Bionic Teutonic

Ariel and I got back two days ago from an (almost) week long trip to visit both sides of my family in Montana at Flathead Lake. We normally just head out to see my mom and my mom’s partner at their cabin during the summer, but this year, I wanted to go visit with my stepmother who just got free and clear of cancer, and to time the trip so I could see my brother and sister as well. Originally, we were going to go to Wildhorse Island (where my mom’s cabin is) first, but due to a dog emergency on my mom’s part had to switch the weekend we were going. I haven’t been to my dad’s cabin in a long time, and while it was great to see everybody I’m glad we switched the weekends. They are in this community of cabins that all shares a dock and boat slips and plenty of conversation, so not the most private of places, and I tend to crave my privacy when heading to the lake. We did a little sailing though, which was nice, and I managed to get in some yoga every morning. Wildhorse was fantastic as always, apart from the record breaking July heat, which was almost incapacitating at times. Didn’t matter though. We played lots of cribbage, ate good food, jumped off my mom’s new dock, and read books. I officially relaxed.

4th of July: I’ve decided this is a disturbing holiday. We went to go watch some of the fireworks from the boat, and the lake being on a reservation and all, the fireworks were pretty impressive, but the whole time it sounds like gunshots and explosions. I realize that’s kind of the point, but are we really supposed to be celebrating this? As we speak, these same sounds strike mortal fear into thousands of people overseas and somehow we are all supposed to cheer and enjoy the pretty colors? It just strikes me as cold-hearted, especially during wartime, to be pretending that battle has reached these shores, while it actually has for many others. Perhaps if we viewed the whole thing as a cautionary tale, like “This is what would happen if Canada invaded. We better make sure we stay friends with Canada.” (although I’m sure that’s not the lesson most americans would derive)

We did not end up getting the totally ideal condo we bid on. It ended up going for 50k over asking price! Holy shit. I thought those days in Seattle real estate were supposed to be over, but I guess not. Apparently there were plenty of other people who thought the condo was as ideal as we did. Hopefully we can find something else that comes close without encountering the same amount of competition next time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 11:13 am and is filed under Daily life, Travel. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.