Switching lanes...

With last week's long Labor Day weekend, we now shifted our focus towards home/yard/fall acftivities. This is always a big change for us. Seems each March we begin in earnest to prepare for the boating season; cleaning, repairing, listing; loading; rearranging and the inevitable bottom painting. By April we're in full swing, spending a good deal of time each week, getting ready for the much awaited launch. In early May we're antsy. Not quite done with our prep work, but eagerly awaiting our first weekend out on the ocean. By then we can taste the first quahoag of the season - to the point we're almost dreaming about it! And once it arrives, we savor that first trip out. Of course the first trip is also the one where we realize we forgot to load essentials such as coffee filters or boxers for the boys (don't ask) or even the oars for the dinghy. But by mid-June we're in our rhythm and looking forward to each Friday when we jump into the van and drive towards Sconticut Neck Road - and tranquility.  Come August we've either just returned from or perparing for our annual 9 day boat trip, and all the fun and adventure that brings, yet the end of August, neither quahoags nor perfectly grilled hot dogs are appealing to me, yet we know we've got one more  big weekend coming, and it too will be as better as or better than the previous year's outing. After that time however, spending our entire weekend away from the hosue and our responsibilities lose their appeal. By then I for one am thinking about visits to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch. Of leaf peeping, and corn mazes. I'm ready to put my water shoes away, put on sneakers and walk on dry land for a few months.  And that is where I am. Done with weekend on West Island, done with carefully planned weekend meals packed into oversized marine coolers, and done with having sand between my toes for awhile.  But worry not - come March, when I begin to gather what I need for the 2010 boating season, the very first time a little sand falls out of one of the oodles of bins we pack our boating essentials in over the winter, I'll be magically transported back to the boat...and all the promises it holds...