This past weekend, while not long in the sense that most people might think of a long weekend (i.e. more than two days), it felt long and was physically exhausting. Why, you might ask? Well, it all started back on Friday with plans to leave for Vermont by myself around 4 in the afternoon. The whole purpose of my trip this weekend was to finish the pavilion that was started a few weeks ago. As such, I wanted to get up there on Friday while it was still a little light out so I could set a few things up, unload the van, and prepare myself for work on Saturday. Well, as most often happens when plans are laid out, mine were foiled. My wife wasn't feeling well on Friday, a little sick to her stomach, and was having trouble watching our son by herself. This actually worked out a little better for me in the short term as Friday was by far the most humid and felt like the hottest day of the week. I was going to leave early anyway, but instead I left about an hour earlier to go home and help watch our son. So I got home, watched our son, put him down for a nap, and then ran some errands to get supplies I needed for Vermont. Once that was done, I went back home, and got all my stuff ready to go. He woke up, and I continued to help watch him. My wife wasn't feeling much better through the day so I stayed home until he went to bed around 6. During the course of the afternoon, I would make periodic trips out to the van to pack it up and get set to go. I wasn't able to finish packing everything while he was awake, so when my wife went to put him to bed, I finished the packing. With our son down, my wife relaxing, it was time for me to hit the road at 6:30 in the evening. My thought was at least I would get up there and be able to get everything set up super early in the morning. The drive wasn't horrible as I missed most of the rush hour traffic, but it still took about 3.5 hours. I was trying to make it before it was completely dark, but that didn't quite work out. Oh well. On the drive up, however, I was treated to an amazing lightning show. As I was driving up I-91 in Vermont, there was a massive cloud was ahead of me in an otherwise cloudless sky that would light up every few seconds with a bolt of lighting, sometimes a few at a time. It was really cool to watch and at the same time, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to drive through the inevitable rain that was probably happening underneath that cloud. As it turned out, I got to see the lightning, but no rain as the cloud was a little too far north for me to drive through.
So when I got to Vermont, it was pitch black and sprinkling a little bit. The drive up to the campsite is beautiful in the day time and little bit freaky at night as there are no lights, no houses, just a trail surrounded by trees that only the headlights of the van can light up. Once I got there and unpacked just the necessities (meaning beer, pillow, clothes in that order), I tried to relax. It took me over an hour before I was tired enough to go to bed, about 11:30, and at that point, I had to find one of my dogs. I let both of them off the leash and free to roam when we are in Vermont as they never go that far. The older one, Princess, wandered off for a bit and then hung out with me in the shed. The younger one, Aspen, wandered off, and I didn't see him till I started calling for him. Calling for him didn't even work. So I had to go searching. I found him at the other side of the clearing rolling a tire down the hill to occupy himself. For those of you that don't know, Aspen is a maniac, smart, but also a little psychotic. He has figured out how to grab a car tire, roll it down the hill to the stream, and then fetch it by himself. So that's what I found him doing in the pitch black at 11 at night on Friday. Once I actually got him to drop the tire and come to the shed, I wound down and passed out. Saturday was a rough day. I woke up and right off the bat my back started hurting. Either I didn't have enough water to drink the day before or I pulled something. Regardless of what it was, I knew it was going to be a long day. Breakfast was finished by 7, I unpacked the van and set everything up by 8, and then went to get the rest of the lumber I needed at the lumber yard. By 9 I was back and started working. Despite my back hurting and having a severe lack of motivation to do anything, I didn't stop working till about 630/7 on Saturday evening. I finished getting all the roof joists up but had yet to start actually installing the roof. I physically couldn't do anymore and called it quits for the day. I cooked up some burgers, started a fire, and began to relax. I actually fell asleep in the chair by the fire a few times and by 9:30 I was ready to actually go to bed.
Sunday, woke up a little before 6, cooked breakfast and was back working by 7. I got to work putting on the roof and didn't stop till I was done, about 11:30 in the morning. At that point, I still had to run a few errands before cleaning up the campsite and heading home. My plan was to leave between 12:30 and 1, however, I didn't actually get on the highway till almost 2. I just wanted to get home at that point, so I booked it. I think I made it in record time. I pretty much traveled the whole trip in the left lane doing about 80 mph. The speed limit for the most part is 65, but there were plenty of cars on the road so I was hoping that by keeping up with the other speeders that I would avoid getting pulled over. As it worked out, I only saw one police officer on my side of the highway and he already had someone pulled over, score! The whole rest of the way I didn't see any cops and I made it home in 3 hours and change. I managed to shave a little over 25 minutes off my trip. I am just happy that the pavilion is done and that I don't need to worry about it anymore. On top of that, we now have a covered area to protect us from any potential rain we might get up in Vermont. Things are slowly coming together up there. However, my back is still acting up a little bit so today should be fun at work. We shall see how it goes. In any case, time to get cracking and get myself ready for another day at work. With a working weekend, I won't be getting any days off anytime soon. Oh well, I'm still young and can handle it right now. We shall see how much longer that lasts for.
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