I’m not much into writing in a journal, but my good friend Soozie gave me this beautiful leather bound journal back in June, and I thought it would be good to start using it.  I was surprised with the gift.  We had met just south of The Bridge, at a restaurant I can’t remember the name of, but the food was good, and it was good to see her and her hubby again.  I was returning from a visit with Pam, and with all the rain, I needed the break.

I used to do a journal in high school… wow that was a LONG time ago! Hope enough happens that is worth remembering… and writing about; I live a very quiet life now.

I think this weekend I will do an inventory of food and supplies in preparation for winter.  I’ve been stocking over the summer as best I could, even with my hectic work schedule.  What I’m extra pleased with is the garden:  it has done great, and I’ve canned more this year than ever before.  Being a Prepper has its advantages in the long run, but it’s always a lot of work, too.

Monday was the last day of work at the resort for the season.  I’m SO glad it’s over.  I look forward to it every spring, and then by Sept. 1, can’t wait until it’s done.  I’m past tired, I’m exhausted.  Doing five and six massages a day, 3, 4 even 5 days a week is getting too hard on this aging body, and 28 years of it, has taken its toll.  Maybe I should consider retiring, at least then I would have more time for the garden.  That last day I did six massages and injured my shoulder; it was a brutal day.  Of course it didn’t help that it was rainy and windy and cold.  At least now I can rest.

What I will miss about work are the people; and the conditions.  The Resort is over twenty thousand acres of privately held nature reserve.  Each day that I drive the five miles from the guarded gate to the compound where all the cabins are, is a delight.  Winding thru the lush forests of deciduous trees that give way to giant pines and then back again, the two lane dirt road always offers me something new.  It might be some new flower or mushroom growing alongside the well graded gravel, or it might be the deer that just stare at me, before they saunter off into the underbrush, knowing they are completely safe.  One of the most memorable sights I had was watching a young coyote jumping playfully in a field, catching grasshoppers to eat; I watched for five minutes before it realized I was there; then like a wisp of smoke it was gone.  But the most incredible experience was when I rounded a curve and came face to face with a moose calf.  One of the adolescents that hung around the gate on occasion, I knew the moose were here, but had never seen them.  I stopped the car, less than twenty feet from her, and just watched the huge animal in the middle of the road.  My thought when I first saw her was it was a horse, but that quickly changed and she looked at me: that unmistakable large head and the long. wide snout, then those long gangly, powerful legs, there was no denying what I was seeing. My first moose sighting and it was up close and personal.  It only lasted a few minutes, then she turned, giving me a full, breathtaking side view, almost waiting for me to take a picture; then she deftly leaped the berm and lazily walked off into the dappled shadows of the woods.  Of course, my cellphone was dead so no pictures, except for the one in my memory.

Then there are the owner/members of the Resort.  Being their Massage Therapist for the past sixteen years has given me an insight into a world of the elite and wealth that I never would have seen on my own.  The members are wealthy; some very, some extremely.  I hear about their month long vacations to Italy in the spring, then the weeks in the Bahamas during the winter; trips to Europe with jaunts to Paris and London then on to Rome.  What I admire the most, is they are all really very down to earth; I’ve seen them shopping at the local Wal-Mart or pumping their own gas.  One time I had asked an older client some advice on the British hierarchy, prepping for a costume party I was going to host.  After she explained the pecking order of a Duke to an Earl, a Duchess to a Lady, she laughed and said: “I must tell you the most amusing story about when Prince Phillip came to visit!”  The King of England?    I have mourned the ones who have passed, right along with their peers, not embarrassed to sob at the Resort held memorial.  Yes, I will miss the people the most; many of them have become dear friends; but I will see them next spring.