Relative Something

It is a challenge for me to follow yesterday’s fantastic contribution from Elysa, but the show must go on, and so I will type a few words and see what comes. I’m lucky to be typing anything at all, because I am so exhausted by a day filled with more chores than I imagined possible yesterday. We are up at the lake, tending to end of summer tasks, but I am feeling like it is just the beginning of a month of weekend days filled with similar kinds of exercise, with our impending move on the horizon.

The day started with cleaning out the garage and storage space under the little cabin. That involved pulling everything out and making a big mess in the driveway. There was a fair amount of stuff that was being stored for no logical reason, other than that no one had bothered to discard it yet. There were also some things that had just lost their luster, and deserved to be re-purposed.

We made multiple drives to the dumpster on the property; some in haste, to get things out of sight before a certain someone expressed sentimental value and tried to hang on to an item that otherwise deserved to go. Once the space was cleared out and cleaned, we had room to store the giant rafts that were about to be brought in from the swimming area.

When Cyndie and I arrived on Friday, we learned that her brother had contributed some additional floatation modules to the trampoline rafts that we anchor in the swimming area all summer long. His company makes the rafts, and there had been a business acquisition, so we were getting a little demonstration of the new product.

I heard the kids referring to the monstrosity as, “raftzilla.” It was said with affection, and the non-stop, day-long shrieks and giggles emanating from the lake –for three days straight– were testament to the level of satisfaction they held for the added pieces.

But they didn’t have to spend the entire afternoon getting it dismantled and prepared for winter storage.

In all fairness, the young ones that were capable, were enlisted to take a turn at scrubbing down the accumulations of mold and slime that grow on the surface of things in the lake. But their shifts were pretty short, especially compared to the effort put in by a handful of us adults. By the end of the day, my feet were complaining and the rest of me was just plain out of gas.

It’s a good thing that today is a holiday. I’m going to need a rest.

Happy Labor Day!