On Going To Camp

Like everyone else, I'm rather tired of the heat and humidity. I love summer and I certainly don't want to wish my days away, God knows. But with ALS, the hot sticky weather is very debilitating and I've had to stay inside with the AC running for days on end. And even with the monotonous drone of the air conditioner filling our days, that nasty, thick air works it's evil and saps my strength.

I am, by nature, a fairly even tempered individual. A glass half full kind of person. BUT, after suffering through an intestinal bug, on top of the insufferable weather last week, by Saturday I was some kind of fed up and cranky! I was ready to fire up the Batchair and run over the first person who crossed my path.

Blessedly, by Sunday, the air had changed and we were given the gift of a crystal-clear, crisp and moderately tempered Vermont summer day. Knowing how much I needed a change, my dear husband suggested that we go to camp. So, doing our imitation of the Clampetts, we packed all my necessary gear into the back of the Subaru and headed to Eagleshead Mountain.

It was the most incredible day. The sky was a vibrant shade of robin's egg blue, the deep greens of high summer glistened under a lemon sun, trees danced to the rhythm of a gentle breeze and all was well in my world. While my husband mowed the lawn, I basked in the day, breathing in the sweet fragrance of freshly mown grass as I watched two red tail hawks circling above.

I read for a while and when my husband was done we indulged in pleasant conversation and companionable silences as we listened to the sighing, whispering wind, the rattle and creak of branch against branch and the piercing call of the hawks

I came home calm and renewed.