Off the Grid

So, I’m a day late and about a million dollars short.

Sure, there have been other weekends when I didn’t post until Monday, but I consoled myself that it was a looong weekend so everyone would understand.

Then there are those Sundays when I post late in the evening because I spend several hours wondering exactly what I will write about this week and my faithful readers don’t get the post until Monday anyway.

Then there is this weekend. The beginning of my summer off (off being relative as anyone who knows me knows) since I left teaching six years ago. It is hard to believe that I ever thought that I would NOT need the summer off if my job was easy enough. I have, after 31 years in the workforce realized that no job is easy enough for me to NOT have the summer off. So, I am back to teaching and back to the long stretch of time I get to control called summer vacation.

Which led me to being a day late. because it also led me to think I would like camping. I grew up camping. I should know better, and now I do.

Senility, perhaps it affects different people differently. Like, I keep forgetting what I do and do not like.

I do like summers off.

I do not like hanging out at a wood, splintery picnic table surrounded by dust. The fire was nice last night, the fire smoke I inhaled – not so nice.

So, my excuse for this late post is that yesterday I was off the grid. No internet at your local state park. I’m not sure why. I can go to Starbucks, pay $4 for a coffee and camp there: sleep on the sofa in the corner, clean up in the bathroom and use the internet for free, all while walking across a nice, dust-free tile floor. But I have to pay $35 a night to pad through dust, hike 50 yards a way to use the facilities and sleep on the ground. And there’s no wireless. Wow!

I have also been off the grid with listening for some reason.

Today, hubby asked me if I “like that summer” to which I replied “Of course, why wouldn’t I like summer?” He then pointed to a Hummer and we had to have another conversation.

Earlier he asked me if I was inviting “Tina” to which I stared blankly at him and asked “Tina?” I wondered who he thought I knew.

He enunciated clearly and loudly, “Gina?” you know, like in my better half at work and in laughter. Then we had to have another conversation about why in the world I would think he said Tina and who Tina might be.

Finally, last night as we were trying to sleep in our sleeping bags with the puppy sleeping in between us, Hubby told me, “We’re sleeping in dog poop.”

I must tell you, this is conceivable because puppy had dog food farts.

I sat straight up, visions of smeared poo on my sleeping bag and on my hand if I dared to put it anywhere near me, and yelled, “What? Dog poop? Where?”

Hubby then whispered so he didn’t further wake up the other campers less than twenty feet away in their tent, “Something’s in the dog food.”

What a relief. I laid back down, listened to him throw a soccer ball at the something, which was a skunk and luckily not an easily frightened one (scared skunks = smelly campsite).

Though I am still a bit off the grid when listening to Hubby, “Sure I’d love chocolate yogurt” is my response to anything he says that I don’t quite understand, I am back on the grid for this post.

Lucky me, open my email, read through my rejections, count how I didn’t earn a million dollars today, and realize, I’m a day late and a million dollars short, still. But still plugging away.

This week I will remember that resilience is the key to overcoming adversity, and I think it makes my skillets easy to clean.