2021 Life Logs, Day 174: Camp Oma, Day Two
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 71, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
What we do on any given day of Camp Oma evolves from an agreement between the Goldpebbles, Heather and Jed, and me. As we roll along, we will get better at planning and making decisions ahead of time. But for now, I leave my house a few minutes before noon dressed to go to the beach or not, with a food cooler packed with food to have at the beach or elsewhere, and with a car packed with all the beach gear we might need. I arrive at the Goldstones, pry boys away from whatever they might be doing, and we head out. This being the first day with no school in the morning, the boys lazed in and slept and read until I arrived. They were dressed but there was no agreement of what we would be doing. Sam wanted to go to my place and sail and then go to the beach. Ollie adamantly wanted to go directly to the beach, either Woodneck or Menauhant, and Jonah would have happily stayed home to play on his tablet. But that was not an option. I opted for Sam’s idea of doing both things—sail and go to be beach and eventually all three boys agreed. So, we did.
When we drove into my drive-way we were met by a surprise. Charlie, the 12 year-old son of the new neighbors preparing to move in for the summer, was waiting for us in my drive-way. When I talked to his dad, Andrew, a little later, I found that he and Charlie had arrived from New York City last night and the rest of the family will follow tomorrow. Andrew was in phone business meetings all of today and when Charlie got restless, Andrew suggested he come knock on my door and see if my grandson’s might be visiting. Charlie did that but noticed my car was not there, so he was just sitting and waiting to see if we magically appeared. And we did. Sam and Ollie had met Charlie when he was here a couple of weeks ago, but Jonah had not met him. They immediately hit it off and headed into Shirley’s side yard to play soccer. The Goldstones had opted for ‘make your own pizzas’ for lunch, but they were so busy playing soccer and catching crabs at the dock while Sam launched the sailing dinghy and was out trying to sail with no wind, that I ended up making the individual pizzas and delivering them to the dock. Eating was low on their priority list, but I insisted, and they did eat. Then they decided that we should take Charlie to Menauhant Beach. Andrew agreed that he could go with us, so we were off. We only had an hour and a half at the beach but the four boys really enjoyed the time developing a new in the water soccer game. We had to cut the afternoon short as the Goldpebbles needed to be showered and in Class A Scout uniform dress and on the field by 5:15 pm to open the Boy Scout night of the Falmouth Commodores baseball game. After delivering them home, I came home to walk Shadow and rinse and hang out to dry today’s beach gear. Then I collapsed. I was tired but happy after an afternoon of watching the Goldpebbles and new friend Charlie having so much fun. Summer 2021 is off to a great start!
