A summer outing

I successfully managed an evening outing to the Lake Michigan shoreline last evening.  My friend Jon invited a bunch of his friends, many of them musicians, to his summer cottage on a bluff, and specifically included a college-era group of compadres who came from far and wide.  It was a reunion of sorts for many of us.

I had some anxiety about going in the first place.  I could easily talk myself out of going. Where do I start?

• Hey, I'm in the middle of chemo!
• I'm always tired at night.
• I'm nearly an hour from being home if I suddenly feel like hell.
• The party is going to have a lot of great looking food and I can't eat very much of it.
• I'm completely bald and 40 pounds lighter- do I telegraph the aura of a cancer victim to those who may not know?
• Mary would probably have a lot more fun going alone and not worrying about me and having to leave early.
• Does my mere presence put a chill on things for some people? After all, who wants to be reminded of mortality at a party?

I managed to set aside my anxieties and focus on a strategy to enjoy a big chunk of evening out.  I chilled for most of the day, reserving my energy for later.  I started early (and often) on the oral thrush medication.  I hydrated as often as possible. We loaded and packed the food pump so I could "eat" on the way there and on the way back.  I packed a goodie bag of anti-nausea drugs. I focussed on the fact that I would get to see some people who I don't see very often and of whom I am quite fond. I reminded myself that I could sit in a chair at a party just as easily as I could sit at home in a chair.  We arrived around 6:00pm.

In my opinion it was perfect climate conditions; overcast (a bald man's friend) and warm with a nice breeze and a invigorating potential for severe weather.  Planting a bag chair at the top of the bluff, I surveyed the scene for at least an hour, absorbing a vibe that I found most pleasant.  I watched people arrive with instruments and food items, many of them with familiar faces and stances that had me flashing back nearly 30 years.  A small crowd also gathered at the beach.  I observed that the water was obviously, abnormally warm by the way congregants entered the waves without hesitation and how quickly they wandered to waist depth.

A pair of huge, shaggy dogs barreled down the steps to join the humans.  The looked a bit like Newfoundlands, except perhaps a bit smaller and with a striking black/brown/white color palette. (I grabbed a video of one of them as she later came back up the steps).  It gave me kind of a thrill to watch them bound through the sand without a care and indiscriminately introduce themselves to everyone on the beach.  They appeared so happy! Even small children and little dogs welcomed the visits.  Later I asked about the breed and was told more than once... I thought it was Austrian-something-or-other-dog... but I could not remember and could not find a picture on a dog breed website.

I eventually joined the party, starting in the kitchen- my comfort zone.  There was a huge fruit bowl, which was full of my easy-to-eat favorites.  I re-introduced myself to those familiar, if slightly older,  faces. College memories of these characters came pouring back.  I got some great hugs from some of the more special lost friends.  It was all extremely nice.

It didn't take long for the music to get started.  It was a smorgasbord of folk styles but many people jammed and soloed including Leo, the 12-year-old son of a friend who turned out to be both a delightful person and an amazing fiddle player.  He seems to be a bit of a prodigy because it turns out he can play just about any other instrument as well.  We talked a bit about his interest in music recording and video.  There were both musical leaders and followers and it was amazing to listen to it all come together with a mixture of the familiar and the new.


The evening climaxed for me with the weather front that we watched coming across the lake straight at us.  The clouds were rippled like dreadlocks and I could see the wind patterns darkening the water below.  It was all moving in 3D straight toward us.  There appeared to be no lightning so it felt safe to perch on the bluff and wait for impact.  When the wind hit it was exhilarating; warm strong gusts with no rain.  I let it whip through my untucked shirt and breathe vigor into my whole body.  It was a real high!  A few chairs may have flipped over and maybe a few plates of food but overall it did not dampen the party in the slightest.

A text message came in from Marlee about the same time that I felt like it was about time to go.  She was returning earlier than we expected from her overnight outing to her girlfriends's place up in Charlevoix.  If we left right away, we might just be able to get home before she did.  Mary and I said some quick goodbyes and felt our way back to the car.  Despite having a strategic getaway parking spot, we discovered there were a LOT of cars that came after us.  My final, manly triumph came as I abandoned a multi-point turn-around attempt and backed the car all the way down a long, auto-lined, single lane driveway with deep valley's on either side in the dark.  Marlee beat us home by about 15 minutes as we strolled in at 11:00pm, but all was well.