5

 I've decided to update this the morning after that day - so it's actually morning Day 6, right now, but telling the story of Day 5.  It's a very ancient journalling technique of "I'm too effin tired to document so I'll do it in the morning".  You've probably never heard of it.

So we woke up, and it was clear and quiet, but definitely time to haul everyone to the bathroom.  I discovered the best way to get Aaron from his sagging bed into the wheelchair is to reinflate his bed while he's sitting in it, a technique that very much amused him.  We sat out until around noon and I got this completely professional shot of our little homestead with our two small trees.

Kitties are close to the tree to keep them in the shade.

The kids wanted to go to the pool, a thing which is probably a shock to everyone here.

As a side note, while both young men require 24 hour a day care, they're not actually children-kids.  They're just my kids, and I haven't figured out a way to refer to them that makes it clear that they are adults.  The dudes?  No, that's my dear friend Eldon and his hubby Greg.  Two yutes?  Well, that cracks me up.  The gang?  Are there enough of them for that?  The offspring is a band.  Spawn makes it sound like they hatched from frog eggs.  Which, you don't know, maybe they did.

Anyway.  The kids.  They wanted to go swimming.  So I put the kitties in the tent because I get very nervous about leaving them out in the crate - like someone might steal them, maybe.  Or like it would rain.  Maybe if they had a real play area with shelter, but still feels nerve wracking.

I took the gang of two yutes over to the VIP bathroom to shower and change into our suits so we wouldn't be hauling clothes back and forth.

Aaron did not want to shower, but gave me a grumpy "FINE" when I pointed out the pool rule is shower here or hose off under the icy outdoor shower.

We had enough money from friends left over after groceries that we were able to get Aaron his favorite camp food - a hot cheese pizza, plus a coffee for me, and a jar of pickles because I needed to have them.

So Aaron and I sat out on the deep porch of the general store and ate lunch and Joey ignored us and got immediately into the pool.

I ate the pickles with a fork - spicy bread and butter pickles, perhaps not the healthiest lunch, but my goodness did they perk me up.  I heard the ladies inside discussing getting us forks when Aaron's pizza was done, and one said "I gave them forks already so she could eat her pickles."

"She's just eating pickles out of the jar?"

Yes, yes I was.  And they were amazing, and I would do it again.  

While Aaron was eating, I went inside to ask if they maybe had a handyman with an allen wrench.

"Yeah, Denise," says the younger woman, tilting her head toward the Boss Lady, who is Aaron's Best Friend in this campground, as far as he's concerned.

"What do you need?" she asked.

"Aaron's brakes are a little loose," I said.  "On his last chair we used to tighten them up with an allen wrench between repairs."

She and I went back out and investigated Aaron's chair while Aaron chirped happily because he really likes Ms Denise.  Her tools did not fit his brakes, so we'll have to call around and get it officially repaired.  It's not an emergency, they're just a little loose.

"Don't park on a hill!" Ms Denise told Aaron.

"No cliffs!" I told him, and he snorted.

We swam for a good long while, and even the kids, who don't have much experience with sunburn, needed sunscreen.  Historically, while Joey passes for white most of the time, during the summers spent outdoors he would get brown and look more like his brown-skinned brother, who could get very dark in the summer.  Back when I used to be willing to joke with their father (a violent, dangerous man), we used to joke that in winter Joey looked like my kid, and in the summer, he looked like his father's child.

While in the pool, Aaron can walk, as he proudly shows us.  Despite not doing so for decades, he also just stood in place.  Mostly he paddled around like a fish who dog paddles.   He is also able to get himself up the stairs and back into his chair by using the handrail and leaning on me a little.

My buddy!

I got to sit back and relax long enough to take this picture:

I've got legs.  At least two.

And then Joey was out of the pool, as ominous clouds were moving in.

We got dressed in the bathroom, then got set back up in the tent.  Joey helped Aaron get set up on Multiversus so they could play together, as we've found the TV cord in Joey's Finn Mertens backpack.  Where I packed it, probably so I could easily find it again.  Go me!

The rain came in LOUDLY.  We had to shout at each other in the tent.  The winds were impressive too, but less than 20 mph, so more bark than bite.  I had made sure the rainfly was where it should be, so we stayed nice and dry, though Aaron was worried and the cats had concerns.

Scruntie do not like.

The younger cats chilled out by hogging my pillow.

I sleep there, or I would.

Duchess survived the terror by stuffing herself beneath Joey's blanket pile, and that's ok.  We don't judge valor here.

Joey slept through the storm pretty peacefully.  Aaron played Multiversus until I sternly ordered him to bed - and you try sternly ordering a Gremlin to do anything, boy was that a process.  I put on Detective Pikachu for him so he had a movie to distract him while I tried to nap.

The only part of that he liked was me reinflating his bed while he was on it.

And he did wake me up repeatedly, again, by shaking my foot to ask for reassurance that we were fine.  We were.

This morning is cool and beautiful.  

Ser Pounce-a-lot and Spaghetti were excited to have the windows opened.

Pouncy and Sketti, as Aaron calls them, try to find the bird they hear out there.

Duchess and Scrunt are ok too.

"I still hate you," Duchess tells Scrunt.