Lucky and I went up to Torch Lake and stayed at my sisters’ place for Labor Day weekend. There was only Karen and Bob and my niece Jodie besides me so I was able to have my choice of either the two bedroom or one bedroom cottage for the dog and me. They don’t want animals in the “big” house and that’s an easy request to abide by as both the other houses have everything you could possibly need.
This was the first time I went up there with Lucky and it really is nice that she’s such a mellow dog. It’s a three-hour drive each way and she handles it like a pro. All she wants is to have the windows open and she didn’t bother me once the entire trip. Once there she just needs to go outside a few times a day, just like home, and she’s fine just hanging in the one bedroom while I’m in the house with the other people. Don’t worry, I would go hang out with her every few hours and take her for a walk and stuff like that.
We got up there Saturday afternoon and just sat around for the day. It’s really comfortable up there; it’s easy to see why so many people like to go up there. When I woke up Sunday morning I took Lucky out and walked her to the edge of the backyard to the lake. I had my IPOD on and put the handle of her leash under the table Karen has on the beach next to the chair I was sitting in.
So I’m sitting there just thinking about nothing, which is my favorite thing to think about, and I notice the table next to me is moving. I look up and Lucky is chest deep in the water, just moseying around. I called her and she turned around to look at me and just sat down as if to say “hey, there’s a lake here and at least one of us should be using it”. So I leaned back in my chair, she moved a little closer to the shore and laid down and we both were right where we wanted to be.
I know I’ve mentioned it before but I just love being near the water. Torch is very much like the Gulf when there isn’t a storm in the tropics. It’s almost like a sheet of glass on its finer days. Sitting out on that chair on the beach is a feeling I find hard to describe. It gives my head a chance to just plain erase and nowadays I find that erasing is the most comfortable button I can find to push on that recorder we call a brain. Lucky seemed to be of the same mind as she stayed in the water like that for about 20 minutes.
I decided to get up and go out on the dock so Lucky could be in the sun and attempt to dry off. I grabbed my favorite chair from the shed and set it out there like I always do and just sat and listened to a couple podcasts of “This American Life”.
Lucky kept walking to the edge, looking down at the water and making motions like she wanted to jump in. I tried to encourage her but I think she has a problem with depth perception. She surely couldn’t tell that it was only about two feet deep or she would have hopped in. I’m glad she didn’t because she’s a bear to get dry. Her fur below the top coat is like a sheep and it takes hours and hours to dry her off.
I tied her up outside for most of the day and was finally able to put her back in the cottage and Karen, Bob, myself, Jodie, Kori and her boyfriend went out on the boat for a while and just cruised around the lake. It’s a huge lake and it took quite a while for us to go around it. I think it was something we all needed at the time. It was a spectacular day and the water was perfect.
We had a really nice dinner and I went back to my place rather early and hung out with Lucky until I fell asleep.
On Monday I spent most of the morning after breakfast out on the dock listening to the IPOD and just relaxing. Lucky did the same and continued her game of threatening to jump into the water. She never did. It got to be around noon and Karen had packed lunch and wanted us all to go out on the boat again and I could easily have done that. Instead I decided to pack it up and head home.
I was kind of afraid to stay. See, I somehow got it into my head that by staying I probably would have ended up spending the night. No real crime but then I would not have been home on Tuesday morning. See, I’m really trying to make it seem like I’m still working. My job, at the moment, is to find a job. I still shave every morning though there’s no real reason too and even get dressed in some type of work like clothes at some point just to keep some sort of structure in my life. I think that can only help me so I’ll try to keep it up.
So Lucky and I drove home in Holiday traffic, again, she was great. When we got home she ran upstairs and went under my bed to get some sleep. I guess she likes the structure too.
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