A Day At The Lake
Still. Here. “Can mom come?” I dunno, but that’s not my department. I resisted a stupid comment. “Sure, Shel. Did she ask you?”, I lightly queried. “She said it was her idea in the first place.” Okay. Um. What earthly difference does that make? Parent-mode engaging . . . “Why not? But we were supposed to go at ten and now it’s almost eleven.” “Oh, ‘kay – I’ll tell her to hurry up.” she responded brightly.
I brewed some coffee. In truth, I was feeling a bit dizzy. I woke up early, did some work and fell asleep for a few more hours, but it wasn’t enough. I sat out on the deck and started to doze in the brash sunlight. Dawn marched out about a half-hour later bearing cooking utensils. Through hooded eyes I could see that the grill has been started and was smoking grandly. “Hey – I thought Shel wanted you to go with us.” I mentioned. “Yes, that is correct. Obviously, she can’t go hungry.” Okay. Um. I thought I had that covered. “Yeah, so, what are you doing?” “Making turkey burgers. And roast potatoes. Are you ready, got all your stuff packed?” Stuff? I was wearing my stuff. “All I need is my car keys. How long do you think you’ll be?” “I believe that we may be able to leave at noon. Is the cooler cleaned out?” She had used the cooler two weeks prior to go to the same lake with my sister-in-law, Lynette. It had been left in the kitchen for a week and when I opened it, it was filled with rotting fruit and water. “Well, if you didn’t clean it out, it still has rotten fruit in it, I guess.” “Clean it out? Why should I do that? Why don’t you take care of that and hurry up because we have to go.”
So subtle, yet so effective. Making me wait, changing plans, adding tasks that extend the time-line well beyond the given estimate, co-opting the event, having me do tasks that aren’t my responsibility, things she promised to do and trying to make me feel guilty for not doing them and then, not doing them fast enough. Nice, very nice.
