Sing Around The Campfire

August 4, 2007. Tom and I went out extra early today for our morning walk, just to try and avoid traffic like last night. It worked too; we didn’t run into anyone on the road until the very end of the walk when I bumped into one of my favourite people just starting on her way.

During the afternoon it clouded over. Caitlin was still in a lot of pain with her back and Matias had her lie down and he started working on it for her. He was digging his elbow in, which was helping ease her back off, but she was crying, which had me all concerned.

Then out of nowhere, the wind whipped up from the north (first north storm since we’ve been here). Then it started to rain and rain hard. The wind died after about 5 minutes and after about 20 minutes the rain stopped and the sun came back out. So really, this did not qualify as a “real” north storm. Those storms are apparently very violent and causes huge waves also brings trees down.

By the time dinner was done, Caitlin’s back was feeling quite a bit better. Good enough in fact that Caitlin and Matias joined us on our evening walk. It was really fun for me to have them along and I was able to show them how well I respond to commands when traffic comes.

On the way back, Tom invited Teri and Perry to a campfire. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds like fun and I’m willing to try it. Tom and Matias went into the shed and started pulling out blocks of wood. Well, this will be fun then. I love blocks of wood. I hope they throw them for me.

Then we went down to the beach and Tom put several blocks into the rock area on the beach, the place he calls “Fire Island”. The next thing I knew, there was this stuff coming up from the blocks of wood. It was hot and had a strange smell to it. When it started snapping and crackling, it scared me for a bit and I backed away from it several times.

Matias talked to me and convinced me to walk around it with him and by the time I did that I was comfortable and flopped down in the sand beside Matias. Hmm, I could learn to really like this. It is so warm, and those things that they call flames are hypnotizing me. I feel so warm and sleepy, so I’m just going to put my head down here.

Then Perry and Teri arrived and set up their chairs, and we all sat there until late into the night. All the humans looked at stars and watched something called meteors, but I just laid there and soaked up the warmth of the fire and the hypnotic spell of the waves on the shore. So this is what a campfire is.

It is my first ever campfire, and Tom points out to Caitlin and Matias that this is his first campfire this year and we have been here for 35 days. This is very unusual for Tom as normally when they are at the cabin, they have a campfire almost every night.

This year, all sorts of things have prevented it. Tom has been sick. We have been alone (campfires are not as much fun by yourself). The weather has been too hot or it has been too windy. Everything was perfect tonight, so we were able to do it.