One of our activities was to relive our days at Seneca Lake. Poor Mom. I say poor Mom as she is 82 now wondering where she went wrong because her 3 girls that were now in their 50's were acting like teenagers and dragging her all over the place just so her supposedly sane children (except for one) could relive some stupid memories that she couldn't even remember of Seneca Lake!
We were at the lake every weekend as kids. We had a nice motorhome and a boat. I learned to water ski. Dad taught me how to pull a skier. I was proud that I could pull a skier. Then the realization hit, dad needed someone to drive the boat so he could ski anytime he wanted to. Hmmmm. Pretty smart on Dad's part. We had friends that had cabins all around the lake. So Dad let us take the boat out and visit our friends. Then there was the night that all of us kids were allowed to sleep ,,,,,no I wont' go there. I'll just say that story had a horrible ending!!
To everyone else this scene would have looked like a bunch of old women that were overly plump that may or may not have been drinking. Of couse we were feeling like we were teens again, so we didn't have a clue how we really looked. A brave nice man and his daughter helped push the car out of the ditch. I already feel bad that we can't do this by ourselves, but,to make matters worse his daughter had a broken arm and had to help us out of the ditch. This is ridiculous, old age. Poor Mom just sitting in the car waiting to get on with our reminising, hanging onto her cane just in case. After we got our nerves settled (the culvert gave us quite a jerk ~ the jerk to our heads was kinda funny, all of us sitting in the car minding our own business when bam, our heads went back and forth as we hit the culvert reminded me of the song "the people on the bus go up and down" only it was us in a car with our heads going back and forth). Finally out of the culvert, we started out on our next adventure.
We had to backed up again just to get out onto the street. Suddenly.....BAM, Darcy backed into a tree. You can't make this stuff up. Heads again going back and forth just like the people on the bus!At this point I'm sure the man that helped us out of the culvert must have thought we drank our lunch!! We laughed so hard we had tears rolling done our pants! Poor Mom. I don't think she ever let go of her cane for the rest of the trip!!
On to the next adventure. Finding the ROCK. Poor Mom, she put up sitting in the car most of the time as she is 82 and can't really tromp through the woods like us "teenage" girls. After her agreeing that she was fine in the car, off we went to find the famous ROCK.
We trudged through the woods which was full of poison ivy, need I say more? We got lost several times, and then we found IT. The Rock!! Darcy had it in her head that she wanted to skip rocks across the water which entailed her climbing down a steep hill to get to the beach where the rocks were. Now keep in mind that we sisters are all in our 50's. 50 year old women do not climb down steep hills. You just don't do that unless...you hand your Vera Bradley purse to Kelly. Then it makes it alright for a 50 year old woman to climb down a steep hill. Why she wanted to do this is beyond me, but, she did.
So off she goes, down over this steep hill to the beach. Let me remind you that Darcy is the same one that backed into a culvert (so deep it was up to my knees when I stepped down into it) and then backed into a tree a few minute later with her car making the man next to us think to himself, "Yep, their drunk!" Darcy can cook but she can't drive. Nor can she climb down a steep hill now that she is 50 something. We (while Kelly still holding the Vera Bradley purse) whatched in horror as Darcy rolled down the hill uncontrollably. Since Kelly did such a great job of holding the Vera Bradley purse, it didn't get dirty!! As for Darcy...well you can use your imagination. She skipped a couple of rocks while being down there. Might as well, that is what she went down that steep hill to do.
Ok, the Vera Bradley purse should have been a sign that we can't get down the hills without rolling uncontrolably to the bottom. We are in our 50's not teenagers as we still haven't admitted to oursleves. But, we were so far into reliving our childhood that it didn't even cross our minds that if you rolled uncontrolably down the steep hill how did you think you were going to get back up the steep hill and still look like a lady? You're not. Our muscles are NOT like they used to be. And our butts are a little bigger which doesn't help the situation much. Kelly still holding the Vera Bradley purse tried to help Darcy back up the hill. There were some moans and groans and a lot of stuggling going on all the while the Vera Bradley purse was still being held by Kelly. I don't remember a lot about the situation because I was visionallizeing having to call the man that had been next to us at the picnic area helping to get Darcy off the beach. Or worse, hooking up a rope to the back of Darcy's car and pulling her out with poor Mom hanging still hanging onto her cane! But, some how I'm was holding the Vera Bradlye purse and Darcy and Kelly are wrestling trying to get Darcy out of this situation which both were about to tumble back down the steep hill which would have put both of them into the lake! As Mother Teresa would say, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” Ya, there would have been a lot of ripples if they both had fallen into the lake. And since we were feeling like teenagers, how would we have explained that one to Mom which still holding onto her cane??
Now, on with the birthday gift I gave Darcy this year. When we were teens (oh brother, another teen story), Darcy decided to have a portrait drawn of us girls by this professional portrait painter in Wheeling. The painter came on a good recommendation. So, we decided to have her do a portrait of us and give it to Mom and Dad for Christmas.
I think we started this project back in July with many, many, many sitting so the painter could get everything just so. When she finally had the picture finished not one of us on that canvas looked like us! We were stunned to where you can't say anything. Now what? Do offend the lady and tell her that it looks like crap when the expression on her face was one of proud even obnoxious about the painting. We couldn't do that because back then we didn't know how to ask for our money back because the picture looked crap! We stood there with our mouths hanging open, took the gawd awful picture and out the door we went.
Now the question was do we go ahead and give it to Mom and Dad for Christmas which it was intended for, or, do we throw it in the garbage. Since we had paid a good bit of money for the picture we decided that it was Mom and Dad's christmas gift that year good or bad You should have seen the look on their faces. They didn't even know who it was! So, we explained that it was us girls and they both kinda of smiled and thanked us for the great present. This may have been the first time they had ever lied. Mom being as sweet as she is, hung it in her living room for years. Jaime told me that when she was little that it scared her to look at it. So, when she went to visit Grandma and Grandpa she refused to look at that picture. Scaring little children like that. "Please, Mommy, don't take me in that room because it scares me!" That's how bad it was. After a while we finally admitted to each other that it was the worst painting we had ever saw and off the wall it went. Never to be seen again. Finally the ugly picture was forgotten. Until one day....
Jodi was cleaning out her attic and I was helping her. That picture flew out of the attic like it was haunted or something. All this time waiting in the attic to attack us and make us hang it up again. It was scary.
So, I decided to wrap it up it up real pretty (I threw it in an old cardboard box) and gave it to Darcy for her birthday. After Darcy pulled it out of the box, we were in shock to see that crappy picture again. We all just stood there for a minute and then we all started laughing because that darn picture had made it's way back into the Springer family once again. We all made our comments about it and how we had to go to so many sittings and begging Mom to take the thing down we all hated it. I think it will be our pass around gift. Who has the next birthday? Think about it, who wants to hang that thing in their house.
Now onto the trailer. Seems some attorney (that will remain nameless but his intials are JV) hadn't filed the paper work which puts the trailer into the next auction. So, Darcy and I had a little sit down for plan B if plan A falls through. In the meantime (since Feb) I have been living in a so called "storage unit". Another words my apartment turned into a storage unit because I started packing back in Jan/Feb for this move that should have happened around April. I can't stand it. All this choas all around me. Not one room doesn't have a box or 10 in it.
This is my living room. Even the trailer is cluttered with supplies I need to clean and paint.
So Kelly decides she is going to help me get rid of some of the stuff that I don't need and take it to the little church up the street for their yard sales. Kelly said that we would do 10 boxes and then we would be done for the day. So I agreed. When she tried to help me with my clutter we got rid of
some stuff, but, all we really did was move boxes from here to there. I used
every excuse in the book so I wouldn't have to get rid of "my stuff". She felt
so bad because she wanted to help me but didn't have the "tools" she needed to
get through this thick skin of mine. When I came across the State Farm stuff, I ended up having a good - sobbing -
shoulder - shaking - one hour - cry. I upset Kelly so bad because all she wanted to do was to help me. But what she doesn't understand that one hour cry did me so much good. I needed to get that out.
If anything good came out of that "helpful nightmare"
was the time we got to spend with each other. The one on one time. She is
very supportive and I appreciate that support and I need that support more than
one knows. So, thank you, Kelly, for trying. Darcy and Mom have also been so
supportive as well as my girls. They are all very concerned and everyone does
what they can. I do appreciate all of you!Well, I think altogether we got about 4 boxes done. Poor Kelly comes home for a nice relaxing visit and finds all kind of things going on with her family.
I know that this is a long post, but after all, it is for the entire month of June!!
Everyone says to me why do you keep working on that trailer? You may not get it and then you are out of all that work you have put into it. Well the way I see it:
- I will be able to pay for it out right. That means all I'll pay is for lot rent which is $200.00 and electric compared to paying $600 for this apartment and all utilities.
- It also gets me out of the so called storage unit "apartment".
- It's good therapy for me.
- I like doing the painting and stuff.
- It's so old, how could I mess it up?
- While I'm working on the trailer, this is how I see the end results someday:
We know that God has a wonderful plan and purpose; God is not working in any haphazard way, nor is He working with any degree ... that God is working on a plan and purpose, and that purpose is being fulfilled right under our very eyes, ...
Thanks everyone for your support and love and concern for me. I'm getting there!!
I love you all.
Dana
No comments:
Post a Comment