Seasonal Transitions

Every year, May is a transition month. In addition to a geographic transition (south to north) and a weather transition (heat and humidity to cold and rain), there is a mind set / emotional transition. On one side of the transition, we are shutting things down, cleaning out the fridge and freezer, pulling the outdoor furniture into the house, and leaving friends. There is a sense of melancholy.

On the other side, the opposite happens. Things are reopened, restocked, and moved outdoors (on a bigger scale). There is a sense of family.

The transition also involves going from a 5-year-old “golf villa” (according to the original sales brochure) to a 41-year-old lake house that has been DIY’d over the years. We always wonder what we are going to run into that first time down the driveway every season. Last year’s issues included an extremely high water table (almost up to the new floor in the finished basement), an AC condenser that blew up and took until fall to fix, and a temperamental sewage ejector pump.

This year, the gas grill disintegrated (didn’t Phil just buy that grill?), the cleaning company dropped us as a regularly scheduled client due to staffing issues, the plumber texted he had no one available to fix the dripping outdoor faucet (ever?), the AC wasn’t working (I wanted to cry), and the sitting dock was a bit askew.

The good news is I keep checking on the ejector pump and no issues, we jumped on Ace’s offer of free assembly and free delivery on grills, the cleaning company is coming at least once this summer, I found a combination AC/plumbing company that took care of both the faucet and the loose wires to the thermostat (I was so relieved), and we pulled in a new crew to straighten the sitting dock.

For the past couple of Memorial Day weekends, we’ve had Jim and Deb up to the lake.

It’s always been very relaxing.

This year, their kids decided to join us with their grandson Jake. As did Nicole. And Meagan and Chris with Caleb and Lucy. And all their dogs.

It was not relaxing.

For the entire weekend, there was at least one dog barking. And Lucy made sure the house was up by 5:30. And the two boys were either yelling (Caleb) or talking (Jake).

But they were so cute. (Not the dogs, the kids.)

The weather was great, and we managed to get in sea do rides, boat rides, playing on the beach, Codenames (ask Mike about Dave’s “quarterback” clue), dancing to Nicole’s music, a walk to Black Cat, corn hole, charcuterie boards, a craft fair (😳), and a campfire.

Around the campfire, we played Heather’s pit and peak game. The boys really got into this. Jake monitored whose turn it was and was thrilled to provide “boat ride” as his peak and “wrestling with Dad and Caleb” as his pit. Caleb was also proud to announce his peak – “the firetruck” – and his pit – “the firetruck”.

My peak was the two boys connecting. It wasn’t perfect. There were some rough spots. Like them both wanting the red shovel when there was an almost identical, albeit blue, shovel available. But we all got a kick out of their conversations, which none of us could quite understand. And there were times the two of them would go off on their own to play.

My pit? The dogs barking.

And with that, the seasonal transition from melancholy to family is complete.