Relative Something

It is Memorial Day weekend and Cyndie and I have gone “to the lake.” Those three words contain so much information, for those who know the tradition. For many years, when I was growing up, that phrase meant lake Mille Lacs, the walleye capital of the world. Dad had a fishing cabin on the north side of the lake. I haven’t done much fishing myself as an adult and these days the lake place that is my target is Round Lake in Wisconsin, where the fishing is dwarfed by the pontoon party boats, jet skis, and speed boats pulling skiers, wakeboards, or tubes.

My view upon waking.

It is work weekend at Wildwood. Time for all the families to gather for the first time since Labor Day last fall and be surprised by how much the kids have grown. We clean the beach and bring out all the water toys and lounge chairs, sweep off the tennis courts, and plant some flowers by the lodge. Then sit down to a celebration dinner together that truly kicks off the season of summer events at our vacation home association.

Yesterday, while the peak weekend traffic was lined up to get out of town, I was taking a nap at home and Cyndie was doing a few chores. I’ve changed from my former pattern of scrambling to be one of the first ones on the front edge of that traffic to being one of the last ones. I am finding much joy in the more leisurely pace. We set out on the 3-hour drive just after 8:30 p.m. with the top down in the Mustang and the sky smeared with some lazy looking clouds that provided a nice sky at dusk for a backdrop. There was no evidence of any traffic backup remaining and we sailed along at our own pace pretty much the whole way. At the gas stop we made, the top went back up to keep out the evening chill, but when we finally arrived and climbed out of the car just before midnight, it certainly wasn’t cold.

We are at the lake. Well worth the minor inconvenience of driving up in the dark of night. Everyone here was down for the night when we arrived. We carried our stuff in as quietly as possible, dumped it in piles and joined them in slumber; after I quietly ran through a song that I am trying to memorize with my Baby Taylor guitar. Right before sleep, helps the remembering. Ultimately, the reward is in being able to wake up and already be in this special place. Now it’s time to do some chores.