Cold Shower

Both Wyatt and Maxfield now take showers instead of baths. I am not sure if I should introduce the old prank of sneaking into the bathroom and dumping ice cold water into the shower. I think it would be funny but then I think about my cousin Frankie.

I spent the majority of my Augusts, in my youth, at my Uncle Bill's house at the shore in Wild Wood Crest NJ. Uncle Bill, actually my dad's uncle (which made him my great uncle and is who I named after) owned an old 5 bedroom, 1 bathroom house a few blocks from the beach. He lived there year round with his brother Bud and their dog Butch. The house was open all summer long to any of his 10 nieces and nephews as well as his 35 great nieces and nephews. From Memorial Day until Labor Day the other 3 bedrooms were occupied by various families vacationing.  Most summers there was also 2 to 4 teen aged great nieces/nephews who had the opportunity to live and work down the shore for the summer with free room and board because of Uncle Bill's and Uncle Bud's generosity. During the month of August my family shared the space with Aunt Kathleen's family and on average there were about 20 to 22 people living in that house.

For most of my childhood in Wild Wood we showered at an outside chain-pull shower spigot attached to the back of the house. We did this for two reasons; one,  so we would not track sand through the house and two, there was only an old claw foot tub in the one and only bathroom inside the house. Upon returning from the beach each day all of the kids would line up near the outside shower head. The younger kids were usually stripped naked and scrubbed down by their parents as the old neighbor lady, over the grayish flat-post fence, smiled and laughed at the shiny white tan-lined heinies. The older kids waited their turn and showered wearing their bathing suits, feeling embarrassed by the old lady's smiling glare. I think she lived for watching the afternoon showers. I am sure she was just a nice old lady but I found her to be kind of creepy.

The summer I turned 14 that all changed. Sometime during the off season, My Uncle Bill had a shower stall installed inside the bathroom. It may have been there all the time but I remember I was first allowed to use it when I was 14. Why do I remember that? Because it was also the last time I used the inside shower stall.  My brother and I had met some girls on the beach and we were going to meet them at the boardwalk. It wasn't a date but it was hanging out with girls and girls required the use of shampoo and soap and deodorant.

I was washing my hair, I had only been in for a few minutes, when I caught the shadow of a person through the textured steamy glass. I know I used the hook and eye lock when I went into the bathroom. But I also knew that sometimes people would use a wire hanger to pop the hook and get in if they had to go. I tilted my head back to rinse the shampoo when I saw a hand reach over the top of the stall. At first I felt the blast of the ice cold water that was being dumped on me. I yelped. But then on my forehead I felth the thump of the bottom of the pint glass that slipped from the hand. Then I heard and felt the crash of the glass as it shattered all over my head and face. I screamed. My eyes stung as soap found its way past my squinting lashes. I looked at the floor of the stall and saw soap and blood turn into green trickles against the blue colored tiles.

"Oh my God. Oh my God." said the voice on the other side of the stall door.

I opened the door and saw my cousin Frankie standing there wide eyed. Frankie was living in the house all summer, he worked as a life guard on the beaches. His parents were not at the shore house at this time.

"Shhh. Shhh. Don't yell." he said. I could tell he did not want to get in trouble for what he did.

I stepped on a piece of glass and cut my foot. Frankie helped me out of the stall. Just then the bathroom door opened up.

"What happened?" my mom asked as she entered. "I heard something break. I heard some one screaming bloody murder."

She saw the blood on  my foot and specks of blood on my face.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Before I could answer the bathroom door swung open. It was one of my brothers.

"What happened?" he said.

Before I could answer Aunt Kathleen ran into the bathroom.

"What happened? I heard something break." she asked.

Frankie started to explain. I tried to wrap myself in a towel but my mom warned me against it saying that if I had glass on my body the towel could cause the glass to cut me. My mom and Aunt Kathleen started to inspect my head and body for shards of glass. It was a difficult task due to me being soaking wet. They asked me if I was okay.

Before I could answer two more of my brothers entered the bathroom to see what was going on. Then my 13 year old cousin Monica ran in. Then Uncle Bill popped his head in. Then another cousin. I stood there naked in front of an audience of curious people. I was mortified and embarrassed, covered in cold induced goose bumps, a knot forming on my head where the glass hit. I immediately became aware of  my just-hitting-puberty-body and who was looking at me. I started to feel feint.

Frankie later apologized. I never went to the boardwalk that night. For the rest of my time down the shore I showered outside. I would rather give the old lady next door a bit of entertainment than to suffer through another round of the entire house seeing me naked.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation...

I spent it on windows.
Well, actually we spent our vacation money on windows back in December. We needed new windows. Ours were very old and drafty. We could get rebates and other tax breaks if we bought the right energy efficient windows in 2010. So we used our vacation money to replace most of the second floor windows. Any money we would have "saved" due to lower heating bills was probably just lost in the past week's heatwave.

Last week I was on vacation. When people asked me what we were doing I told them about the windows and said my vacation was more of the Staycation kind. I then joked, saying I would spend each night I was off from work in a different room just looking out my new windows.

If you follow my Facebook feed you would have seen that the family and I did our best to make the time off fun. The first night we went to the park and had a Playcation.

We did manage a couple of day trips making it a Daycation.

First we went to Bushkill Falls. I may have mentioned it on the blog that I have an anxiety issue when it comes to heights. I also suffer a bit from stress and phobia about the safety of my kids. Let me just say that if you have any kind of these issues, Bushkill Falls is not the place for you. First of all, the words "Kill" and "Fall" are in the name. Second of all, you hike and walk along boardwalk like planks and steps on the edge or face of a mountain and look at the beautiful scenery and waterfalls from hundreds of feet above the ground. Lauren loved it. The kids loved it. I had a nice time. Look at the picture below. I walked on those steps chasing a two-year-old who liked to try and stick his head through the railings.

Oh and we also saw a bear. A real bear, in the wild. It was kind of cool and scary. We were in the car when we saw it so we were not in any real danger although I did find myself locking the doors just in case the bear was going to try and carjack us. I did not want this to become a Preycation.

The other day trip we took was to Atlantic City, NJ to spend some time at the beach. Although we did not see any bears we were greeted by this scene when we turned down the block of our hotel.

Four police cars blocking an intersection while they made an arrest. We were in the car when we saw the action so we were not in any real danger. Although I found myself locking the doors just in case the criminals could smell the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we had packed in a cooler. We did not want an Altercation.

Atlantic City was fun but it was kind of foggy and more like a Greycation. The next day we went to the Boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ to go on rides like roller coasters and log flumes. (Yes Karen that was me you saw last week I wish you would have said hello).

We spent our money on windows.

We spent our time at the the pool swimming. We spent some time fishing. We spent some time playing in the backyard. We spent time hiking. We spent some time eating out. We spent some time in the ocean.


We spent our time together which was a good vacation.
 
What did you do, or what are you doing for your vacation?

Beach Boys

Dear Internet,

I am sorry I have not been around for the past 10 days or so. We took the family to the beach for a vacation.

We went to Wildwood, Ocean City and Cape May. We ate ice cream, candy, hotdogs and fries. We went on walks and on log flumes and on rollercoasters and bumper boats. We went to the beach, the bay, the out door mall, the boardwalk and the ER. All in all it was a great vacation and everyone had a great time. Except for the trip to the ER. I don't think Jackson, Lauren or I enjoyed that part.




Jackson is okay. He had a bad fall. I am thinking of getting some T-shirts made up that say "I went to the Jersey Shore and all I got was an X-ray."