Aunt Leanne would be telling me right about
now that I am way too much like my parents – not because I’m awake and writing
this in the wee hours of the morning; but because I managed to fall asleep
again tonight instead of taking advantage of the Michael and me alone time we
could have had after we tucked Ethan and Ehlana in for the night. Unfortunately, a lot of long days combined
with a really busy work day that included helping to build and install a new
dock had me off in nap mode within minutes of cuddling with Michael in the
lounge.
Michael probably stayed with me until he
needed to head home, but didn’t wake me; which is why I was still on the
sectional sofa when I woke up a while ago.
He managed to trade his lap for a pillow and tuck a warm blanket around
me without waking me; though I won’t be surprised if Mom or Dad gave him a
little help with that. It’s a good thing
that Michael loves me, but since we don’t get that many alone time
opportunities each week; I have seriously got to work on my priorities a bit
and avoid these unplanned and badly timed naps!
That news was hardly the top story of the
day, and though we didn’t get to spend much time with them yet; Violet and
Dillon got home this afternoon, and Jake and Stephanie got back early this
evening. Violet and Dillon dropped off
all of her luggage and hauled it up to her room, and they had a short visit
with us while we were working on the dock; but then they spent the rest of the
day with his family. Violet’s staying
there tonight too; so we won’t get to catch up with her until tomorrow
afternoon. That’s pretty much the same
story for Jake and Stephanie; except they were at her house for the evening,
but are spending the night at his so that they can have breakfast with his
parents, brother, sister, and me in the morning.
The not seeing them much – barely long
enough for a “Hi, we’re home; gotta run” for Jake and Stephanie – wasn’t as
exciting a homecoming with us as I’d hoped it would be. I’ll just need to get used to sharing Violet
with Dillon, his family, and their friends even more as they get older, and
while it isn’t as though I spent a lot of time with Jake and Stephanie; I have
hoped that Michael and I will get to do that more this summer. Hopefully we’ll get started on that in the
morning – and tomorrow afternoon and evening with Violet and Dillon.
I’m sure that Violet and Dillon had more
fun at his house this afternoon anyway; since we were right in the thick of it
with our dock building adventure; and the last thing they were interested in
after a week of exams, packing up, and a long drive was more work today. Other than Tai Chi, three meals, and a snack
and drinks break here and there; it was all work, all the time for Mom, Dad,
and me until the last bolts were tightened and the dock was installed at around
seven-thirty. I spent the entire morning
doing yard work, and while Dad helped out with part of that; he also moved on
to do a run for lumber and everything else we needed for building the
dock. Mowing the lawn, weeding gardens,
and the rest of the usual chores don’t need extra digital ink devoted to them;
so let’s get to the main job of the day – the new dock.
The first thing I’d like to say about it is
that Grandpa designed a very cool, nearly-permanent base for our dock. I haven’t mentioned it in my journal before,
and take it for granted every time I’m using the dock; but we all really
appreciated it today when it made our job of replacing the top sections of the
dock so much easier. We’ve appreciated
his geologist and engineering expertise while he’s been travelling for our
family business, so creating and building a fairly complex metal and concrete
foundation for a dock isn’t exactly world-changing by comparison to that; but I
still thought that it was cool to learn all about it today while working on the
new dock.
Not as cool as the water was when some of
us needed to get in while taking out the old dock and later installing the new
one; but I’ll get to that in a minute.
First of all, Dad had help from all of my
uncles this afternoon and supervisory support from Grandpa now and then too.
Uncle Adam went with Dad for the supply run, and Aunt Leanne and Zack came over
to hang out with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana while they were busy – and helped when
it was time to make lunch. That meal
break was short and sweet for me because I finished my yard work first and only
had time to chow down on a burger and some salads before joining the work crew
on the dock. This might be shocking to
some of you, but a lawyer, doctors, and a school teacher can actually manage to
build a dock without any major problems – or the medical training of the
physicians!
Okay, there may have been some Magi Healing
offered to all of them because of strained muscles and minor scrapes and
blisters; but you know what I meant.
The stories about previous dock-building
days helped to keep me entertained, and while some of the work was fairly
strenuous; we all had fun this afternoon.
Modern tools, like high-powered rechargeable drills, made parts of the
job much easier than in the past; though I’m fairly sure that Grandpa was
exaggerating about using dinosaurs to knock down trees and haul them to the
river back in the ‘old days’. His plans
for the original dock did come in handy, though; and so did the old table saw
that made quick work of cutting all of the pressure-treated lumber.
I’m not going to bore you with every
detail, but there are a few things that I do want to include – starting with
the river swim and work parts of the afternoon and evening. I would like to mention for the record that I
am not nuts to volunteer to be one of the workers that needed to be in the
river to help with the old and new docks.
I have one little advantage – being able to regulate my body temperature
automatically. Yes, the water was still
really cold; but I can stay in it longer than anyone without worrying about
hypothermia. My next comment is not
meant to imply that Dad in any way intentionally timed the first swim for
anyone’s benefit; and I don’t think that it was fair to be teased about being
wet and in a swimsuit for most of the time that Michael was there helping out
with the work during his afternoon break from the Inn.
Yes, he was happy to see me in a swimsuit
sooner than he’d expected; but I didn’t hear anyone making those kinds of jokes
about the other river-swim volunteers.
Tim and Rowen came over while Michael was there too, and while Tim made
some jokes and suggestions about it; Rowen did not go and get a swimsuit on and
come play in the water with me too. Tim
may have been disappointed about that, but then I’ll also guess that his
girlfriend didn’t fall asleep on him tonight when they were hanging out
together at Rowen’s house; so he might be a happier camper than Michael is
right now.
Getting the old dock off of the metal posts
and out of the river was tougher than dropping the new one into the water. I may have gotten teased a lot about Michael
and swimsuits; but there weren’t any jokes about my ability to do the actual
work. We could have done that end of the
work in minutes with a little applied telekinesis, but since that wasn’t an
option; being a strong swimmer with exceptional applied physics skills was
worth a lot when it came to getting the job done. Being small enough to easily get into the
right places for undoing bolts was handy too; and four of us managed to get the
old dock out of the river and partially taken apart in about an hour.
I certainly didn’t mind having a little
break and some cuddle time with Michael after that first swim while bundled in
a warm, thick beach towel. That was
too-short; but we still had a lot of work to do that included some minor
clean-up and maintenance for the dock framing while it was exposed and
accessible. We still got a bit wet for
that too; but did that work from canoes instead of swimming – or from the
riverbank where possible. I helped with
that, and took a couple of turns screwing the deck boards down onto the dock
frame. We had the new dock ready to
install by six; and opted to keep working and eat late instead of stopping –
mostly because the water was just going to at least feel colder as we lost the
sunshine.
As I mentioned, that part of the job was
easier; though it still took time to get the dock onto the posts and bolt the
sections together – and to the posts.
There are floats involved in the system, but the river level doesn’t
change so much that the dock needs to be adjusted very often. Dad does that a handful of times a year, but
that’s mostly in the spring and fall; and is literally a matter of loosening
and re-tightening the bolts on the posts.
That’s just another one of those things that I take for granted around
here; and don’t really think about at all.
I will likely think more about it this summer after being part of the
work crew today; but I think most people are like that with things that they’ve
been part of building or creating. I
wouldn’t say that this felt as special as when Michael and I sing and play
music together; but it was pretty special to share this with Dad, Mom, and my
uncles, aunts, and friends.
I was set free after getting out of the
river to warm up and get changed while Dad led the clean-up crew and Grandpa
was in charge of the grill. The work was
done and we sat down to eat at seven-thirty.
We ate in the back yard – or the adults did while Ethan, Ehlana, and I
took our plates and drinks out to the dock and ate there. Now that we can compare the old to the new;
Dad got three thumbs up for the decision to replace it this year. The new dock is much nicer to walk and sit on
with the fresh, un-weathered wood. There
was some more teasing directed my way when I went back for seconds and doubled
up on dessert after that. I burned a lot
of calories today, and even my own family sometimes seems to forget that I have
a hyper-metabolism; so today was just one of those times when I needed to eat
quite a bit more than usual.
Moving along, our gang of helpers and
visitors headed out for home by nine o’clock after we finished eating and
cleaning up from the meal. Michael came
over by eight-thirty, so other than helping with hauling plates and dishes into
the kitchen; I didn’t have to work on the clean-up crew either. We were instead put in charge of getting
Ethan and Ehlana ready for bed and having a bit of play time with them before
and after doing a round of goodbye hugs and kisses with our family. I took a quick shower while Michael played
video games with the twins in the lounge because I really needed one by then;
and joined in for the gaming fun until we tucked my brother and sister in for
the night at ten.
Dad had hit the showers too before he and
Mom both went to work in the office, so I haven’t seen them since stopping in
with Ethan and Ehlana for bedtime hugs and kisses. I’d tell you more about my alone time with
Michael than I have so far; except that I don’t remember anything after the
point where we got comfortable on the sectional sofa; picked out a movie; and
shared a couple of long, soft kisses. I
closed my eyes for what I thought was going to be a minute; and that’s all I’ve
got for the rest of my evening. I know
that I needed the down time, but my timing really does suck; since Michael and
I probably won’t get any significant alone time until at least sometime after
the long weekend – we both have too much to do between school, work, and
holiday fun; and we’ll both have houses full of family on the weekend. I wonder if our parents would have a problem
with suggesting that they give us a family-free night? We do kid-free nights for them, so it only
seems fair; but they probably won’t see it that way.
Since I’ve slept through what could have
been the highlight of the day for me anyway, I might as well wrap this up and
get back to sleep now. I really only
fired up my computer after getting changed and into bed with Mandy to do my
usual nightly computer checks anyway, and even though there won’t be any
Michael and me time to look forward to on Sunday; I do want to be ready for
some fun with our favorite college teens.
Dad will need to work most of the afternoon and evening to get ready for
his week in the city; but I’m mostly taking the day off from work – except for
helping Mom with meals. Hopefully
that’ll give me time to play with Ethan, Ehlana, and our friends as well as
getting to hang out with Violet and Dillon.
We may get to have some time with Christina and Josiah; but that’ll
depend on what he has going on with his family when they get here sometime
tomorrow.
Okay, it’s really time to stop and get back
to dreamland. At least there’s one place
that I don’t usually fall asleep when Michael and I have play time
opportunities! ;^)
Until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
