Sometimes the Work Cuts To the Bone

This year has been a real challenge for me with adapting to working from home to seeing people I know and care about laid off in the workplace.  That doesn’t even count those that I know who have actually had the illness, which thankfully is not many.  I really struggled with not seeing people at first.  I have never been the kind of person to go to a movie by myself or go out to dinner alone.  I thrive on interacting with others and typically try to overfill my weekends with plans that fuel my social needs.  Rather than sulking in my lonely house and never getting out of my PJ’s, I decided to embrace the solitude.  I know that it sounds silly coming from someone who is happily married, with a young adult and two dogs at home, but there was still a sense of loneliness that I couldn’t shake.

I started with camping alone for the first time.  Since the outdoors is a safe place to be; considering how the virus is transmitted, I decided that immersing in the outdoors was my best option.  The beauty about my situation is that I now have 2 homes from which I can work from so I ordered WiFi for our tiny cabin and Tim built me what I refer to as my “Nature Desk”. 

Camping alone was awkward at first.  Once camp was set up, I felt like I had to be moving or I needed something to do.  It was the first time in a long time that I just sat and thought.  It got me to start looking closer at things, especially things in nature and things that are so small yet detailed and beautiful.

Now you see it:

Now you don’t:

I honestly felt like Alice in Wonderland or Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and I couldn’t agree more with Dorothy because “There’s no place like home” and I realize how truly fortunate I am to be here.

But, home is where my people are so naturally, after a day or two I get to missing my family and dogs.  So to balance things out, I decided the next time to add a dog to my adventure.  I just brought one, Mawby.

Mawby is a herder by definition, born of working dog stock.  She is a work-a-holic who doesn’t know when to stop and has a lot to say.  She has never been anywhere without another dog other than a trip to the vet or Tractor Supply, during which she flips out because half of what she does is herd the other canine.  So I thought it would be good for both of us to bond as master and obedient.  To my surprise, she barely made a peep the entire 2 days and nights.  She listened and never left my side.  She slept like a champ in the tent and cuddled- which never happens, and she paddle boarded at sunset on the big lake for the first time ever!

But then Tim gets to town on Friday and that’s when work cuts to the bone!  It was time to cut the concrete for the installation of plumbing.  We rented a concrete saw in Kalamazoo and Tim brought it up expecting to “cut through the concrete like butter”.  Unfortunately, it helps when they give you blade that is not dull.

In addition to a dull blade, the water line to the hose ruptured rendering it unable to complete the job.  This weekend turned to finishing exterior paint and other small projects that were left unfinished.  We would return the following weekend to take another stab at it!