is going well. Stopping would be a crime.

It’s been a day. Its been a week and a month.

I’m glad the day has finally arrived for us to be here.

I feel like I am going to bed early, it’s only twelve thirty at night.

Until tomorrow.