‎63 Years of Memories....

‎63 Years of Memories....
that's what I have now. The photo below shows the chair on the point which for so many years was my father's favorite after-supper place to contemplate and cast for walleye. As much as I feel guilty about what's happened, I know he would understand and even say there's nothing to forgive. He lived life fully and moved on many times. I'm the one with the unique experience of being attached to a beautiful place for my whole life. And despite all my best efforts, yesterday the 'cabin' was sold. I signed the papers and, truth be told, a weight was lifted. A new life lies ahead without the obligations, but with all of the wonderful memories. My unrelentingly positive attitude says this is truly how it is, but my heart is still sad.

There are some things in life for which the balance between the obligation and the joy of ownership often cannot be sustained forever. It became clear that I was no longer up to the task of taking care of the place quite a while back. However, knowing what needs to be done and doing it are often far apart. Finally, no choice was left. It had to be sold.

Now it's gone. No more worrying about how long the grass or how deep the snow is up there. No more sublimely pleasurable early morning cups of coffee sitting on the dock when the color of the lake is like pale blue glass and the air is completely still. No more endless repairs, high taxes, and utility bills. No more late nights around the fire pit with friends and family - warm from both fire and friendship. No more frozen pipes or emergency calls to the furnace guys. No more saunas and midnight skinny dipping that make you feel like you'll live forever while your connection with nature is confirmed by the gazillion stars of the milky way and the loons calling out in the dark. No more concerns with low well water levels or water so hard and full of iron the clothes turn yellow and your newly washed hair feels like brillo. No more finding the way home by boat in the dark after a long day on the lake feeling like this is the only place you really, really belong. No more praying that the boathouse will make it another year without collapsing. And ultimately, no more making new memories with friends, family and loved ones. No new memories, that is, at Half Bay, Lake Vermilion, Tower, MN. New life... here we come!

How do you thank a place for memories?

Monday, August 14, 2006

Haven't Vanished

Please forgive me for being a lame contributor for quite some time now. I have been extremely busy, both at home and in Orlando. I have been there from Fri - Mon/Tues every week for the past 6 weeks. Last week I came home to find my house suddenly infested with ticks. Oh joy. I am struggling with that still, treatment on the dogs, high powered industrial sprays, nothing seems to be working. I am going to have to figure something out soon, move out, or burn the place down. Sergio and I are aligning our show schedules in order to be together all the time, which is fun. And I am trying to hold off on moving in with him for a while longer. We are quite the topic these days. I worry sometimes that people are going to start wanting to kill us for being so vomitously happy together all the time. Even when we are working and being professional/selling/showing, we are joking/laughing/smiling in every spare minute or private glance. He has decided it is really funny to to do something ridiculous when only I am facing him, and everyone else is facing me, so that I lose my composure. Sometimes I can keep it together, but he is pretty damn goofy.

Bert, I love all the photos you have posted, I go back and look at them again and again, Sergio and the guys are also totally impressed by your eye, and the emotions those images convey. I hope you are not upset that I haven't been IMing lately - believe, it is NOT because I don't think about you constantly. I have appartently wrecked another computer, and have not been able to get my IM, my Quickbooks, or for that matter much else to work on it in well over a month. I am taking it to the geek this week, and if he cannot fix it, I will have to repent for being a Laptop serial killer.
So, Bert, this weeks mini Animal Planet revolves around a super cool creature, called Nomura's Jellyfish:

They can weigh up to 400 lbs, and are drifting heavily in on Japan right about now, causing quite a lot of commotion in the fishing industry as I write this. Apparently they are damaging hundreds of nets, and flustering fisherman greatly. Though they look lethal, their sting is not at all equal to their size. Marine scientists are trying to determine why there is suddenly a population explosion of the behemoths, and so far the theory is that the Jellyfish's natural competitors for the plankton that sustains them are being completly fished out by the men who's nets the giants themselves are now gooing up. Having few natural predators, and now even less with the rapidly thinning numbers of large, plankton eating rivals, they now seem unchecked in their ability to attain enough nutrients to reproduce evermore rapidly, along with dramatically increasing health, and therefore size. Hmmmm. Does anyone else find this ironic? Well, at least someone is benefiting from our shortsightedness for once, at least until we find some use in harvesting THEM.

And now, for something completely different...

I am incredibly excited to see everyone at the cabin, RACHEL, I hope you are joining us! Brandon & Stacy, its awesome you are going to make it! And once again, I only wish the brother could be there with us in person...

And, I am leaving next Monday (the 21st) for Belgium with Sergio for a week. We already have our tickets (I know, short notice, huh? He's kind of like that) I get back 1 day before I leave for Minnesota, pheww! We will be mostly around Brussels, but will likely go to either Paris or Amsterdam as well. We are also going to his lifelong friend Rodrigo Pessoa's place for a few days, in case you don't know who that is, he is the only person ever to win the World Cup of Showjumping 3 times. I could care less where we go, really, I am just happy to be going somewhere with him. I think it is good to travel with someone, in order to get to know them better. When I get back from Minnesota, I have one day until I leave for the Wellington Show, then Culpepper Virginia, then back in time for the Tampa show at the end of September. Just so you know, Sergio is ranked 14th in the National Grand Prix standings right now on his mare, Shakira Do Jacare, who was bred and raised at the family ranch in Brazil. I've been riding her for him every day at home when I'm there, she is so crazy, and knows him so well, he can't even get on her at home, and never Jumps her except for in the Grand Prixs!! He has a very good shot at winning at Finals in Virgina. So you will all have to be rooting for him. I think it is televised, so I will get you the details. His other Grand Prix horse I have been riding as well, Cognac Z, the other day Sergio goes "Okay, just jump him around the whole farm, make a loop, from paddock to paddock to paddock, and then jump back into the arena." I of course thought he was joking, but for once, the look on his face was dead serious, so I did it. And those fences are not small, nor on level ground! I think all bullriders are a little crazy, and I certainly am not one to turn down a dare!

So, I miss you all greatly, and think of you all the time, even though you don't hear from me, you are all on my mind - and Bert, there are no words for how much I miss you - I can't wait to see you for Thanksgiving!!!!

Love you, Everybody!!
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1 comment:

Bert said...

great post Bree.

Imagine this creature weighs a quarter ton but drifts on the currents like it is weightless.

Even though humans change density often (like Tania being pregnant), if that animal's density were to change by only a few percent it would die. Funny to think that a detail that is so critical to one animal is completely inconsequential to another.

8:24 AM

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