Notes from Maine - 2023/04/30
Earl has a sore foot. It happens every spring. The vet always says that it’s an abscess (but they never erupt). The farrier always says that it’s an infection (but antifungal and antibacterial treatments don’t seem to cure or prevent the issue). Either one could be right, or they might both be wrong. I’ll soak his foot and he’ll be fine, I’m sure. He’s still getting around okay now, his foot is just a little sore. It’s frustrating to know it’s coming but nothing seems to prevent it.
I “opened” the camp last weekend. That means that I turned on the power and water, and unpacked everything that had been stored for the winter. It’s unusual to open a camp in April, but the weather has been fine. In the past, we’ve had hard frosts right through May, so I’ve been checking the weather daily, looking for any predicted drops in temperature.
About thirty years ago, we had a really warm fall. I was still swimming in the lake every day until October. My grandfather kept telling me that I was crazy. Nobody swims past September. But the temperatures were in the upper 80s every day (30+ C)—why wouldn’t I go swimming after work? Because nobody does.
That memory was the deciding factor in opening the camp. What’s the point of basing decisions on past behavior if the conditions are different? I’m up at the camp all the time right now while we’re working on Dad’s house, so I might as well enjoy it. Besides, the plumbing for the camp is extremely simple. In the past few years, I’ve helped my brother and another friend tear open walls and replace frozen pipes. It’s dirty, taxing work. But the camp isn’t complicated. There are only a couple of pipes and they come straight up from underneath. You could re-plumb the place in a day if necessary.
Mom is coming up next weekend. She ran out of projects to do at her house again. On the phone, she said, “You better have something for me to work on.”
I laughed. There are tons and tons of things on my list that she could work on, but my list won’t matter at all. She’s going to do whatever she wants, regardless of whatever suggestions I make. It’s the perfect time of year to get the front garden cleaned up and started with some new plants. This time of year you can plant some seeds, go inside for lunch, and then come back out in the afternoon to thin the seedlings that have already sprouted. I even got my little car tuned and inspected so she’ll have some independence. That car is twenty-four years old this year. It still runs just the same as it ever did. Cars have been around for 137 years or so, and for 17.5% of that time that little Toyota has experienced no real problems. My friend’s Hyundai is on its third transmission (under warranty), and the worst thing to go wrong with the Toyota was an oxygen sensor on the exhaust, which cost $32 to replace.
Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that Mom will have outdoor stuff to do on the nice days, and the Toyota for her adventures on the not-so-nice days. My list is not going to enter the conversation. It will be fun to see what she gets into. It always is.
