It has been more than a week since I’ve written a blog and I’m feeling a bit out of practice. I just can’t seem to pinpoint one specific subject to write about.
So, if you’ll bear with me, I’ll write about several.
Since last I blogged, I turned another year older. Pastor Braun asked if I was going to mention it in the paper — he was even willing to help me write something — but birthday No. 41, other than falling on an absolutely gorgeous, record-breaking heat wave of a day, was quiet and enjoyable. There was a birthday lunch, a birthday supper and even a birthday song serenade over the telephone, thanks to the little Buntjers from Fairmont. Best of all, I avoided the birthday spankings — not to mention the pinch to grow an inch and the sock to grow a block — although I’m sure nephews Blake and Reece will do what they can to remedy that the next time they come for a visit. Payback isn’t pleasant!
My Honor Flight IV scrapbook is coming along, finally. A three-day weekend helped, but I lost valuable time trying to get a few movie rentals to work in my DVD player (I was in need of a little noise in the house by Sunday afternoon). There was one trip to the store for a new battery for the remote, followed by several attempts to make the machine work, and finally, another trip to the store for a new DVD player.
While my weekend movie rentals were a bit disappointing, niece Jessie and I did see a good show at the Northland Cinema a week ago. We’d both wanted to see, “We Bought a Zoo” and we weren’t disappointed.
That said, I’m pretty sure I won’t watch the movie again — it generated a nightmare that caused me to sit up in bed at 3 a.m., thinking there were snakes crawling around my house.
Yes, the zoo movie has snakes in it — and I have a definite phobia of snakes. I didn’t scream out loud inside the theater, but I squirmed in my seat, sheltered my eyes and even squeezed Jessie’s knee. Typical teenager that she is, she rolled her eyes and passed off a look that, I imagine, proclaimed me as her crazy aunt. Even now, just writing about snakes, gives me goosebumps. Yuck!
I’m beginning to think that in order to get my Honor Flight scrapbook complete, I’m going to have to leave my house — no DVD players or nearby movie theaters to distract me, no Facebook statuses to update or games to waste my time, no root beer to spill, no dishes to wash, no floors to mop and no furniture to dust — nothing but me and a stash of pictures, papers, gel pens, markers and tape runners.
I have a couple of options I’m considering — a Scrap-a-thon and Card-o-Rama is being offered in three weeks at the high school. With about 50 people expected, I could certainly get the inspiration and ideas I need to get to work.
Also a possibility is total seclusion in one of those really cool camper cabins up at Lake Shetek State Park (see the story in the Jan. 18 Daily Globe).
Other than 4-H camp when I was about eight or nine years old, and a brief excursion to the hostel at Itasca State Park last spring, I really have never “gone camping.” Visiting Shetek in the middle of winter sounds like quite an adventure with few things to distract me, although I could take a break from my scrapbooking to walk one of the trails, or wrap myself in one of Grandma’s quilts to read a good book.
I’d bring along a batch of beef stew and a crock-pot, a box of Cheerios, milk and water. Roughing it would mean living without my toasted English muffin and peanut butter — and all of the electrical amenities of home, of course, but it would only be for a couple of days.
Oh, what a grand adventure it would be!
My only fear in renting a cabin for myself is hearing the proverbial bump in the night. Snakes aren’t a worry in winter, but what about Bigfoot?
So, anyone out there want to go on a scrapbooking retreat? Your responsibility will be to protect us from Bigfoot … or at least assure me he isn’t real. The tale of the sasquatch is the one summer camp experience I can’t seem to forget.
