Your boss won't remember your name in 20 years—your kids will!
Aug 19, 2009
Summers End And Camping
by Southern Programmer
Tags:
Sheesh.
Summer is now leaving.
This is a depressing time of the year for me as I truly enjoy summer. I think it is due to the frentic energy of the kids as they try to cram as much fun and chaos into summer vacation as they can.
My house usually winds up as 'kid central' for some reason. Various friends of my off-spring can be found sleeping over for a night or two. Weekends are particularly chaotic as several friends are usually running around "Chaos Manor".
One child in particular has left so much clothing over the summer my wife has created a shelf in the laundry room for her clothes to the point she has enough for a three day stay! I expect to see mail arriving in her name soon :).
I must say this summer has been particularly restful. My wife visited her parents in their country for two weeks leaving me with the two youngest children. The youngest ones are not quite old enough to stay by themselves as they could possibly cause chaos capable of disrupting
the time/space continuum.
For the first week I paid the college age daughter to stay with them (she earned that money!) and the second week I simply took a stay-cation.
The stay-cation was wonderful! It was truly delightful to get up and have no real plans!
I would get up, take the kids to the gym for us all to get a early morning workout (surprisingly both kids liked this), then a breakfast, puttering around the house or going to the movies, to the local pool or whatever.
I think I could handle retirement...at least for a few weeks...
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My local pool had a wonderful party on the 4th of July. The economy has hit my area pretty hard which means the pool membership is down a bit. Due to this the pool manager decided to have a 'simple party' with no fireworks but games consisting of 'Jello Eating', greased watermelon wrestling
(Tossing a vaseline covered watermelon into the pool and letting the contestants battle it out like football), the 'biggest splash' contest and the 'best diver' contest.
It was fantastic! I honestly can't remember when I had a better time at a party!
The biggest splash was hysterical! A kind burly man who announces the kids swim meets leaped off of the high dive and did a cannonball that sent water so high it actually touched the branch of a high tree that overlooks the pool!
The creative dive was won by a woman who used to compete in college but had not dove in 20 years! She practiced for a week before the contest and showed us why she competed in college. It was a shock to all of us as we did not realize she had this talent.
Sometimes the best partys are the simple ones.
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We managed to squeeze in a camping trip this year!
It has been years since we visited Myrtle Beach in SC so my wife and I got the rig to Lakewood campground at Myrtle Beach.
Camping at the beach is a wonderful thing, I just don't care for hotels at the beach full of screaming teenagers whose idea of a good time includes copious amounts of alcohol which then makes them obnoxious to everyone else. Yes I am getting to be crotchety...
Lakewood Campground is a Christian based campground which is a bit quieter than the others, they have wonderful shaded spots to pull your rig in. Each site offers water, cable, electricity and there is a wonderful cyber cafe nearby which you can use to get free wireless internet access.
There is also an on-site food place which will deliver hot food to your campsite in a reasonable time. We 'ordered out' since we were worn out from the long drive and were pleasantly surprised when our order arrived in 20 minutes and it was actually quite delicious!
I don't think I have had a better burger even in a restaurant.
Every morning my youngest daughter and I would get up and go boogie boarding at 7:00 while the others slept. Boogie boarding is a pasttime I have enjoyed since I was 8 years old and still love it. I have taught all of my kids how to catch waves and they are very good at it!
The waves were incredible during our time there! I caught one wave that had to be eight feet tall! It was high enough that when I looked down I could see the top of the head of a man in the water before the wave crashed down sending me zooming towards the shore.
Nightimes at the campground were amusing to me, people like to get up and walk around to see other peoples campers or go to the outdoor rec center which is by the ocean.
Sundays are also nice, they have a Church on the ocean! You can sit in the pews while fans give you a nice cool breeze as the preacher gives a sermon accompanied by the sounds of waves crashing in the background.
Small wonder some people have chosen to retire and live on permanent sites at lakewood....
(See attached link for more info on this neat place).
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I loved walking around Lakewood camping resort.
There are 'permanent sites' which consist of either pre-fab houses or large campers which are tastefully permantly parked with beautiful decks built around them which helps disguise the fact you are looking at a camper.
Large RV's which obviously cost a great deal of money would be in one area and 'travel trailers' were in another.
The travel trailers really interest me, I would see some that were obviously fairly new parked to ones that looked to be forty years old. One trailer was of particular interest as it appeared to be made in the early 60's and was occupied by a husband and wife who had to be in their 60's also. But there they were, enjoying camping and having a blast in that little camper without a care in the world!
One site was particularly amusing to me, a small pop-up was housed on it occupied by a man and his wife and five girls who ranged from pre-teen to teenage years! I have no idea how they all fit in this pop-up by finally decided he must have removed everything from it and they simply used it to sleep in at night.
One evening, as I was walking around I saw the man sitting by himself outside and said "I saw you earlier this week with all those girls..you're outnumbered aren't you!?"
He replied with a mournful "Yes Lord! I tried to have a son to help even up the odd's but the Good Lord has a sense of humor!"
That left me with a smile for the rest of the week.
Your unemployment was a while back, I didn't read that correctly...too much giggling in the background.... :)
dontask 0 :)(08/21/2009)
Another job came up, even with some benefits. Very kind of you to ask. Giggling and gigglers can be disconcerting, I have met a few of those. Hard to concentrate.
HaveADamnNiceDay(08/24/2009)
I hate it when summer ends too. Autumn for me feels like the world is dying. I'm not ready for the season to change again, but change it must. Just yesterday I saw a raven fly over the pool, cawing like a maniac. It was almost like he was announcing the approach of fall and the nearing end of summer. I wished right then I owned a BB gun...
SouthernProgrammer(08/24/2009)
Oh well, I am already making plans for NEXT summer. Trying to arrange to get two weeks off straight and I plan to be at the beach the entire time!
what?(10/17/2009)
aren't you in the south? Where are you that it isn't still summer?
JobSchmobber Community Comments
dontask 0 :) (08/20/2009)
Love your musings and observations, keep them coming!
Once landed on unemployment for quite a spell including summer, best time the kids ever had. We included job hunting as part of the routine. Wherever we went we looked for a chance to leave an application. The youngest learned to read and write legible - at least until school started again.
Just being there counts for much. As you said, simple is best.
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