Kayaking is not for sissies

Actually, it doesn't take guts to kayak, just will.
Such a fun day!
We floated with a pair of loons for several long, quiet minutes.
So close!
It was awesome.
We paddled all the way around a small island in the large lake; scoping it for some possible camping...
The sun wasn't too hot, the bugs weren't too thick.
And I didn't even get sucked away by a current today!
Super sweet.
Then we found a store with some of the most amazingly delicious peanut butter cookies in existence.
We played with the GPS and (I) talked non-stop the whole way home.
We had a great conversation about how lazy we are, and we're mostly ok with that, but we miiiight just wanna start using the kayaks and bikes more often.
Also, we listened to the Lady Gaga CD I just got...
I know, totally not my style!
But it's oooooh-so catchy.
Groovy.

This little laptop of mine has been malfunctioning lately, and one day last week it just flipped me the blue screen of death bird and refused to boot up again...
It was sucktastic.
I fretted a bit about the data I might lose...
but then I realized that I couldn't think of a single thing that might be on this computer, unbacked up.
Maybe some writing...but nothing I could call to mind.
So I figured, what the hell?
If I don't know what's missing, it's not so bad, right?
So.
Now I have my puter back.
Let's hope the Best Idea I Ever Had wasn't just lost to the ether...

Tonight I'll have dinner with my sister and our two cousins with whom we grew up.
Our Grammy lived on the corner and we lived to her right and they lived to her left.
I just thought that's how life was supposed to be...
I didn't realize how lucky I was.
We built a tree house, they all taught me to ride my bike (I'm the youngest by 1.5, 2.5, and 4.5 years), we played baseball and kickball and Red Rover and tag and freeze tag and tv tag; we played Monopoly and checkers and Clue watched Press Your Luck and The Price is Right; we dove into the thorny bramble of blackberry and raspberry bushes, coming out with stained faces and fingernails. We really had a beautiful and protected childhood. Our moms were always around and if they were busy picking crabmeat, our Grammy was right there, and we all sort of just wandered around the 'hood.
About the time our cousins launched into the social frenzy of jr. high, we moved to a house in another town, about 3 miles away. It was the end of an era. Everything was different. Still good, but...emptier, quieter. It was like two of my sisters had gone away to college or something. None of the devastation of a divorce, but just...a separating of worlds.
My sister and I eventually moved far away for college and marriage and each had two sons (all 4 in the last two weeks of July, weirdly enough), and they both built beautiful homes in that same town, married and raised dogs.
Very different lives in some ways.
Now that I live here again, I don't see them as much as I should, but I know they are here, and it feels good.
It'll be really great to hang out tonight.
To laugh and catch up.