Our neighbors Bill and Cindy have been out in their woods/yard working like Banshees. So as I’m walking by enjoying the weather and I stop to ask Bill, “Why aren’t you out on the lake fishing and enjoying this beautiful “Indian Summer” day? Bill, replies “We have a couple more days of great weather and then we’re in for another long Wisconsin winter, these chores (He didn’t really say, “chores” but I’m writing this and it makes him sound more local and interesting.) need to be done while the weather is still good.” So I reply, “Thanks for the explanation” and continue on my delightful walk through the woods.
As I’m walking I can’t help but observe all of our neighbors on the lake are working at a frantic pace. Boats being hauled off the lake, winterized and properly stored, docks/piers being brought off the water, gardens vanquished and prepped for early spring planting in 2018, canning, making jams, freezing veggies, chopping and stacking firewood, and the leaves falling off the trees, don’t even get me started!
I need to provide ONE SILLY excuse, I’ve lived for the last twenty years in Santa Barbara, California, where everyday is 75 degrees and the sun shines. No urgency anywhere for anything, unless it’s a fire! Wish I had more excuses, since I lived in New England and Colorado before this but conveniently forgot to take the seasons seriously.
Anyway today the temperature has dropped 25 degrees, it’s raining, and I’m not feeling like a “Smartie Pants” by waltzing thru the woods when I should have been working like a Banshee. We leave this beautiful place and return to California a week from now. On my husband’s side everything is done, kayaks strung up in garage, boat prepped for winter, two trucks set up on battery drip lines, dock is in, leaves dismissed, all power tools run out of gas and stored, hoses bleed…and the list goes on. So, an announcement to all of you, I’m going to pay dearly for my walk in the woods, but I still will contend it was worth it. Let’s see how I feel on Wednesday when it’s foretasted to snow.
