Decisions…. big and small

Decisions .. big and small

Have you ever made a decision and wondered hmmm.. was that the right choice or should I have.. hmmm. We do it with food all the time. Should I buy this or maybe that, can we have that treat or should I fill up with veggies, maybe do the proteins? Skip the bread aisle or maybe just do the whole grains?  Yes, just too many decisions. 

Dam that lemon pie for calling out my name. I knew when I bought it that I would eat the whole dam thing, okay.. so I live alone. Some decisions are easy while others are not, well it was hard not to eat the whole pie. The smaller ones are easy to make or break. The fact is, we live and die with bigger decisions never made, for some people.

That could have been me, but fate intervened. Well, it wasn’t fate, it took courage for me to make the tough decision. Sometimes though, life throws you a curveball and fate plays into it. That is why I prefer making all my own decisions, not taking a chance on fate. I have found that once you have made a big decision, the smaller ones fall into place. Deciding not to buy that whole pie and just buying a tart instead, makes more sense, right?  (and a good choice… I felt so holy after) okay, so a little humour..

Real-life decisions are not always clear-cut. Living at the lake has always been a dream for me. I realized that dream for the first time last summer. Oh, we have always had a lakeside cabin, but being self-employed never gave us enough time to fully enjoy it. The funny thing is that when we had real jobs working for others we always had time to spend at the lake. Being self-employed and a caterer to boot, gave us precious little time, especially in during summer. With our BBQ business that is our busiest time.

My dream has me cutting grass, putting gas in machinery and boats, and coping with a lot of things that my ex used to do and that is not a bad thing. I took the pontoon boat out a couple of times until I got stranded on the lake, with motor problems, the ex could fix anything, but hey.. they have people for that right?

I ventured back to my city condo very little only to do laundry pay bills, and have a shower with real water (not lake water). Most of my summer was spent at the lake admiring the serenity and beauty that surrounded me.

A funny thing happened though, when you get what you always wanted. Hmmm… is this really what I thought it would be? For me, last summer was great and yes that is what I wanted. This year I am not so sure.

My water line comes from my son’s cistern and my sewer line runs into his septic tank, his cabin is beside mine. Ironic that we are ‘connected’ together once more, except now I am the ‘dependent’ one. My arrival there was later that year because he was busy and not available to start the water flowing.

A thawed freezer awaited my attention from a cord my son unplugged when he drained the water lines last fall. A broken water line under the sink.. dam! A week later plumbing problems forced me back home till he could fix it yet again. I had gone four days without a shower and hot water. My condo was looking pretty attractive with its hot water and two working bathrooms and I made delightful use of those amenities.

Once back at the cabin again, two unexpected house guests from hell made an appearance in the mouse traps I left behind. Can Hantavirus be far behind? I needed to buy that foam stuff and crawl under the cabin and find where they are getting in.. do they have people for that I wondered?

The weather was still cold, we were one week into June and the lilacs were just starting to bloom (an early May thing). I was missing my condo pool (heated) and hot tub. The lake water is much too cold for swimming and my bones are much more ‘attuned’ to the frigid waters… “don’t go in there” they are silently screaming to me!

When I made the hurried return to my cabin (my son was there to hook up the lake water line) I had locked it up tight and I had forgotten to bring drinking water.  So next morning I am up and making a perfect cup of coffee from the precious little water I had left from the last visit. I can almost taste it.

I have to say that my kitchen here is not user-friendly, I can only reach one cupboard. I am vertically challenged and the cabinets are too high, but they look good. The plugin is beyond my reach in a far corner. My light switch needs a wooden spoon attached to my hand, to flip it on! So I plug my coffee pot into the stove, but I have to pull the pot out from under the low cupboard so I can get the coffee pod in. Oh, and my microwave cord is never going to work without an extension cord hanging over my stove.. yep, definitely not safe, but wth this is the lake, right?

I keep my humour while doing all this and once again wonder, what were they thinking?  My son did the renos along with a friend of his.  My morning coffee is in my mug and I am looking forward to sipping it leisurely out on the deck.

I push the coffee maker back into the corner and while doing this I knock over the mug that contains this precious elixir that was destined to soothe my morning soul. oh crap !!

Suddenly a big decision starts looming..

I eke out enough water to make another cup and I retire to the deck to contemplate life, my coffee, and the view.. decisions.. decisions

edited and revised

copyright

original version, June 2014