Roughin' It

Before I was born, my parents took my three sisters camping. And it rained. All weekend. And my mom swore right then and there that she would never go camping again. Hence, why the closest thing to camping I have ever done was sleep, one time, in a tent in my backyard. And I am not completely convinced that I even made it all the way through the night. In fact, I am pretty sure I didn’t, because I didn’t get it. What was so great about this?

When Workaholic was about three years old, his parents bought a trailer home on a piece of land his uncle owned on a beautiful little lake in Michigan. They started going there every weekend, and eventually spent their entire summers up there. They had cable TV, and their own beds, and running water. For obvious reasons, they never really got into camping either. The joke in his family is that camping for them is the Holiday Inn.

Flash forward 30 years to Friday night. I had taken the day off of work so I could get to the cottage in Michigan while it was still nice out. Workaholic called and told us to “batten down the hatches”, because a storm was on the way. No biggie…we had a terrible storm the weekend before and we all lived. Even if we thought we were going to die. But that’s a story for another time.

The storm came and went, lots and lots of wind, and some rain, and lightening. Nothing crazy, just a really good summer storm, in my personal opinion. It didn’t even last very long. So we’re just sitting around, watching TV and chatting, and then the power went out. Hmmm…

We were soon to find out that a tree branch had fallen on a power line a few houses down and started a fire. And then a transformer blew somewhere else down the street. We are in Michigan, so this might take a while to fix. Things seem to flow on different time there. Looks like we’ll be roughin’ it. I start to seriously contemplate going home…I mean, no TV, no toilet, can’t open the refrigerator, why stay?? I could go home to a perfectly cool house, with OnDemand and internet access. Here…we just have a lake. With sewer water flowing into it because of an idiot neighbor.

Before I know it, a generator has been produced. (turns out marrying into a construction family comes in handy for multiple reasons) The first thing to get hooked up is the fridge. The next thing? The TV. And finally, the pump for water. Yes, we know how to prioritize.

We were out of power for about 30 hours. It was the longest 30 hours of my life. I don’t understand camping, or why you would do it. Where do you pee? How do you take a hot shower? Don’t you realize how difficult it is cooking everything on the grill? (not that I personally did any of the cooking) Do you really sleep on the ground?? I just don’t get it. Just like when I was 8 years old and attempting to “camp” in my backyard.

So yeah…we were roughing it this weekend. Cable TV and all.