Keeping the Hearth Burning

I slept for eleven hours last night in my comfy hotel room, I was so tired that I didn't even watch TV, read, or write in this journal. I grabbed a cup of hot coco in the morning with a handful of animal crackers for breakfast and read a book of Emily Dickinson's poetry. I was sitting next to the Bordello Room, and heard a couple fighting inside of it. It was pretty funny listening to how silly their argument was. She was upset she didn't have a change of clothes, and at one point he actually yelled "talk to the hand". When they came out of their room with suitcases, they both looked at me a little embarrassed. They were both attractive, staying in a beautiful hotel on some sort of vacation, why they were fighting I don't know.

I drove to Upton hoping I could do a point just west of there, but I was not prepared for the horrible storm later that night. I managed to drive down a county road to my point, then a two track road lead even further it, and my car did well on it being dry. I knew I would be stuck down there if it rained though and went to Keyhole Lake just north in Pine Have to camp for the night. I have gone to this lake before, on a bad day when it was still frozen over.

I was proud of myself for starting the most beautiful fire with bags of unopened mail and small logs gathered around my tent site. It was a roaring fire for a while, then the logs turned into the most perfect charcoal good for grilling meat. I was sad that I didn't catch any fish, nor was I hungry to cook something over the fire. It reminded me of grilling lamb over charcoal in Germany. The fire master waited till it turned to charcoal before the put the lamb kabobs on top. There were sheep in a nearby yard, and I felt sorry that we were grilling up their cousins in front of them, but they didn't seem to notice.

There was something very comforting about having my own fire, as I spent hours tending it with care. Something very ancient indeed in keeping the hearth warm and burning. I finally went to bed, knowing it would burn itself out.

It was pouring down rain, the lightning was on top of me and close, so I ran to my car. I looked up what to do in a lightning storm on my blackberry, and wasn't comforted at all. There were even pictures of people smiling with their hair standing up and the caption read that these people died or were seriously injured right after the pictures were taken. I shouldn't have put my tent under a tree because of super heated sap that would gush out if lightning hit it. I emailed my co-workers from my car to see if they had to deal with the same conditions as me. I didn't sleep anymore that night, but first drove to Pine Haven, then just wandered the highways listening to Lady Gaga, not wanting to think about lightning.