Day: July 16, 2012

Unpacking My Brain

By / July 16, 2012

I am so very tired tonight. Five days of family activities, most of those nights short on sleep, a morning of making breakfast followed by scouring the cabin to remove all signs of human habitation. Oh, and then a four hour road trip to get home. About an hour after I got here my brain went out of gear and instead of unpacking and organizing, I just stopped. Fortunately I am familiar enough with exhaustion to not believe much of what my brain tells me. The various fears, anxieties, and despairs are mirages that will vanish in the morning. If there is any piece of it that does not vanish, there is plenty of time to handle it later.

The drive home was mostly quiet. We did get to drive through an impressive deluge, which managed to slough away the coating of mud that our van acquired by driving through a muddy deluge on the day we arrived. The entire weekend had intermittent rain. It was lovely though hard to appreciate on Saturday morning when the activity plans had to be adjusted because of the rain. One of the things that I noticed on the drive home was how interconnected all the highways and freeways are. It makes sense. They’re supposed to connect, but the third time I passed a sign indicating that I could turn there to reach Capitol Reef National Park, I really had a sense that the highways are a giant grid laid across the land and there are a dozen ways to get anywhere. Driving on the smaller highways was fun. It made me want to take more trips.

Tomorrow I will sleep until I am done sleeping. Then I will try to find enough focus to get work done. I have mailing to do and a back yard breakfast I’m helping host on Saturday.

Pretty things at a Family Reunion

By / July 17, 2012

This post was originally written on Saturday July 14, but internet at the cabin was too sporadic and slow to support uploading pictures. I am now home and can post the entry.

For me the biggest advantage of this family reunion location is that the cabin is surrounded by trees and the trees are home to wildlife. When the cabin is too packed with voices, I can step outside. The trees are a huge reservoir of peace. I am refreshed and then ready for people again. Sometimes I take my camera with me when I go walking.

This is an extremely settled forest. Every place I walk has signs of human habitation, usually a cabin and associated landscaping, but if I face just right I can pretend I am far away from all people.

The animals have adapted to all the cabins and humans. This marmot makes his home under a shed.

The wildlife are encouraged. Here is the squirrel who politely posed for my photography efforts.

The squirrel also held still for child photographers.

On the third day of reunion my introvert kids are beginning to exhibit strain from all the togetherness. I’m spending more time helping make sure that they find quiet spaces. I try to get them outdoors too. Sometimes we find truly lovely places, like Duck Creek Pond. We brought bread to feed the ducks, but these are not city ducks and did not come flocking at the sight of thrown bread. Gleek was patient and managed to convince a duck to eat some.

This trip showed to me once again that the natural world is a huge stress sink for me in much the same way that some machinery has a heat sink. In the forest there is so much space that my stress can not stretch far enough to cover it. It thins out and I am restored. I don’t have a forest back home, but I do have a garden. I should remember to spend more time in it.

Adventures on the Way to Church

By / July 16, 2012 / 1 Comment

It turns out that going to church near a national forest can be more adventuresome than one might expect. We knew we were going to have to drive forty minutes to get there. We also knew that the congregation itself is a seasonal one, run by locals and attended by people like us who were vacationing in the area. The kids were quite enamored of the fact that many folks attend in blue jeans and camp clothes rather than the usual Sunday clothing. So we set off with some verbal instructions, half expecting to get a little lost on the way.

We did not expect the stowaway Chipmunk.

Kiki saw him first and gasped. The rest of us tried to figure out what was wrong with her and all she could do was point out the windshield. Then we all saw him. He popped out of the crack between the hood and the windshield. He ran across the top of the hood. He dove back into the crack, obviously trying to find a way off of this crazy fast-moving contraption. My brother-in-law, who was driving, did a marvelous job of not crashing the car while distracted by chipmunk.

The little guy must have climbed into the engine while the car was parked outside the cabin. Then when the engine heated up, he emerged where we could see him. We found a safe place to stop on the little mountain road. There was some debate over whether it was possible to return him home, but trying to catch a chipmunk in a car engine seemed likely doomed to failure. He hid the moment we opened the hood.

Then he scampered down into the engine. Moments later we saw him dashing for the trees at the side of the road. Hopefully he likes his new home.

But that was not all. There were also sheep.

We sat for a good five minutes while a huge flock was herded around us and off down the road. It was fascinating. When we opened the windows for a better look, several of the sheep stopped and stared at us as if they expected food to materialize from the open windows. The kids were delighted to discover that sheep would baa back if they made the sound first.

We did eventually get to church and the meeting was lovely. For the rest of the weekend we were on the watch for stowaway chipmunks, but he was the only one. Which is probably best as we didn’t really sign up to be a chipmunk relocation service.