The Aerie
Have I mentioned already how my present contract is reminding me how much I hate working corporate? Never mind that this huge company is thoroughly Dilbertized, the real problem for me is the way 8-5 work makes the weeks evaporate. The months fly by at incredible speed, and I barely see my family.
I was doing these Dad-and-Kid Days, where I'd take each of my kids individually for a day with Dad. I haven't been able to do one for months. My weekends get consumed with special events like family picnics or camping, and my evenings are either spent exhausted or catching up on non-workplace chores.
On the other hand camping with the family certainly counts as family time with the kids, so I'm not saying that I don't get any time with the kids. But I do enjoy my Dad-n-Kid days.
But we did go camping recently, and that was a lot of fun.
We visited Madeline Island, travelling across on the ferry. Madeline Island is a lush, undeveloped rural island off the north coast of Wisconsin. There are few local residents, but lots of expensive summer homes. We camped at Big Bay State Park, which had very nice facilities including beach access. We travelled there at the invitation of a number of our neighbors, who have visited Madeline Island annually for several years.
There was lots of wildlife. Only a few hours after arriving I was on an errand and passed a deer standing on the side of the road. It was very tame, completely unimpressed by my arrival. We saw deer around our campsite on a couple of occasions.
We spent Sunday swimming. My friend Cheryl visited from Ontonagon with her niece Ashly, ad we took the kids down to the beach. Adding in the neighbors, there were a lot of kids playing. Fortunately they discovered a floating log, and spent the day goofing around on that.
The neighbors also brought a pair of kayaks which everyone took turns using - even yours truly. Paddling across the bay to identify my curiosity about a distant rock protruding above the water, I was concerned that I would suffer heatstroke, or a sunburn, or horrible muscle aches in my shoulders. As a result of all my precautions, I ended up without any of those things: instead I got a wicked sunburn on the tops of my feet! Sheesh!
So camping was fun. We took a good four days to do it which was very nice, a good period of time to rest. Speaking of rest, however: I'm gettin' too old for this nonsense. My worst injury was a back cramp from sleeping on the ground, and it was a doozy. Kept me hobbling around at home for a couple of days!
Posted by Albatross at July 27, 2004 2:13 PM