amazing

We had planned renting a house in a remote place in the mountains for some time. However, as the time grew near to actually go there after the house was rented I began to realize the experience wasn't going to be at all like I had originally planned because my wife and 14 year are not really outdoor people like my 21 year old daughter and I are. And to top it off my 21 year old daughter and 14 year old were going to spend the first week together and my 21 year olds home in Oregon. So, we were just supposed to see my 21 year old for the 4th of July and a couple of days.

So, as the week began my wife and I realized we hadn't been away from our 14 year old daughter this long for about 10 years. The second thing we both realized is that we hadn't done anything quite like this in our marriage before. The third thing we realized is that we only had one car (we are used to each having our own) so this became the first difficult issue to overcome. Next, the climate and house was very different than our own. Next, the cable channels were completely different and I couldn't find the main TV remote. Next, there was no DSL, Computer Cable modem or wifi.(This last one really bothered my wife and I the most because of running businesses and conducting one's life sort of requires some emails. Then to top it off both our cell phones stopped working around 5 pm each day as we lost signal in our area. Then the home phone only could make local calls. So then I bought 30 dollars of calling cards to make that work. Then there was a buzz in the phone so we couldn't hear people we were talking to. So then we bought a cheap pirates of the Caribbean corded phone so we could hear better. But still, no one could leave messages on the home phone. So then, my wife and I were having a whole lot of difficulty adjusting to all these things. And nothing was as I had expected. So, we sort of muddled through the first 3 or 4 days trying not to create and argument while still knowing we were both having a hard time adjusting to all these things. And then the breakthrough occurred, we bought a blue Sevylor inflatable Kayak. At the time I thought it was a waste of money because it cost three times what I paid for our other Kayak. However, the next day I realized that we both could get in it and be comfortable and not worry about capsizing it on Castle Lake. My wife giggled all the way across the lake like a little girl. You see, she grew up sailing weekends on her Dad's Concordia. In the 1960s when my cousin bought his Columbia 22 that we sailed to Catalina on he always said, "The Concordia is the best wooden yacht built today". It was the yacht he always wanted to own and I think it was between 40 and 45 feet in length. Well, my wife's Dad had one and even sailed in the TRanspac to Hawaii and did pretty well on that race years ago. Kayaking across Castle lake returned her to the joy of her youth on the water once again. Amazing!

So the whole thing just by buying our new kayak turned from an ordeal into a truly amazing experience of rebonding that she began to call "Our Second Honeymoon". Now, this wasn't at all what I had in mind when I wanted to rent this house in the mountains but it sure did make both our lives easier after that. We kept having one adventure after another. It really became re-creation and we felt both God and angels lifting our spirits each day.

HOwever, even though we were doing fine my 21 year old started having to deal with stuff. A raccoon went into her landlord's house and attacked her cat. My best friend in the mountains also told me that a fox had been fighting with his cat in his house while he was away on tour recently as well. He also said that Skunks don't go into houses only under them but Sivet Cats go into houses and fight with cats and often kill them. So both Sivet Cats and raccoons will kill cats for the dry cat food in the houses if they can get through the cat doors. My daughter said there was blood all over her neighbors house from what she thought was a raccoon so she couldn't spend the 4th of July with us. Later she caught a skunk instead of a raccoon in her have a heart trap so then had to find a long pole so she wouldn't get skunked. So, we didn't get to spend the 4th of July with my older daughter because she was busy being responsible. So, I was still proud of her for being mature enough to give up her fourth of july for her landlord. So, we gathered on the back veranda of the home we rented for the month and watched the fireworks over the lake go off on the fourth of July. amazing!