Necessary Mutilation

Weight (drum roll here!): 191.4 lbs.

Well, I managed not to gain during cottage week despite eating like the natives and living the most hedonistic, relaxing lifestyle I can think of. We had the most wonderful time, and I still feel as if my body is rocking when I lay down at night, from all the lounging in rafts and such that we did.

The place was more beautiful than we knew it would be, as we rented it in winter and had no way of knowing that the landpeople had such green thumbs! You will see many shots of their lovely home next door, and their incredible handiwork. They were kind and accomodating people too, and when we needed things in a pinch (like a larger corn pot or how to keep the washing machine from screaming at me and shutting off), they were happy to come over and lend and item or a hand. They were also full of Westfield knowledge, as were the guidebooks I obsessively collected, allowing for us to find and visit several local hot spots. All told, we checked out the Farmer’s Market, a place called Crossroads which is a country shopping experience, a local museum and art gallery, a winery from the 1800’s, a casino in nearby Erie, Pa., antique stores, and a nearby harbor where we chose to do much of our swimming and rafting as the waters were calmer.

But mostly, we combed the beach looking for sea glass and cool stones which I love, walked the over 70 steps to and from “our” beach many times each day, and took numerous dips in the lake. We also made nighttime fires in the fire pit with wood the landlords provided, drank a lot and once set the grass on fire and tried to put the blaze out with kahlua (and then laughed ourselves silly at the thought after safely extimquishing it with water, instead). Clearly, I should not drink alcohol, as it went very quickly to my head and even a little wine made me sillier and stupider than usual. Once we brought wine and glasses with guests to the beach, and watched the sunset from there. We and our guests that night got quite snockered, and had a heck of a time struggling the chairs and bottles and ourselves back up the steps in the near dark afterwards. But thought that this too, was hysterical!

Oh, and did I mention the eating part? You know, bbq every meal. Laying out dish after dish in the cottage for people to make up their plates from, and trying to time the cooking of various meats with corn, salt potatoes and a hundred other dummertime delicacies that we either got at the farmers market, or that our guests brought. As we had quite a steady flow of visitors, we also accumulated more chips and watermelons and pasta salads than even Tom could consume, and came home with more food and containers than we started with! The fact that I still managed to lose a little weight, must be a testiment to the fact that I was also probably in non stop motion from sun up to sun down and beyond, and that nature provides many opportunities for aerobics that don’t feel nearly as objectionable as the treadmill etc. does at home!

Anyway, I took a billion pictures as well as am waiting for friends to send copies of theirs to me…and have selected some to post today. I hope to add more as more come in, and as I catch my breath between posts. If you are a blogger, you may already appreciate that it is very time consuming and labor intensive to get shots up…and this in part is why I didn’t blog until today, and so late. The other reason is one of pure exhaustion and the jarring nature of having to get back to reality by wading throught a weeks worth of mail and newspapers and other mundane things that make me want to escape back to the serenity that a lakefront cottage affords.

Well, I guess we’ll have to enjoy the memories instead…at least until next summer rolls around and we very likely do this all over again! And hopefully, some of our good friends who were unable to visit for various reasons this year will have a chance to next year. Some reasons were tragic, in fact, as Rose and Nancy’s mother died, and Barb’s vacation got cancelled over a serious work related matter.

I hope everyone reading here enjoys looking at these shots as much as I enjoyed taking them, and I dare say, I am not as self conscious about my looks and weight as I used to be, and can even post those of me in skimpy summer attire and no longer cringe! And the fact that I even wore shorts at all is quite new for me, and certainly enhanced an already wonderful experience!!

Please hover over each shot for the title or description of who or what it is of. I have purposely left off shots of some friends as they have said before that they’d have my head if I posted them without their permission…so only some people or shots are shown here, and hopefully are “g” rated and ok enough for all!!