Facials at the Cottage

Faye, Mary, and I drove up to Joyce's northern paradise on Sunday for our 3 day ladies get-away. Even though it rained most of the way up we didn't care because we knew the trip would be fun no matter what the weather.

It's a little early to expect to see autumn colors but the beginnings of them were there. I'd hoped to spot a few yard sales on the way up but the rain vetoed that possibility. We made one stop at a nice family restaurant for lunch and that was it.

Joyce and Larry have a lovely winterized cottage right on the lake. There is also another cottage on the property and that's where guests usually stay. We quickly moved our stuff in and settled who got the bedrooms and who got the sofa bed before trekking over to the main house. We yakked (of course), had chili and Joyce's home-made desserts for dinner before pulling out the cards and playing "31". Mary and I were the last to bed at 12:30 A.M.

It's so quiet and dark out there that I slept till 8:30 Monday morning. The air was cooler than it is back home but that just reinforced the feeling of fall. I think it was close to noon before we (the ladies) drove up to Barry's Bay for our shopping trip. There's a great gift shop called "Grumbling Grannies" up there that is filled to the rafters with the most interesting items. We all bought something but were really quite frugal in our purchases. I think we're all aware how much "stuff" we've already accumulated and are now trying to be more careful what we trot into the house.

We had a nice lunch back home and then the ladies decided it was nap time but, since I'd slept so late that morning, I stayed up and worked on my Swedish weaving. Larry popped in occasionally but he seems to work all the time, doing his own necessary chores in keeping the property pristine or helping one of neighbors. When the ladies crawled out of bed we watched an interesting program on T.V. about Tibet before setting up dinner. Last night it was lasagna along with Joyce's home-made desserts.

After dinner we ladies planned to do our facials over at the little cottage and Larry inquired how long it would take to do a facial. When we told him it only had to be on our faces for about 10 minutes he said, "That's like watering a 12 acre farm with a garden hose!". That man has a way with words. He was telling us how he plans to commit suicide when it's his time to go. He and his buddy (they feel their time might come at the same time) will go way out in the woods in the middle of a cold, cold winter and fall asleep under a tree. He assumes they'll be popsicles by daylight. If his time comes during the summer months he'll probably have to think up a new plan.

We all trotted over to the little cottage and set up our facial packages on the kitchen table. They're pretty simple (you can't expect much for $2) and only required a clean face. Mary set Faye, Joyce and I up with our masks and then went into the bathroom to put her own on. We were supposed to lean back so the cloth masks wouldn't fall off and just relax for about 10 minutes. Mary came out of the bathroom and nearly fell over laughing at how silly we looked leaning back in our chairs and looking like aliens.

We removed the masks and tried to convince ourselves our skin looked better but maybe we were flushed from giggling so it was hard to tell. In any case, we had a good laugh over it.

Joyce couldn't take any more cards so she went home early but the rest of us got into "31" again. Heaven knows who won or lost the most because we were playing for nickles and didn't much care who won. The aim of the game is to enjoy it and that we did.

This morning was another late sleep in and I give no excuses. We ate, chatted, drank coffee, chatted, did a crossword puzzle, chatted, and then tidied up the little cottage before packing up the car. Giving our good-bye hugs and kisses, Mary stated we had to come up and stay longer next year and maybe it would be best to come up in August. We all agreed until we realized it might be a good idea to ask our host and hostess if that was okay with them. How could they say no? They love us and we love them so I think it will be okay.

On the way home we got caught in terrible traffic around Toronto and heard on the news that someone had been murdered and tossed on the highway. We saw the commotion in the eastbound lanes which were backed up for miles but we were heading west so our traffic was slowed down by gawkers. There had been a shooting death just prior to this and this one was probably retaliation. What a world.

We arrived home safely, tired but with good memories of our trip. It's always nice to get away but going home is best of all.