Monday 20 August 2012

There's Sand in My...Electronics!


There is sand everywhere in my house. We just got back from nearly a week of camping, and I have sand places you do not want to know about. There is sand in my electronics, for pete’s sake! Now that’s just wrong!

Not to mention that the three cats were home alone all that time, and have left us…gifts. They’re sweet and thoughtful that way. So not only is there the sand clean up to think about, but also the empty cupboards and refrigerator, and the full cat litters and veritable mounds of laundry augmented by the bedding full of cat hair because there was no one around to tell them to get their hairy butts of the beds.

I love my pets, I love my pets, I love my pets……

You know, this is really the one week a year when I try to truly take time off and put everything writing and writing related out of mind. As I was lying in the tent one night, the only one awake while rain pounded down on the tarp overhead, I wondered to my self: Why?

If I’m only taking one week out of the year to not think about how many words I have to get written and blogs I have to post and promotions I have to line up, why on earth do I spend it with nothing but a thin veil of canvas and screen between myself and the bears and racoons and chipmunks of the wilds? Why do I spend it cooking over a fire and boiling water in pots to wash up?

The kids love it. Hubs enjoys the outdoors and the campfires.

Me? Sand. Just…sand.

So then I ask myself, will I do it again next year? Probably. We’ve been doing it every year for nearly twenty. Obviously, there is only one solution.

I’ll have to take another week’s vacation to get over it. Somewhere without sand.

Where is your ideal vacation? Is there ever a time when camping is good and right? Like…ever?

5 comments:

Valerie Mann said...

I'm not a big camping fan, although I grew up tent camping. I figure I've paid my dues and don't feel guilty now that we have an RV. There is something to be said for having one's own bathroom and kitchen. And bed. And TV, and heater/air conditioner. You get my point.

My favorite place to camp (with canvas or real walls) is at a small lake up in Canada. Met my first true love there when I was 15 and I'd love to go back.

Faith Bicknell said...

We got back a week ago Monday from a short, two-day camping trip. Next time I do it we WILL have a nice camping trailer or RV. I might be Appalachian to the core, I might know how to survive should a natural disaster happen, but Faith will not sleep on a tent cot ever again. The body is still bitching me out for it.

Jaime Samms said...

At least you had a cot, Faith.....

Val, Canada has millions of ideal lakeside campgrounds. If you're into that sort of thing. We were at one in northern Ontario. I'm just happy to be home, even if I am back at the day job....but that's a post for another day.

Marci Baun said...

I'm be happy with a vacation, Jaime. Every year for the past three or four, I've gone to EPICon. If I have family with me, it's fun, but not really a vacation. if I'm alone, I'm wiped out by the time I return. It's fun, but exhausting. You know what I want? I want one of those bungalows over the water in some place like Tahiti or Fiji or... and gourmet meals included. Sure, there's sand there, but it would be beautiful, I could rinse off in the shower. I could sit on the deck and just veg for days on end, because that's what I really want to do. (Might only last a few days, but it sounds lovely.)

Now, Charlie, Charlie wants a cruise. They are fun, but I'd rather have the bungalow. LOL

Janice Seagraves said...

I love camping but we haven't done in the last six years or so. We used to go to Bass Lake and go with another family. We set up the tent at the site we rented, and then I'd round up the kids and down to feed the ducks or we'd go swiming. Each meal was cooked over the camp stove or the open campfire. Nothing tastes better than camp food.

My second favorite thing is going to the coast and renting a room. We eat out and I make sure each meal has fish. Fresh fish that's that days catch is so good.

Janice~