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Thursday, July 25, 2013

“You’re Up Early”




Laundry doesn’t do itself, so when the sky begins to lighten I’m up and making coffee, and soon towels are sloshing around in the washing machine, giving me time to check e-mail before hanging wet laundry outdoors on the line. If it rains? Towels will be softer when they eventually dry. No problemo.

Perhaps I need to apologize to all the friends and acquaintances and customers and strangers who have given or sent me links or books or mss. or DVDs in the last month. The truth is that I have not yet looked at, read, or watched all these undoubtedly fascinating offerings. Running my business and keeping my household fed and cleaned and garden watered and lawn mowed and dog exercised are top priority items. Other trump cards are e-mail with and publicity for and visits with and selling the books of scheduled guest authors. A commute to work on back roads (follow link to see more) is one way I recharge on busy days. That is one luxury I do not forego.



Less frequent are trips outside of Leelanau Township, but I made time Tuesday evening to go into Traverse City with David to meet friends from Walloon Lake who were picking up a new car. They were making the trip to TC, and it’s not nearly as far for us to TC as to Walloon Lake, so we seized the opportunity. On the way into town, I regaled David with tales of “old Saugatuck” from a book a friend had sent me. The old lumber mill town of Singapore, abandoned when the trees gave out and then buried by shifting sands so that not even a ghost town remains, was a new story to me. How about you? Did you ever hear of Singapore, Michigan? Then there was the art colony, which David remembered from his own teaching days in Paw Paw and Kalamazoo. If I’d wanted to get through more work, I could have been reading mss. or watching DVDs in the car on the way to town, but somehow – call me crazy! – it felt good to take the evening off and feel as if I were on vacation like all the rest of the world.



8 comments:

Carson said...

We went to Sleder's last time we were in town. First time I'd been there. Very cool antique atmosphere. Don't worry about the rest of the stuff: take care of yourself and the rest of your household. We love you! Carson

lynne rae said...

You'll have to ask Bill about the "Singapore Festival" he was involved with years ago, something about a float that looked like a toaster with pieces of toast (people, I think) jumping up and down.
And I agree -- we get to be on vacation sometimes, too, don't we?

Dawn said...

Vacations are good, no matter how brief. One of the disadvantages of being self employed is that it's too easy to keep working. All the time. You never enjoy the slow times because you're worried about it being slow, and you don't enjoy the crazy busy times because you're too exhausted. It's good you recognize this and grab those times to enjoy yourself!

P. J. Grath said...

I've been in vacation mode all evening, with my sister visiting from Illinois. We even stole away from the bookstore this afternoon (her friend kept it open for me) and got our feet wet in Grand Traverse Bay. Singapore Festival? Do tell! I mean, yes, I will definitely want to hear about this from Bill.

dmarks said...

Winona, Michigan is also an obscure place. And then there is Wabasha, Arizona. I found it on a postcard, and have never found any other reference to it.

P. J. Grath said...

I looked it up, read a little, and need to check a map. Maybe I've been through Winona.

Deborah said...

What fun if the t-shirt from Dad were hung right-side up so that people could read the message! I loved it.

P. J. Grath said...

I was more than a little surprised he would get me a shirt with a saying that changed the words of a Bible verse, but I love it!