Five More Months

February 1st has arrived and with it comes an opportunity for me to check January off the list of months I have to live through before I get to go to Maine. It’s the fourth such month I’ve checked off since last we left—leaving five more to go. After February gets checked off, we’ll be closer to going than we are from leaving—always a happy occasion.

Please don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean to suggest that our life here at home is something simply to be endured while waiting around for Maine. Far from it. I love Short Pump and am thankful for all the special things and people that make it our home. But, Maine is the reward, the reason why I work. 

This year we will spend six weeks on Quantabacook, from the 9th of July through the 19th of August. The first two weeks Pam and I will stay at Summer Dreams, an adorable camp we stayed for two weeks last summer and fell in love with. Then on the 22nd of July we will move six houses down the lake to our favorite cabin in all of Maine, Loon Landing. For those four weeks we will have guests at some point. Kaitlin and Jon will come to visit, maybe Patrick and Sarah. Six weeks is a long time, but flies by in an instant.

Right now the place is under a 20 inch blanket of snow, the beautiful lake a massive block of ice. The temperatures will be in single digits for another couple of months. But slowly but surely, the warmth will return. Sometime in the month of April, the ice will implode on itself, collapsing into the depths. The trees will begin to bud, the grass will grow. Then all the shops in Camden will open for business, in every window sill, every pot and hanging from every street lamp flowers will appear. The Smiling Cow, Once a Tree, RiverDucks Ice Cream will all spring back to life. And we will be there, eager to hand over our money.

Five more months.