This is how the schedule is shaping up for the rest of the summer:
I work this weekend, July 19-20. Dale is in Atlanta right now and flies home Friday evening. Saturday morning, he is planning on going up to our land in Two Harbors and taking an overnight R&R to practice his fly casting, walk in the river, and maybe take some photos. I’ll stay home and get caught up with laundry and no doubt take a nap with a book and a cat on top of me. I’ve got the DVD, “Torch Song Trilogy” due to arrive from Netflix today and perhaps I’ll watch that Friday or Saturday evening. The weekend sounds fine to me.
Next weekend, the 26-27th, is actually relatively low key as well. I’ve got a date with my friend Debbie on Saturday to go out and celebrate my birthday a couple of weeks early. (I’m turning 49 for the fifth time on August 12.) Usually we meet for lunch, and this is either followed by shopping or a movie. I’ll be home by suppertime. No plans yet for Sunday, the 27th.
Dale is back to Atlanta for the week of July 28-August 1.
Dale wants to go up to Duluth that first weekend in August. There is a festival that weekend, The Festival of the Tall Ships. Off to Duluth we’ll go Saturday morning. (The “Tall Ships” actually make their arrival in port on August 1, but we will not make it up there for that.) We will camp in our shed in Two Harbors Saturday night because all the motels, hotels, and B&Bs are full because of the festival.
I have taken August 7-8 off from work as a treat to myself for my birthday. I changed these vacation days to the 7-8 instead of the 11-12th, so that Dale could take some time off, too. He is in Atlanta the week of my birthday, August 11-15th. We have talked about making a trip to Spring Green, Wisconsin to see Taliesin, the home of Frank Lloyd Wright. We’d leave on Thursday, spend Thursday and Friday nights in Wisconsin, and come back on Saturday. We’d have Sunday at home. Dale then flies out to Atlanta Monday morning.
We’re actually open right now on the weekend of August 16-17. I think that’s good. On Wednesday, August 20, Dale’s sister and her two daughters, ages 25 and 18, are flying in from San Diego and will be staying with us. I’ve taken Thursday and Friday off from work on the 21st and 22nd. Thursday, August 21st is Joan’s 50th birthday. That may be a Mall of America day followed by going out to dinner for the Big Day. We’ve mentioned about going to the State Fair on Friday. On Saturday, we’re hosting a family get-together at our house to celebrate Joan’s birthday with everyone who can attend. Sunday they fly home to San Diego.
The next Friday, August 29, we leave on a nine-day vacation to Chesapeake Bay. Am I excited for my first major vacation trip in a long time? Right now, no. Right now, it’s making me tired just thinking about everything that’s going on ahead of time, and I’ve had no energy to even think about that trip. I’ll try to throw some stuff together, make sure that my housesitter/cat nanny is oriented to her duties and get on the plane. That’s about the best I can manage right now.
Frankly, I’m exhausted. I had a dinner date last night with a friend, a coworker of my husband’s whom I haven’t seen since she moved to Atlanta about 7 years ago. She is here in the Twin Cities on business this week, and I picked her up at the hotel at 6:30. We went to a nearby Indian restaurant and by 8:30, I was ready to plunk face-first right into the remains of my basmati rice. I wanted to just go home and go to bed! What a sorry excuse for a dinner companion, although I did pretty well for the first hour or so! Then I started to fade.
It’s the constant heavy workload here at the lab that is fatiguing me and keeping my repetitive strain problems in a chronic state of agitation. I’m taking ibuprofen or Aleve everyday, and that tends to drag me down, too. It has a depressant effect on me; I’m well aware of that. I’ve got to take something, though, to keep the inflammation at bay. I’m battling to keep my spirits up and my head above water right now. There have been times this week when I feel like I’m losing that battle. I wanted to call in to work sick today and just sleep! (I didn’t.)
That’s how it’s shaping up!