I warned you it wasn’t all that grand, even though it’s definitely located in a beautiful place. But yesterday afternoon, I was wondering if it was worth all the work getting here. There had been a week of preparations to leave my home in St Augustine, shutting off mail and newspaper delivery, suspending satellite TV service, cleaning, bringing outdoor furniture inside where it couldn’t do damage if a windy storm blew in, emptying the fridge and the trash, packing my clothes and my car and making certain I had all the stuff I might need with me. Then came two very long days of driving. Ten hours the first day and thirteen the second day. That would usually have been twelve, but a construction tie-up in Pennsylvania kept me in bumper to bumper traffic for over an hour. I had a short but delightful visit at my son’s house, then pushed on to the lake in New Hampshire.

I had two side trips to make; one to Verizon to arrange for my slow but reliable internet connection for the summer and one to pick up replacement heartworm meds that I forgot to bring from home to get Duffy through the summer. Then it was on to the storage unit to pick up my tent and bedding with a stop at the grocery store to stock up at least a few basics in the way of food. Since the cottage is actually on an island, arriving here didn’t mean pulling into the driveway and unlocking the door. It meant unlocking the rowboat, unloading the car and then making three trips across the span of water separating the landing on shore from the dock on the island. It meant spending another whole day erecting my tent and schlepping all my gear from the boat to the tent and setting up my summer digs. So, in the midst of all this work, feeling hot, tired and very grumpy, I wondered if more than a week’s effort was really worth it. I seriously entertained the idea that I was getting too old for this sh@#!

But last night I fell asleep on my extremely comfy double-sized sleeping accommodations consisting of an air-bed topped with an nice thick futon mattress, in a tent with huge windows to let in the cool night air, to the sound of gently lapping water along the island’s shore. And I woke this morning, refreshed and surrounded by all the glory of a beautiful sunny day at the lake. So, now it does feel worth all the effort it took to get here. I still feel old and out of shape, and I really need to do something about that, but my attitude has adjusted itself. Life is definitely very good!