Day #47

Earlier in the week I wrote quite extensively about the dilemma facing me this weekend. My quandary lay in the question of whether or not to accompany the girls on a one night camping trip starting today. I spent many long hours convincing myself that this was a trip worth going on. I even rationalized the situation by suggesting that it would only be one night of hell if I truly did hate the experience of camping. I had done a pretty good hatchet job on my mental aversion to camping, and was actually ready to conquer the wilderness as I went to bed last night. I laid plans to awaken at 8am in the morning so that I could run, talk on the phone and still be ready to hit our 2pm camping departure date.

I ticked off the first two tasks in admirably smooth fashion. I dragged myself from a comfortable slumber at approximately 8:07am and proceeded to torture myself over the course of my now standard 13km run. The morning was certainly not stellar weather wise. It was overcast, cloudy and a touch on the cool side. No matter, I thought, almost all days start like this in Fort Hope. But as I came to the end of my morning jaunt I began to feel the first vestiges of August rain. At this point I still wasn’t particularly worried. In all likelihood, I figured, our trip would go on through rain or shine. I was so convinced that the trip would occur that my camping psych remained unwavered as I ventured outside after breakfast to go receive my phone call. At this point, the rain had started to rear it’s ugly wet head and descend in a steadier pattern from the blanket of clouds above. I reached the school, received a call from the family, played the piano and then finally decided to head back towards home. I wanted to make sure that I got back in time for our pre-departure camping meeting! As I walked out from underneath the awning of the school I was hit with a relatively large deluge of water, as it rolled off the roof. It was officially pouring.

When I got home I found Courtney and Jenette standing at the door with a birthday cake for me! It was a rather nice gesture, and they sang me a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday!’ They had managed to bake and ice the cake without me knowing, it was a wonderful display of stealth on their part! They even managed to make a cake featuring my favourite kind of icing, ‘Rainbow Bit!’ They admittedly chose this icing because it was their favourite as well, but it was still a thrilling coincidence! Perhaps we’re not as different as we think haha!

Shortly after this, Nanajean came over and stated firmly that it was too wet for her to camp! She said that it would likely be windy out on the lake and make for a rather frustrating canoe trip. She didn’t want any part of lighting a fire with wet wood, and advocated for a stay in the camping proceedings. She didn’t really have to fight anyone on this front. Everyone was fairly willing to throw in the collective towel and call of the camping trip for the day! To be honest, I’m quite shocked that the trip didn’t happen. The last three days have featured some of the nicest weather we’ve had in Fort Hope, and I was sure that mother nature had at least one more day for us. But, alas, she had other plans and we are now spending a nice rainy day indoors.

Thus far I have had a wonderful time listening to music and responding to the many wonderfully kind birthday wishes that I have received from people. Thank you to everyone, you make me feel so loved haha! 🙂 We are taking a page out of our camp playbook tonight. We will be making our own dough and baking pizzas! I’m rather looking forward to it!

Anyway, I just thought that I would reiterate one more time that I am not particularly broken up about not being able to camp and that I’m quite happy to stay home, ‘singing in the rain’.