Friday, May 20, 2005
May long weekend...
You know, I used to really like the long weekends. It meant an extra day of loafing around, walking the dog, visiting my parents, driving my Tiny Car all around and possibly shopping. And lots of television and napping with cats and general relaxation you can’t beat with a stick.
The long weekends have ceased to be at all anything remotely approaching relaxing. The long weekends, under the Era of Rob, are camping weekends. And as if camping weren’t stressful enough all by itself, what with bears and insects and cold cold nights, and scavenging for food, and being left all by myself while Rob goes off to play with the boys (ok, I’m left with the girls, so it’s not that bad, but STILL), and the putting up with drunken snoring every night, the week PRIOR to camping is also extra stressful because camping preparations have to take place in order to enable you to go stressfully camping.
This week has been a long, busy week. It has been too much, frankly, and although I have seen most of the shows I keep track of, I have not seen them in a relaxed fashion and I feel as though I’ve missed an important part of something. These are season finales! I mean, I’m seeing them, but my brain is so full of other stuff, including stupid work, that I’m not sure it’s sinking in at all. I used to love May sweeps. Not as much as, say, November sweeps, but still, it’s sweeps so what can you do? This time around, sweeps have just made me feel like I’m inadequate because I’m not enjoying them to the fullest extent possible. Whatever.
That being said, we’re sort of on our way to being ready to go camping. I remember the long-past days when camping involved a tent. You’d figure out what food you wanted to have ready for the weekend or week or however long you’re going, and you’d pack some clothes, and you’d get the emergency camping kit from the front hall closet and you’d throw the tent in the car. And that would be it, because you drive to wherever you stop, and you either tent there, or you hike in to your campsite with your tent, and that’s just it. You stored your food up a tree so the bears didn’t get it. You slept on a foamie in a sleeping bag. And that was all there was to it. There was no elaborate fixing and cleaning of a structure you toted on the back of a truck with you. There was no elaborate meal-planning, there was no packing of games and televisions and various video-playback devices. There were no radios, there were no heaters. There was just a tent, with you in it. Sure, you would hate to forget your pocket knife or your flashlight, but that’s the way those things went.
These days, camping is a big deal. Like I said, we’ve spent most of the past week getting ready to go. Well, Rob has, anyway. I have mostly been doing laundry and cleaning and stuff. I packed the cats over to my parents’ place this morning, which was interesting. I managed to stuff Caspar in a crate, but unfortunately, Tobey witnessed the deal so the jig was up and he wasn’t about to stick around and be next. Tobey is smarter than most horror-flick characters. He hot-footed it upstairs and hid behind the sofas, alternating between one and the other depending on which one I was at. Eventually, he made an ill-advised break for it and I was able to nab him. Only, see, Smudge was watching. She figured if I was chasing him, she should run away from me, too. She hid downstairs for a while until I caught on to the fact that she wasn’t on the first floor, after calling “here Smudgy! Come on, cut me some slack!” for about five minutes. She wasn’t too hard to catch, though, so after a couple more minutes, we were on our way. Rumble doesn’t need to be crated because he actually likes the car and enjoys looking out the windows and seeing what’s going on.
So I dropped them off and all is well. I gave my mother instructions on feeding them and how to give Rumble his heart pills. I then came into work to find my e-mail not functioning correctly. The issue sort of resolved itself by the time I had to go to my doctor’s appointment, though, so that’s kind of good.
Rob is beside himself. It’s about 1p here now, and he wants to get home so he can finish getting us ready to roll. In a way, I’m really looking forward to it because part of me thinks this will be really fun. The other part of me is totally dreading it, but I think those two parts of myself war over every little thing. I bought myself some books, so I can always read for three days. We have some reasonable food to eat, so that should work out alright. And the doggies will be there to play with and talk to, so I shouldn’t get too lonely. Cross your fingers for me and have great long weekends yourselves…
The long weekends have ceased to be at all anything remotely approaching relaxing. The long weekends, under the Era of Rob, are camping weekends. And as if camping weren’t stressful enough all by itself, what with bears and insects and cold cold nights, and scavenging for food, and being left all by myself while Rob goes off to play with the boys (ok, I’m left with the girls, so it’s not that bad, but STILL), and the putting up with drunken snoring every night, the week PRIOR to camping is also extra stressful because camping preparations have to take place in order to enable you to go stressfully camping.
This week has been a long, busy week. It has been too much, frankly, and although I have seen most of the shows I keep track of, I have not seen them in a relaxed fashion and I feel as though I’ve missed an important part of something. These are season finales! I mean, I’m seeing them, but my brain is so full of other stuff, including stupid work, that I’m not sure it’s sinking in at all. I used to love May sweeps. Not as much as, say, November sweeps, but still, it’s sweeps so what can you do? This time around, sweeps have just made me feel like I’m inadequate because I’m not enjoying them to the fullest extent possible. Whatever.
That being said, we’re sort of on our way to being ready to go camping. I remember the long-past days when camping involved a tent. You’d figure out what food you wanted to have ready for the weekend or week or however long you’re going, and you’d pack some clothes, and you’d get the emergency camping kit from the front hall closet and you’d throw the tent in the car. And that would be it, because you drive to wherever you stop, and you either tent there, or you hike in to your campsite with your tent, and that’s just it. You stored your food up a tree so the bears didn’t get it. You slept on a foamie in a sleeping bag. And that was all there was to it. There was no elaborate fixing and cleaning of a structure you toted on the back of a truck with you. There was no elaborate meal-planning, there was no packing of games and televisions and various video-playback devices. There were no radios, there were no heaters. There was just a tent, with you in it. Sure, you would hate to forget your pocket knife or your flashlight, but that’s the way those things went.
These days, camping is a big deal. Like I said, we’ve spent most of the past week getting ready to go. Well, Rob has, anyway. I have mostly been doing laundry and cleaning and stuff. I packed the cats over to my parents’ place this morning, which was interesting. I managed to stuff Caspar in a crate, but unfortunately, Tobey witnessed the deal so the jig was up and he wasn’t about to stick around and be next. Tobey is smarter than most horror-flick characters. He hot-footed it upstairs and hid behind the sofas, alternating between one and the other depending on which one I was at. Eventually, he made an ill-advised break for it and I was able to nab him. Only, see, Smudge was watching. She figured if I was chasing him, she should run away from me, too. She hid downstairs for a while until I caught on to the fact that she wasn’t on the first floor, after calling “here Smudgy! Come on, cut me some slack!” for about five minutes. She wasn’t too hard to catch, though, so after a couple more minutes, we were on our way. Rumble doesn’t need to be crated because he actually likes the car and enjoys looking out the windows and seeing what’s going on.
So I dropped them off and all is well. I gave my mother instructions on feeding them and how to give Rumble his heart pills. I then came into work to find my e-mail not functioning correctly. The issue sort of resolved itself by the time I had to go to my doctor’s appointment, though, so that’s kind of good.
Rob is beside himself. It’s about 1p here now, and he wants to get home so he can finish getting us ready to roll. In a way, I’m really looking forward to it because part of me thinks this will be really fun. The other part of me is totally dreading it, but I think those two parts of myself war over every little thing. I bought myself some books, so I can always read for three days. We have some reasonable food to eat, so that should work out alright. And the doggies will be there to play with and talk to, so I shouldn’t get too lonely. Cross your fingers for me and have great long weekends yourselves…
