We Both Came Back Blog

Let's face it, married to either of these geeks I would have way better electronics and vacations...not to mention 53 Corvettes.

Well, my “3/5’s of the Great Lakes” adventure wasn’t a total disaster… but judging from posts here and my personal email account it seems more than a few of you were worried by my long blog absence. Yes, we both made it back. There were no mysterious ‘lake dredged for missing spouse’ stories in the news, so why the concern?

Anyhoo, it all began Saturday when…

Mr. Right wanted to visit his Aunt and Uncle in Ontario for fishing on Lake Erie. Fully aware of my psychopathic dread of large cities, he proposed a northern route that would allow for sightseeing and quality time with the Corvette. We wouldn’t even have to pack fishing tackle, as that would be provided. Great. Agreeing, I began to pack appropriately.

Now a little background is needed here. Mr. Right’s two favorite activities are procrastinating and perfectionism. When he combines the two, it’s like an unstoppable cosmic force. I can ask him to do twenty important, necessary tasks and he will not act on them. If I however make one little offhand comment, one suggestion or “someday it would be nice” type request, he will put off all those needed items to focus obsessively on the whenever chore. This way he can procrastinate on the big stuff, focus on the trivial and drive me up the wall. Win-win-win!

So in a flash of ‘why-on-earth-did-I-say-that?’ that will live forever in infamy, I sarcastically mentioned that the whole reason I bought him an MP3 player for Father’s Day was so he could have portable tunes. (The radio in the Vette doesn’t work. Plus, he could have had the player working by now.)

To clarify: the pets buy me something for Mother’s Day, and him something for Father’s Day. So I went a little wild with the MP3 player. So sue me.
If I knew then…

Instead of the important chores on hand (pack, check car, mow lawn, etc.) he now had a trivial quest to devote his undivided attention to for the next fourteen hours. Suddenly the most pressing matter in the universe was getting EVERY CD WE OWN on that *&#%!! electronic device. This took hours of software downloading, direction reading, CD loading, computer crashing, expletive-laced time-consuming effort. Oh yes, that was way more valuable than a good night’s sleep before a day on the road. Much more productive.

At 3 a.m. he asked what time I would be ready to leave. When I’m damn good and ready, I replied icily. Mr. I Don’t Need Sleep, Right? acted all hurt and dejected when I refused to let him drive after being awake over 24 hours. As I had the most rest, I drove all the way up to Bayfield Wisconsin. It didn’t get relaxing until the very end of the trip where the traffic was light and the scenery tranquil. Actually, the best part of the whole trip was that he wasn’t paying any attention to me, just jammin’ out with his little headphones. Hope it felt good, Captain Procrastinate.

We decided to check out the Apostle Islands by taking a ferry over to Madeline Island. Now I don’t get the whole connection as to which apostle was named Madeline, and I certainly do hope Dan Brown plans on addressing that in his next book, but whatever. For $42 we were granted passage with the car, so it became a big occasion, as this was Baby’s First Ferry Ride and I had to whip out the camera. I can recall how upset I was when I left her on shore to go to Mackinaw Island one year, so despite the cost I was only too glad to take her. Nice to know I wasn’t the only nutcase photographing my car on a ferry, as another couple were doing the same with their little brown Fiat Spider. Awww!

Once on the island, I saw that this was a popular ‘show off your cool car’ destination as we were greeted by Vipers, Porsches and VW Microbuses. We ate dinner lakeside in a nice restaurant and explored the island a little. Very pleasant, I wouldn’t mind going back, but not a must-do. Just a nice diversion on a summer evening.

Who knew how to take pictures at sunset? I did. Who knew how to take close-ups of flowers? I did. Fireworks? Ditto. Extended Zoom? Yep. All in all, I was very impressed with the camera. The only thing I couldn’t find was a fill-in flash. There was nothing in the directions about it, and I guess I need to just force the flash on at all times if I need the extra light, so unfortunately some faces are very dark. But hey, the ones of the car came out ok, and that’s all that really matters. People Smepole. I’ll leave portraiture to the experts.

Next Post: I contemplate opening a Bed and Breakfast(bar)