May 29, 2007

Nap Interrupted

I've gone camping every Memorial Day weekend that I can remember. The extended family gathers at my parents' camp, a peninsula of oak trees surrounded by acres of cattails up on the river. About every ten years or so, we get a weekend of hot, sunny weather that fools us all into thinking it's summer, luring us into the icy river water. Most of the time, though, the last weekend in May is cold and rainy, not exactly swimming weather.

On Saturday, the air was cold but the sun was shining. I spread an old blanket out on a patch of grass and stretched out to take a nap. Close to the ground, in what scientists call the boundary layer, the air was warm and I could feel the spring sun against my jeans and sweatshirt. Taking a nap outside on a spring day is an incredibly peaceful experience. Unless of course, your frisbee-playing teenage sons decide to make your sleeping body some kind of target.

I was just waking up when I heard a frisbee swoosh by, just above my head. I sat up to yell at Boy in Black, and another frisbee cut by on the left, just barely missing my shoulder. "Cut it out!" I yelled, and in response, another frisbee zoomed by on my right, just inches from my hip.

I heard laughter, and realized that we had spectators. My parents, sitting comfortably in the shade, began chiming in with admiring comments. "Wow, what good aim Boy in Black has. Nice shot, Shaggy Hair!"

"I'm trying to sleep!" I screamed. Another frisbee swooshed by, so close that my hair stood up in the wave of moving air. More laughter came from the unsympathetic crowd in the lawn chairs.

Beautiful Smart Wonderful Daughter, lying on a blanket over near one of the tents, looked up from her book. "The more you scream, the more you just encourage them." She smiled smugly from the frisbee-free zone. I ignored her.

"If you hit me even once, you're losing your frisbee privileges!"

Boy in Black just laughed.

Outnumbered, I put the blanket over my head and tried to go back to sleep, ignoring the flying disks that hurtled past centimeters above me.

The sunshine didn't last, and much of the weekend was rainy, cold, or windy. But despite the coolness, it still felt good to be outside. My father gave With-a-Why his first sailing lesson. We played numerous games of cards. My husband and I took a long walk on the country roads up in the hills above the camp. We had a bocce tournament, old folks against the young folks, and the old folks won by a point. We sat around the campfire on Saturday night, with musical entertainment by my sons. Despite the cool weather, it felt like the beginning of summer.

View from the dock

The view from the end of the dock.

18 comments:

Yankee T said...

OOOH, great photo. I love sleeping in the sun.

S. said...

That picture is just exactly what summer should be all about.

skatey katie said...

you're losing your frisbee privileges!
p-f-f-f-t-t-t-t-t!!!!!!!!

Kyla said...

It poured here almost all weekend. We did sneak in some pool time on Sunday before the clouds overtook us.

Michael Campbell said...

Is the boat photo of yours? Beautiful old thing--very sailboaty. Looks a lot like one my dad made when I was a kid. Thanks for the stirred memory.

jo(e) said...

Picky Mick: The boat in the last post is my father's sailboat -- a seventeen-foot wooden sloop that he designed and built himself.

BeachMama said...

Despite the rain (and flying frisbees), it still sounds like it was the perfect start to the summer.

Anonymous said...

Hmm...next time BiB and Shag-Head want to sleep till noon, I'd suggest a 70s concert about 9:30 or so, say, Seals and Crofts or America--"I been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the ra-ain"--nice and loud. Steeler's Wheel and Ambrosia, and, oh, the Doobie Brothers! Nobody likes them anymore! When naps aren't respected, then a state of war exists, that's my approach. I know you love your kids, but sheesh...let 'em have it 'cause they're just beggin' for it.

AF

Linda said...

I spent the day yesterday wishing I'd gone camping. Reading this didn't help! I should have gone!

Liz Miller said...

I'm with AF on this one.

ccw said...

Beautiful picture!

I love AF's idea.

jo(e) said...

AF: Oh, I've played that Ambrosia CD you sent me at full blast, and it doesn't even wake them up. My kids can sleep through anything.

Anonymous said...

OK, but I bet a little Dan Fogelberg or Bread at volume 10 would enter their dreams and calm 'em down just a bit. "Baby I'm a want you..."

AF

jo(e) said...

AF: If I get into a musical war with my kids, I am bound to lose. Their music is louder and harsher than mine. And they've got the set of drums, the electric guitars, the piano, and the keyboard on their side.

I think next time they wake me up from a nap, I am going to start belly dancing. Teenage boys don't like to see their mother do that kind of thing.

Anonymous said...

Sure, but that's totally not fair...

AF

jo(e) said...

AF: What? Why isn't it fair?

I knew that in the end you would take their side ....

Anonymous said...

I'm not taking their side at all! I'm just saying it's a brilliant tactic--here we've escalated from Frisbee strafing to a psychological campaign employing David Gates and Bread to electronic countermeasures and now to Mom bellydancing! They lose when faced with ordnance that powerful--like any normal guy facing down mom's undulating belly, her dressed in scarlet pantaloons, they would run from the house mumbling like they'd been gassed, fumbling with their lips, their eyes sealed shut, bouncing off trees and tumbling headfirst into the shrubbery. The poor schmucks wouldn't stand a chance...
AF

jo(e) said...

(Laughing)

AF: You've got it exactly.