Friday, Jul. 25, 2003 - 7:41 p.m.
Wow...what a week it has been!
Camping was absolutly awesome!! We arrived on Friday early evening and began to set up camp. The tent is a sinch, so that didn't take long. Rich went off to get us some firewood so we would be all set for the evening. After he got back we took the canoe out for our maiden voyage. I can saftly say that we had some bugs to work out! Mostly trying to get Yellow to stay still, sit down and stop trying to jump out of the boat to chase ducks (or other strange animal noises coming from the shore). We paddled to Round Lake and found a small beach occupied by a family of ducks. Yellow took care of them as we came in but unfortunatly they had left their mark. We now lovingly refer to the beach as "Duck Sh!t Beach". We cleaned it up with our oars and played a good round of frisbee with Yellow in the middle.
Next we headed back towards camp to continue paddling up the winding river. It was really quite beautiful. The water was calm and smooth and the land flanked us about 15' on either side. Some of it was land and some of it was cat tails with a crane or two hiding among them.
We headed back to camp for dinner. We took IMP's with us because - well, I wanted to experience dinner in the field. As you can tell, I survived! In all honesty, they were very good. I had beef tortellini and Rich had the chili. We also took along some boil bags. All you do is poor a little bit of water into this bag with a chemical pouch in it, place your IMP inside it and place the bag inside the original IMP box for 10 minutes. It heats up your dinner....and Bob's your uncle! IMP's also come with a desert, gum, chocolate bar, instant coffee, bread, powdered juice, hot chocolate, wet naps, salt and pepper and a spoon. Oh yeah....and a pack of matches! Each one has a different treat, dessert and drink. It was pretty exciting.
Obviously, I don't get out much!!
I built a fire (thank you Dad for teaching me that skill in Bancroft Easter weekend!). Just as I put a marshmallow on my stick, it began to rain. We chucked everything under the canoe and headed for the tent.
*Note to self....next time bring a tarp*
Saturday went much the same. We ate IMP's for breakfast and I marveled at the wonderful treats inside. I had pork and beans (didn't like that one) and Rich had sausages and hash browns, which was delicious. We went canoing, exploring and played with the digi cam. Yellow was a little better this time around.
The only other story I have to tell about the weekend is the story of Yellow and the chipmunks. At Bonnechere Park one must keep their dog onleash at all times. Well, Yellow is not that kind of girl. She's a hunter, a tracker, a ball chaser (a canoe tipper!). The resident chipmunks have become accustomed to nice camping people who feed them as the chipmunks "hang out" in the camp. So the chipmunks would come and poor tied up Yellow would howl and run to the end of her leash, jerking herself to the ground. The chipmunks would climb a quarter of the way up a tree, just out of her reach, and laugh. It wasn't until day 2 that Rich started coming up with plans to catch them. I won't go into any details, but he never succeeded. Poor Yellow, however, was in a frenzy all weekend. Okay, now for the rest of the week. Work has been going very well. Now that I have settled into a very relaxed atmosphere ( which was hard for me because I am a sticking to a schedule person), I started to feel better. It has been a new(er) group of children these past two weeks, which has been helpful. There are more children that are willing to listen and play games. The highlight has been that a boy with autism has been integrated into our room. He is such a fun guy to work with. It is so rewarding to create a bond with him and have him trust me. It is also a great feeling to communicate with him using words and sign language and have him return the communication, demonstrating his understanding of what I have asked or said. I enjoy working one on one with him, and it has made me more excited about the job I will be starting in September. Tonight Richard's parents have come in from the 'Sauga' to see him off tomorrow. Yup, he leaves tomorrow. So far I am okay, a bit sad, but okay. We'll see how I feel in a couple of days when there is no one to pick on me! That's all for now. We have an early start tomorrow, so have a great weekend and be good to yourselves.
