Great Weather and Guilt

Aside from Pam’s unfortunate fall, we are enjoying picture perfect weather. The high temperatures have been in the upper 60’s with bright sunshine. Yesterday we enjoyed a fire down by the lake after an enjoyable trip into Camden for the semi-annual Arts and Crafts show. While Pam’s wrist might be broken, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with her credit card using fingers, which performed at peek efficiency. When we got back to the camp there was a Thank You card from the Chamber of Commerce.

Even though she is doing her best, Pam isn’t able to do many of the things she loves the most here in Maine, and we are both disappointed by this fact. On top of all that is that hardy perennial—guilt. Last night, our son conducted this…

This was his program, six years in the making, originally planned for 2020 and cancelled by COVID. To a packed house, Patrick finally got to conduct the concert on which he had worked so hard. By all accounts it was a smashing success. So, why the guilt? Simple, we weren’t there. Pam had looked into flying from Portland to Nashville as a surprise for him but after the wrist fiasco that was out of the question. This is just one of many disadvantages to living far away from your adult children.

On the plus side, Lucy finally got to go for a swim. Poor Pup has been so confused by all the medical stuff. All she sees is this gorgeous lake and her parents being too distracted to take her swimming! That all changed yesterday with this plunge…

So, we are making adjustments, improvising like a boss, making chicken salad out of chicken, er…manure. The arrival of Paula and Ron, aka, the cavalry, has been a godsend. The wonderful weather also has added much to our ability to cope. Maybe if it was cold and raining every day we would have packed up and headed home.

Out of Surgery. On the Mend.

I took Pam to the Pen Bay Hospital today at 8:00 am for her consultation with a wrist surgeon—a sentence you never plan on writing while on vacation. After an informative and comprehensive discussion of the facts of her accident of Tuesday the 26th, the decision was made to have surgery immediately…as in the next three hours immediately. This news gave us the time to go back to the camp and take Lucy for another bathroom walk. As instructed, I had her back at the surgery center at 11:20 am for all the preliminaries. They were about to wheel her back to the theatre around 1:15. I was told I had 3-4 hours to kill before she would be ready for me to take her home. I drove into Camden in a daze, never before having left her in the hands of a surgeon of any kind, one of life’s many blessings. Nevertheless, I was starving. Traffic in town was horrible since it was Friday, arrival day for the hundreds of tourists eager to see the leaves this time of year. I stayed on as many back streets as I could until I found a place to park, only to discover that there was an hour long wait at my go-to lunch place. I ended up settling for a bowl of chowder at Sea Dog, where Cappy’s used to be. On my way back to the hospital I realized that I was still hungry and I needed some coffee. Then I saw Bleecker and Greer just outside of Rockport, and since local places are always better than national chains, I pulled in and ordered this…

There are a million places like this up here, charming, cozy, and overpriced. This plain cup of drip coffee and a piece of something called Blueberry Ricotta cake set me back $12 bucks. On the other hand its nothing compared to what Pam’s medical bills will be. But right now, money is the last thing on my mind. I’ve probably checked the time on my watch at least a hundred times since I left the hospital. I hate that this has happened to Pam. She has been so very brave,  her Yankee resolve on full display. But I know her and I know how disappointed she is to be out of commission at her favorite place in the world. And because I know her so well, I know that she is probably thinking that she will end up being a burden to me and our guests. Complete and total hogwash, but that’s how she thinks.

Its funny how things work at a time like this. You’re going along without a care in the world then suddenly all your plans vaporize. Among the thousand things that race through your mind after seeing your wife’s wrist creepily askew is the fact that you need to get in touch with some people to let them know what’s happened. Who to call? For me it was a strange mix of family and friends. But it was a reminder of who really is important in your life.

Just about the time I was finishing up that pricey blueberry ricotta I got the call from the doctor. All was well. Pam came through beautifully. She was in recovery and I could come in to see her anytime. I swallowed down the last drop of coffee then made a beeline for the hospital. When I entered her recovery room her eyes were closed and I thought she was still asleep. When I bent over to whisper in her ear she mumbled, “best nap ever…” A few minutes later she went into considerable detail about the fact that her arm was not where it was supposed to be. Even though she could “see it” over there, she felt it way over here. No words of mine could change her mind on the subject so I let it go.

To see her laying there in the bed drifting in and out of coherence and completely vulnerable choked me up, so I quickly sat down in one of then chairs against the wall beside her bed. Then she suddenly announced that she had no idea why, but she felt like crying. So she did. The doctor assured me that everything went perfectly and that she would eventually make a complete recovery. I smiled at him, thanked him for his work and said, “Bless your heart.” He was very nice and professional. What he didn’t know was that had he botched the job I was fully prepared to kill him.

So, we are both back at camp prepared for anything. Up next is plenty of rest and medication to manage her pain and begin to heal. Paula and Ron arrive tomorrow afternoon. It will be nice for Pam to be surrounded by those who love her the most. At some point I will figure out a way to tow her around the lake in our spare kayak. Not sure how she will manage the cross-stitching thing. I may have to hold the frame for her while she stitches one-handed.

Putting the “Fall” Into Our Fall Vacation

Yesterday afternoon Pam and Lucy spent a couple of hours in the backyard on a delightful Fall day in Maine. Pam read a book while Lucy busied herself with finding sticks, mussel shells and rolling around in the grass. Everything felt like a scene from a Hallmark movie, right up until the moment when it didn’t.

These are the entrance steps to the cabin. The first time I saw them a few days ago when we arrived I remember thinking, “that’s odd, where is the third paving stone?”  To enter the house from the back yard you have to come around from the left of these steps. When doing so Pam caught her toe on the raised stone and went sprawling head first into the border stones of the flower bed to the right. The result wasn’t pretty. She somehow made it inside on her own power with an abrasion on her face, another on her chest and her left wrist at an unnatural angle. Even though she was in a lot of pain she somehow had the presence of mind to bark out a series of rational instructions…

1. “Call Tif and ask her for directions to the closest ER.”

2. “I’m going to need help getting out of this long sleeve shirt. They will want me in short sleeves if they have to put me in a cast.”

3. “Probably should go ahead and feed Lucy. We won’t be back in time for her dinner.”

4. “Can you fill up my water bottle?”

5. “How am I going to be able to paddle board and cross-stitch?” (Not in the resigned way of realizing that she would NOT be able to do these things, but rather in the rhetorical question style of How will I manage to do these things considering these new circumstances)

Meanwhile I’m getting queasier and queasier the more I look at the angle of her rapidly swelling wrist. Soon we were on our way to Pen Bay Medical Center where we would spend a little over three hours being expertly treated by a staff of the kindest, most attentive medical professionals you would ever want to encounter while on vacation. I watched my wife endure several extraordinarily painful procedures with a combination of patience and toughness that I could not have managed if my life depended on it. In this way she is exactly like her Dad. There’s something about the Maine in her—no drama, no foolishness. You just screw up some courage and get along with it. 

So, a summary of her condition. She did break her wrist. The doctors were able to stretch the wrist back into a more natural position (which was about as dreadful as it sounds). Then they fitted her with a temporary cast that she will wear for the next few days. We will call an ortho doctor at the hospital today to set an appointment for as soon as possible where he will take another look to determine if her wrist can be set and placed in a more permanent cast, or, whether she will need to have a surgical procedure to insert screws or pins. In the meantime, I am waiting on her every need and both of us are planning on making the most of the situation. We are also thankful that she did not suffer a concussion from the impact of her face on the stones. It could have been much worse. Of course it could have been much better too. It could have been me instead of her. In every way that would have been a better outcome.

When we finally made it home last night and got settled I took this picture…

How is it possible that she could be so beautiful after what she just endured? 

Sunny Pictures and Daughter Day Thoughts

Yesterday the wind blew in from the north. There were whitecaps on the lake. Although the temperature was in the 60’s it felt blustery to this southern boy. So we drove into Camden for blueberry pancakes at the Deli. Afterwards we stopped in the Smiling Cow, chatted with Meg and picked up some gifts for the kids back home. Pam got started on a new cross-stitching project while I was hard at work taking a mid-morning snoozle and an afternoon nipper-napper with Lucy. If this sounds to you like a boring uneventful day, then we can’t be friends. Today promises to be much more physically active. There will be fishing and kayaking. However, since it is currently 42 degrees, the aforementioned activity will have to wait. Yes. I am a thin-blooded southern wimp. Sue me.

I promised you sunny pictures of the place so here they are:

The view from the dock looking north.

The southern view.

The house and the lovely lawn.

The fire pit.

On to other matters. Ok, so last night I pulled up a social media account and was bombarded by photographs of …daughters. It seems that yesterday was National Daughters Day. The first thing that popped into my head was, says who? When did this happen? I don’t remember this actually being a thing. Was there a vote? I have nothing against daughters, mind you, its just that it felt a bit contrived and manipulative, probably a conspiracy cooked up by the greeting card companies—Big Sentiment. I will not be coerced into posting pictures of mine in this space. But I will offer a few words on their behalf. Kaitlin is about the finest human being I know, a brilliant teacher with a first rate mind and a heart full of compassion. She’s smart, witty and the best friend you could ever ask for. Sarah is my daughter-in-law who my son had the good sense to marry. She too is super smart and creative. She has the voice of an angel and makes the most beautiful charcuterie trays known to exist in the free world. Both of them are beautiful, accomplished women. But I don’t need a National Daughter Day to remind me of their worth.

We Made It

The trip took two days. Fourteen and a half hours. It was as uneventful as it could possibly be. When we arrived at Vacationland Lucy was ecstatic. Pam took a video of her excitement from which I captured this shot…

The girl is nine years old and still has hops!

Ok, so what’s this place like? It’s cloudy today so any pictures I take of the lake will not be representative of the beauty here. There is a big lawn that sweeps down a slope to the lake. We’ve never really had a lawn like this in Maine. Lucy loves it, a fence-less place for her to run free. At the edge of the lake is the fire pit, set on a ledge just a couple of feet from the water offering grand views up the lake. This place is almost at the extreme southern edge of Hobbs Pond…

Later today I will put the kayak in the water and paddle the circumference of the place to get my bearings. Pam will drive into Belfast on a grocery run. That’s what is known as the division of labor. In case any of you are thinking it unfair that Pam has to “work” while I am “playing” should remember that over the past two days I did 100% of the driving with zero speeding tickets, moving violations or fatal accidents.

The indoor accommodations are not what we have become accustomed to at Loon Landing and Summer Dreams. But in fairness, nothing could possibly be. Vacationland is much more what I would consider to be the average lake rental. The kitchen is equipped with “silverware” of unknown metallic origin. It kinda feels like metal but bends when you spread peanut butter onto an English muffin. In addition, there is no dishwasher on the premises, leaving us to ponder the cleanliness level of every plate, pan and utensil. All kitchen equipment seems to have been selected from the rejects of the home kitchen of the owner of the place. But, everything else is perfectly fine and acceptable. Our bed is king size and comfortable, the bathroom works perfectly. At the very top end of the positive ledger is this delightful weather forecast…

I cannot wait for those 46 degree mornings.

Tomorrow I will share photographs of the place in glorious sunshine.

October 4, 2023

I remember it like it was yesterday. I sat across a desk from the loan officer at F&M bank in Ashland with my Dad next to me. The dour banker stared down at me, Potter-like, over his bifocals as I signed my name on the papers. It was my very first loan, $5,000, enough to cover tuition and books for one semester at the University of Richmond. Dad was there to co-sign the loan since I was just a student with a part time job. I remember the strange confluence of emotions that accompanied the transaction, that giddy feeling of being a grownup along with nausea at the prospect that I might miss a payment and wind up in jail. I even remember the amount of the payment—$136.00 a month.

Not long after that came more college loans from the Charles B. Keesee Fund, then my first car loan for a two year old VW Scirocco. One year after getting married Pam and I bought our first house for $87,500. Our interest rate was a cool 13.75% and the $900 payment felt terrifying. There would be many more car loans, mortgages and home equity loans to get my kids through college, plus a business loan to purchase an office condo. Somehow I managed to avoid debtors prison.

But in a mere 15 days on October 4th, 2023, while in Maine, I will make my very last mortgage payment. It will be the first time I have been totally debt-free since I was 19 years old. 

It will be a time of celebration but also nostalgia. All of those loans. Hard to believe. I never took out a single loan for anything that I have regretted. Educating my kids—best money I ever spent. Buying my home—great decision. Even buying that hideous cranberry-colored minivan back in the day—a necessity with two kids.

Being debt-free will be great but it will also feel a bit weird. I have spent all of my life under the heavy weight of financial obligation. To a very large degree it has been my single most powerful motivator. It has driven me to succeed since failure to live up to those obligations would have been catastrophic for my family and my reputation. It simply was not an option. I’m wondering what it will feel like to live without the weight. Maybe it will diminish my drive. Perhaps I will flounder without financial urgency. Maybe I will start looking for some new place to spend money.

Wait. I know.

I need grandchildren.

Vacationland

The excitement is starting to build for our next Maine adventure. We leave this Friday morning for our as yet unnamed Fall trip of 2023. There are a couple of things about this upcoming vacation which make it unique. First of all, we will be staying at a new camp on a lake we haven’t been on since 2016. The name of the place is Vacationland and it's on Hobbs Pond. It features a really big back yard that slopes down to the water along with a fire pit right on the edge of the lake…

The observant reader will have no doubt noticed that the gas grill on the expansive back deck features 5 burner elements. Also, I’m loving that two seater swing down at the water’s edge. This lake is closer to Camden than almost every other place we’ve stayed, only a 15 minute drive. The closest general store is in the town of Hope just a few minutes down the road.

The second thing that makes this trip unique is that for one of the three weeks my sister Linda and her husband Bill will be with us, along with Paula and Ron. Bill and Linda have never been to Maine so we get to be their tour guides for the week. Nothing makes us happier than introducing people we love to this amazing place.

Wait…what does this place look like on the inside? Almost forgot…

Yeah, I’m thinking we will be happy here.