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(Backdated entry)
Thursday morning I went to the doctor's for my shoulder (it had become very painful) and got a prescription for some very good muscle relaxant.
At work, at about 4pm, I got a message that Eightball had phoned and I should phone him back. I got tremendously worried, because there were all kinds of weather delays going on (beautiful in Portland, but I guess New York State was a mess), the airport was full of people tryng to rebook, so I thought sure he'd been delayed and wouldn't make it. One my break, at 5pm I phoned Dad trying to get Eightball's number to call him back, but got no answer, and then the pharmacy to find out whether I'd be able to get that prescription filled that evening before going to Camden. They said it would be better to bring it in as soon as possible, because they were incredibly busy and short staffed. So, to solve both problems (not having Eightball's phone number with me) I asked to go home at 5pm rather than my original request of 7pm.
That worked out really well. I left the prescription, went home and called Eightball and found out he was actually on his way up, having arrived in Boston at 4pm (Duf [co-worker] told me that was probably the case, as there's a non-stop from Long Beach CA to Boston, but I had no idea what airline Eightball was on), then did the rest of the dishes so we would have a cleaner house to return to, and picked up the prescription and was essentially ready to go when Eightball arrived. We shoved the camping gear into his car and grabbed Burger King on our way out of town.
Nice ride, we chattered quite happily for a couple of hours. Took a detour down to see the old house in South Hope (at some point we discussed the secret room and the hidden doors and that dream I had the other night) stopped at the store which used to be Leach's to ask how to get over the hill to Camden (I was sure that would be quicker and more interesting, at least to me, as it runs by the Bok family mansion where people we knew used to work and live, and also the house of a classmate of mine from gradeschool who I had a huge crush on and is probably dead, now) but the girl at the counter was dim and could only say that the only way she knew to get to Camden was to turn left on route 90 a few miles down the road.
"Where the fire station is?" Eightball asked.
"Uh. I dunno," was all she could say. Dim, I tell you. Eightball was at best eight years old when we moved away, something like twenty-four years ago, and sure enough there IS a fire station at the corner of 17 and 90. Little boys remember fire engines.
We arrived at the campground just before 10pm. Eor had the camper all ship-shape, tarp up, etc, and my aunt and her friend were moved in one campsite away. Eightball's campsite was just a short trot down a path and over one, and we went over and got Eor's old, small tent up and Eightball all settled in to it in about ten minutes (it's an easy tent, and with all three of us working on it went really quickly.) Then he came back to the van and we had hot chocolate and chatted some more, because he was still on California time and felt like it was only 7pm. We were pretty much beat, though, especially Eor, who had socialized with my aunt and her friend for hours. He's not a socializer and he likes Aunt S, but she is a little hyper, and that takes it out of him.
We made breakfast of corned beef hash, corn and rice, and I think we were just done when Aunt S showed up from having had her shower. Her friend had made them buckwheat pancakes for breakfast over at her camp - she's apparently an excellent camp cook. (Her tent is about 30 years old but seems to work quite well for her. It's one of the sort big enough to stand up in and put the two cots, and she erects a large canopy in front of it where the campstove sits on the end of the picknick table - she obviously has her plan down to a science.)
After some discussion we decided we should take a hike halfway up Mount Meguntecook to Adams Lookout. This was a lovely trail - easy enough to be fun for me, challenging for Aunt S, and I think of a good level for her friend (who outstripped us by miles) and way too easy for Eor and Eightball (who were probably done before Aunt S and I were halfway up). Consequently Aunt S and I had plenty of time together to talk, which worked out well. :) We left about 11 and were back by around 1pm, I think, so two hours to cover two miles - not good spead, but Aunt S is out of shape and lives in Florida, where she gets no practice climbing hills.
We decided, upon returning, that even though breakfast was not far in our pasts we wanted to go to Camden for lunch, just for the experience. Eor, however, elected to stay home and eat marshmallows and read, as he needed some alone time. Nobody seemed to think that was a problem. (Some people get all "oh, he's unsociable and doesn't like us" about people taking alone time, but I think my family understands that need pretty well.)
At some point Eor and I went down to the registration booth to buy some firewood and I used the payphone to call my Dad to make sure he wasn't going to arrive while we were gone at lunch. I wasn't thinking about the fact that Eor would be there at the camp, or perhaps we hadn't discussed that as yet, I don't know. It probably would have been fine to tell him to come ahead at that point, but I didn't. At that point I said "delay an hour and then leave to come down here," thinking that might get him here not too long after we returned, but I regretted it, later.
Camden was beautiful, as it always is. Eightball, Aunt S and her friend and I wandered around the main street just a little, crossed the flower bridge (one long bower across the 'wishing' river) did some window shopping, then decided to eat at The Mariner, which is a really pretty little restaurant, and "clean and well-run" according to Aunt S's friend. Coming in at an off time of day was perfect, as we got a seat on the deck, which hangs out over the river, so we could watch the ducks paddle around just a few feet below us, and look at the sailboats in the harbor. We got the traditional fried seafoods - scallops for Eightball, clam strips for Aunt S (though like all true Mainers she would prefer whole clams) and I got haddock which was so fresh that it didn't taste at all fishy - good, but ... well, I almost felt something was missing, to eat fish that didn't taste like fish. ;) But we traded around bites and all got a little of everything, a traditional thing to do in my family. ;)
Then we stepped outside and were meandering down the sidewalk, Aunt S trying to decide whether she should call her sister, Aunt B. Just as she took out her phone, Eightball said, "You won't need to. She's right over there." How he noticed her nearly a block away, behind us, I just don't know, but I bet he makes a much better security guard than I do (that's what he's doing, now) because he apparently spins in circles whenever he's not going direclty ahead, and makes an assessment of everyone he can see.
That was just weird, though, because Aunt B. lives in the next town over, not in Camden - she just happened to have come down with a friend to hang around and have an ice-cream. So we stood one the sidewalk and talked a bit - well, the aunts talked, mainly, and the friend of Aunt B.'s, as she grew up in the same town and I think is possibly some sort of distant relative. (She knew a bunch of people who died in the September 11th attack, as she worked for a firm that was based in the WTC.)
Aunt B's friend looked at Eightball and me kind of funny when he started rubbing my shoulder and neck as we were all standing around talking. I explained that I've been having a problem with it, and he does massage. He's such a sweetie. :)
We couldn't convince Aunt B to come back to the campground. I guess she wasn't really dressed for it, or whatever, but she pleaded that she had to take her friend home.
So we went to Hannaford and bought an ice-cream log and went back to the camp and hung out. Dad wasn't there. Aunt S walked down to the registration booth (where she could actually get cell-phone reception) and called Dad's house and got his wife, who said she'd gotten a phone call from Aunt B saying he'd had a flat tire on his way down. She also asked the rangers if it was okay for us to move Eightball's tent to her site, and they said it was, but after discussing it amongst ourselves we decided that if it was okay with them that he move to her site it would also be okay if he moved to our site, and as we had a nice big, flat area that looked like it was just waiting for a tent to be put in it we decided to do that.
Aunt S, Eightball and I went down, took everything out of the tent, and then he and I picked it up, without breaking it down, and just carried the fully erected tent through the path up to our site, with her directing us, since he was walking backward and I could see only few inches in front of where my feet currently were. :)
And Dad didn't show up. So, Eightball and I got in the car and drove along Route 1 looking for him. Drove all the way to Linconville Beach, and saw some pretty houses on the way. Stopped to use a payphone there (because his cell wouldn't get reception anywhere) and found it was jammed. Went into a couple of very pretty little stores looking for the location of another phone, and then drove back to find Dad and Aunt B at the camp. Which, you know, is typical. He had gotten the flat not very far away at all, although I was confused as to what direction - he said he'd overshot the campground entrance and tried to pull a U turn and caught the curb with his tire. But why he hadn't just walked up to the campground at that point I don't know. Still, he got Aunt B to join us by calling her for help - maybe that was his intention. :)
Somehow most of us (excluding Eor, who was tending the fire) went over to Aunt S and her friend's camp, where Eightball led us in a series of joint-loosening excercises which made all of us feel a lot better. (I was quite amused when he chastized me, all in teacher mode, "are you going to make comments or participate?" - he can do it with a smile and a nice tone of voice, which I expect makes him a good instructor. :)) And then we went back to Eor's and my camp and ate the ice-cream log which had been awaiting us. And then Aunt B split and I think Pete and Dad went back to Aunt S and her friend's camp - Eor said that my family has a maximum density. "All that effort to get together and then you all sit for ten minutes and suddenly you have to run in different directions, again." I think that we do fine socializing one on one, but get us in a group and we're no good at that.
Then... ah, let's see. I think we did all come back together again, sans Aunt B. Dad and Eightball drifted back first, then Aunt S, and I had fun toasting marshmallows and stuffing chocolate in them and handing them around, until Dad asked if there were any real food and Eor, Eightball and I made some dinner - all beef tacos on corn tortillas with chilli (from a jar) on the side.
And then we all trooped down to the field by the registration booth and lay on the damp grass to watch the meteors. I think everyone saw at least one shooting star - I've become quite good at spotting them and saw quite a few. :)
One of the rangers (with an amazing ZZ Topp beard) stopped us as we were walking back and just asked us if we were campers, but then took our word for it when we said we were. :) And another walked quite a way up with Eor and me, because he was going in the same direction - he said they used to have lots of star gazers in years past, but that there are very few, now.
And then I did the dishes and we went to bed. Crashed.
Maaan, what a long day! Fun, though. :)
Thursday morning I went to the doctor's for my shoulder (it had become very painful) and got a prescription for some very good muscle relaxant.
At work, at about 4pm, I got a message that Eightball had phoned and I should phone him back. I got tremendously worried, because there were all kinds of weather delays going on (beautiful in Portland, but I guess New York State was a mess), the airport was full of people tryng to rebook, so I thought sure he'd been delayed and wouldn't make it. One my break, at 5pm I phoned Dad trying to get Eightball's number to call him back, but got no answer, and then the pharmacy to find out whether I'd be able to get that prescription filled that evening before going to Camden. They said it would be better to bring it in as soon as possible, because they were incredibly busy and short staffed. So, to solve both problems (not having Eightball's phone number with me) I asked to go home at 5pm rather than my original request of 7pm.
That worked out really well. I left the prescription, went home and called Eightball and found out he was actually on his way up, having arrived in Boston at 4pm (Duf [co-worker] told me that was probably the case, as there's a non-stop from Long Beach CA to Boston, but I had no idea what airline Eightball was on), then did the rest of the dishes so we would have a cleaner house to return to, and picked up the prescription and was essentially ready to go when Eightball arrived. We shoved the camping gear into his car and grabbed Burger King on our way out of town.
Nice ride, we chattered quite happily for a couple of hours. Took a detour down to see the old house in South Hope (at some point we discussed the secret room and the hidden doors and that dream I had the other night) stopped at the store which used to be Leach's to ask how to get over the hill to Camden (I was sure that would be quicker and more interesting, at least to me, as it runs by the Bok family mansion where people we knew used to work and live, and also the house of a classmate of mine from gradeschool who I had a huge crush on and is probably dead, now) but the girl at the counter was dim and could only say that the only way she knew to get to Camden was to turn left on route 90 a few miles down the road.
"Where the fire station is?" Eightball asked.
"Uh. I dunno," was all she could say. Dim, I tell you. Eightball was at best eight years old when we moved away, something like twenty-four years ago, and sure enough there IS a fire station at the corner of 17 and 90. Little boys remember fire engines.
We arrived at the campground just before 10pm. Eor had the camper all ship-shape, tarp up, etc, and my aunt and her friend were moved in one campsite away. Eightball's campsite was just a short trot down a path and over one, and we went over and got Eor's old, small tent up and Eightball all settled in to it in about ten minutes (it's an easy tent, and with all three of us working on it went really quickly.) Then he came back to the van and we had hot chocolate and chatted some more, because he was still on California time and felt like it was only 7pm. We were pretty much beat, though, especially Eor, who had socialized with my aunt and her friend for hours. He's not a socializer and he likes Aunt S, but she is a little hyper, and that takes it out of him.
We made breakfast of corned beef hash, corn and rice, and I think we were just done when Aunt S showed up from having had her shower. Her friend had made them buckwheat pancakes for breakfast over at her camp - she's apparently an excellent camp cook. (Her tent is about 30 years old but seems to work quite well for her. It's one of the sort big enough to stand up in and put the two cots, and she erects a large canopy in front of it where the campstove sits on the end of the picknick table - she obviously has her plan down to a science.)
After some discussion we decided we should take a hike halfway up Mount Meguntecook to Adams Lookout. This was a lovely trail - easy enough to be fun for me, challenging for Aunt S, and I think of a good level for her friend (who outstripped us by miles) and way too easy for Eor and Eightball (who were probably done before Aunt S and I were halfway up). Consequently Aunt S and I had plenty of time together to talk, which worked out well. :) We left about 11 and were back by around 1pm, I think, so two hours to cover two miles - not good spead, but Aunt S is out of shape and lives in Florida, where she gets no practice climbing hills.
We decided, upon returning, that even though breakfast was not far in our pasts we wanted to go to Camden for lunch, just for the experience. Eor, however, elected to stay home and eat marshmallows and read, as he needed some alone time. Nobody seemed to think that was a problem. (Some people get all "oh, he's unsociable and doesn't like us" about people taking alone time, but I think my family understands that need pretty well.)
At some point Eor and I went down to the registration booth to buy some firewood and I used the payphone to call my Dad to make sure he wasn't going to arrive while we were gone at lunch. I wasn't thinking about the fact that Eor would be there at the camp, or perhaps we hadn't discussed that as yet, I don't know. It probably would have been fine to tell him to come ahead at that point, but I didn't. At that point I said "delay an hour and then leave to come down here," thinking that might get him here not too long after we returned, but I regretted it, later.
Camden was beautiful, as it always is. Eightball, Aunt S and her friend and I wandered around the main street just a little, crossed the flower bridge (one long bower across the 'wishing' river) did some window shopping, then decided to eat at The Mariner, which is a really pretty little restaurant, and "clean and well-run" according to Aunt S's friend. Coming in at an off time of day was perfect, as we got a seat on the deck, which hangs out over the river, so we could watch the ducks paddle around just a few feet below us, and look at the sailboats in the harbor. We got the traditional fried seafoods - scallops for Eightball, clam strips for Aunt S (though like all true Mainers she would prefer whole clams) and I got haddock which was so fresh that it didn't taste at all fishy - good, but ... well, I almost felt something was missing, to eat fish that didn't taste like fish. ;) But we traded around bites and all got a little of everything, a traditional thing to do in my family. ;)
Then we stepped outside and were meandering down the sidewalk, Aunt S trying to decide whether she should call her sister, Aunt B. Just as she took out her phone, Eightball said, "You won't need to. She's right over there." How he noticed her nearly a block away, behind us, I just don't know, but I bet he makes a much better security guard than I do (that's what he's doing, now) because he apparently spins in circles whenever he's not going direclty ahead, and makes an assessment of everyone he can see.
That was just weird, though, because Aunt B. lives in the next town over, not in Camden - she just happened to have come down with a friend to hang around and have an ice-cream. So we stood one the sidewalk and talked a bit - well, the aunts talked, mainly, and the friend of Aunt B.'s, as she grew up in the same town and I think is possibly some sort of distant relative. (She knew a bunch of people who died in the September 11th attack, as she worked for a firm that was based in the WTC.)
Aunt B's friend looked at Eightball and me kind of funny when he started rubbing my shoulder and neck as we were all standing around talking. I explained that I've been having a problem with it, and he does massage. He's such a sweetie. :)
We couldn't convince Aunt B to come back to the campground. I guess she wasn't really dressed for it, or whatever, but she pleaded that she had to take her friend home.
So we went to Hannaford and bought an ice-cream log and went back to the camp and hung out. Dad wasn't there. Aunt S walked down to the registration booth (where she could actually get cell-phone reception) and called Dad's house and got his wife, who said she'd gotten a phone call from Aunt B saying he'd had a flat tire on his way down. She also asked the rangers if it was okay for us to move Eightball's tent to her site, and they said it was, but after discussing it amongst ourselves we decided that if it was okay with them that he move to her site it would also be okay if he moved to our site, and as we had a nice big, flat area that looked like it was just waiting for a tent to be put in it we decided to do that.
Aunt S, Eightball and I went down, took everything out of the tent, and then he and I picked it up, without breaking it down, and just carried the fully erected tent through the path up to our site, with her directing us, since he was walking backward and I could see only few inches in front of where my feet currently were. :)
And Dad didn't show up. So, Eightball and I got in the car and drove along Route 1 looking for him. Drove all the way to Linconville Beach, and saw some pretty houses on the way. Stopped to use a payphone there (because his cell wouldn't get reception anywhere) and found it was jammed. Went into a couple of very pretty little stores looking for the location of another phone, and then drove back to find Dad and Aunt B at the camp. Which, you know, is typical. He had gotten the flat not very far away at all, although I was confused as to what direction - he said he'd overshot the campground entrance and tried to pull a U turn and caught the curb with his tire. But why he hadn't just walked up to the campground at that point I don't know. Still, he got Aunt B to join us by calling her for help - maybe that was his intention. :)
Somehow most of us (excluding Eor, who was tending the fire) went over to Aunt S and her friend's camp, where Eightball led us in a series of joint-loosening excercises which made all of us feel a lot better. (I was quite amused when he chastized me, all in teacher mode, "are you going to make comments or participate?" - he can do it with a smile and a nice tone of voice, which I expect makes him a good instructor. :)) And then we went back to Eor's and my camp and ate the ice-cream log which had been awaiting us. And then Aunt B split and I think Pete and Dad went back to Aunt S and her friend's camp - Eor said that my family has a maximum density. "All that effort to get together and then you all sit for ten minutes and suddenly you have to run in different directions, again." I think that we do fine socializing one on one, but get us in a group and we're no good at that.
Then... ah, let's see. I think we did all come back together again, sans Aunt B. Dad and Eightball drifted back first, then Aunt S, and I had fun toasting marshmallows and stuffing chocolate in them and handing them around, until Dad asked if there were any real food and Eor, Eightball and I made some dinner - all beef tacos on corn tortillas with chilli (from a jar) on the side.
And then we all trooped down to the field by the registration booth and lay on the damp grass to watch the meteors. I think everyone saw at least one shooting star - I've become quite good at spotting them and saw quite a few. :)
One of the rangers (with an amazing ZZ Topp beard) stopped us as we were walking back and just asked us if we were campers, but then took our word for it when we said we were. :) And another walked quite a way up with Eor and me, because he was going in the same direction - he said they used to have lots of star gazers in years past, but that there are very few, now.
And then I did the dishes and we went to bed. Crashed.
Maaan, what a long day! Fun, though. :)