The Bucket List Lady

This is my new friend Jackie.

She rents Cabin 6, across the yard from our Cabin. She's a woman after my own heart, even though we are about as different as night and day. Jackie likes to cook, garden and fish. I hate to do all 3. I like to create, decorate and sunbathe. Those things are foreign to her. The minute I'd get to the cabin, Jackie would come scampering over with a family member, friend or other cabin renter to "tour" my little cottage. She couldn't get over that someone would actually have that many "red and white" THINGS as she called my prized little possessions. She was so impressed that late in the summer she came over with a "surprise" for me... she had grown miniature red chile peppers in her garden for me to dry out and hang in my cabin kitchen. They were adorable and I loved them.

There were a couple of things though that Jackie and I did have in common.... we both had husbands who didn't particulary love the lake like we did. Her husband George had a love of his Harley, and only came to the lake about 3 times for a few hours each time all summer! My husband has a love of his jobs and while he came often, not once did he spend the night at the lake. Another thing Jackie and I truly had in common though was a love of "pontoons". Early on one night while conversing by the campfire Jackie made all of us go round the circle and name one thing on our bucket list. Being a newcomer to the group I didn't want to get too personal, but I did have one at the top of my list that made sense. I said that someday I had hoped to own a pontoon. That when my final days came, they would be spent on Lake Lida out on a pontoon, and that my dust remains would be floating away off the dock on an air mattress for eternity. Well, the next day Jackie explained to me that the pontoon on dock #4 was HERS! and hers alone... her husband bought his Harley, so she bought her pontoon. AND, Jackie being the great gal that she, is told me where she kept the keys to the pontoon and that I could take it out whenever I wanted. I thought "Wow, I can sorta cross that one off my bucket list!".

I never had to take that pontoon out by myself... as everytime Jackie was going to go out on it she came over to get me to go along! The pics were taken the very last time we were out on her pontoon... it was Sunday morning in mid-September... she came over about 8:30 that Sunday morning, pretty much waking me up saying "c'mon girl, the crappies are biting".... I'm like "Jackie, I'm still in my jammies and I haven't had a shower!"... to which she of course responded "who the heck needs a shower, this is a pontoon on a lake woman!". I told her to give me 30 mn... she said she was leaving and to stand on the end of the dock when I was beautiful and she'd be back in to get me.

So here we are that gorgeous fall morning...she's crappie fishing with her fish hat and fish clothes on and here's me....having had my shower, properly attired in my white sundress, with the required bare minimum of at least some blush and lip gloss on and my morning cup of coffee.



How different we are, yet how alike. Can't wait until next summer... I'll add something else to the bucket list by then I'm sure...and Jackie will still be giving tours of my cabin.