Come On Get Happy

I just heard that song on iTunes and thought it described my feelings about the house closing. Yes! We closed on October 15th and we are now officially houseless and are loving it. No longer dealing with a monthly mortgage, crazy insurance people, pest exterminators, constant maintenance, and the task of mowing 5 acres every week throughout the spring, summer, and fall. We never really grew attached to this house the way we did the house in Los Gatos but we did have some great memories. My favorite were when Mom and Dad lived with us and when we had the big family reunions. We could sleep 10 people and during the reunions we had every bed filled. It was nice to have family together like that.

I've been working pretty hard in the park these last couple of weeks. I helped a host cut, split and stack wood. For those of you counting that was my 4th week working in the wood pit. I think next week I'm going to gracefully bow out of the wood pit for a while. Even in the cool weather you'll break a sweat stacking and hauling wood over to the wood shed. The good news is that it's great exercise and I imagine has been partly the reason for my recent weight loss.

The park has a Festival of Lights every year a week before Thanksgiving to the weekend after New Years. Starting in October crews put up light displays all over the park. Some are animated and others are just static lights. It looks like it's going to be beautiful. I hope we get some snow during the event. It will make everything that much more beautiful. The only downside is that we are pretty much stuck in the park the entire time the lights are on (4:30 PM or so until 10:30 PM) because the lines to get into the park and see the show are long. There is a secret entrance from the back of the park, through the soccer fields and down a dirt road that we can use -- if we can figure it out. I'm going to put the truck into 4WD and see what I can find. Should be some fun off roading at the very least.

I went over to stay with my favorite aunt last weekend. Her son and daugher-in-law needed to be out of town and didn't want her to be alone at night. We always have a great time together. It breaks my heart to see her losing her ability to get around. The body may be failing but she's sharp as a tack. She entertained me with stories about being a model in New York, being one of the women who smashed though the glass ceiling in her profession and how she did all of that while being a single mother raising two boys. She is an amazing woman. She also can't cook. While I was there she made a little snack for us before we had dinner. The snack was spinach ravioli that was microwaved so much the edges were hard and cold tomato soup to go on it. For all of her talents and know-how she has never been able to master cooking. I cooked dinner for us that night in self defense. I've always described her as a cross between Lucille Ball and Auntie Mame. That is not totally fair since I think she's a lot smarter than either of those characters but sometimes she is just like them. She really makes me laugh.

I've made good friends with the other hosts. We're a tight knit bunch - always ready to lend a hand to another host (that's how I end up in the wood pit so often). Since getting married I mostly refer to Matt as my husband and I have done so here with the other hosts. There is a lesbian couple here too who are also married. Even though most of the hosts are my age or older our acceptance has been complete. They refer to Matt as my husband too. The lesbian couple had an anniversary a couple of weeks ago and some the hosts decorated their campsite for the occasion. That's what I call acceptance. These are totally cool people.

The trees here are turning colors at an rapid pace. When it's sunny (like today) the forest we live in is full of colors. Due to my color blindness I can mostly see the yellows and sometimes the reds if they are solidly red and not too close to being brown. Every now and then I'l see an orange but I don't know if I'm really seeing orange or it's some other color that appears orange to me. In any case I have my own little world of colors that I am quite happy with. As an aside, most people with brown hair appear to have forest green hair to me. I know that people don't have forest green hair in the world of normal color vision so I call it brown. But it's forest green to me.

People have been asking what exactly do I do here at the camp to get our free site in the forest. I do a lot of things. As you all know I cut and stack wood, I keep the bathhouses clean, I police the campground and clean the cabins. It's a lot of manual labor and rather mindless. It keeps me outside a lot and I like that. Most of the time I put in my ear buds and listen to some good music while I work.

You may be wondering why would I give up my consulting practice and resort to being a camp host. To be clear I haven't given up my consulting practice. I have time during the day between my daily responsibilities when I work on Ocius business. I've written an article and have another I'm working that I hope will be published. I have an international client whose working time is about 8:00 PM my time so I can work with them in the evening and not interfere with my day job. Mostly I do this so we can be here in Northern Virginia close to my aunt for three months with a housing cost of zero. If I wasn't a camp host the fee for this wonderful spot in the forest with free electric would be $50/night. In addition to that I like the idea of being unplugged from the rat race for a bit. At the end of the day I walk back to the trailer, have dinner and don't think or worry about work for the most part. I have a lot of friends here who are doing the same thing -- unplugging for a bit. Taking a break. Reflecting on what comes next. I'm 56, my life is more than half over. Time to look at priorities.