(Ye been warned. Garh.)
SWP – Georgia O’Keefe’s The Lake
Summers at the
Our children, his parents
Aunts, uncles, cousins even neighbors
Gather at the lake
Smoke, flames, steaks, yum
Propane fridges flame
Fifth wheel fricassee
No one hurt, back again
Lightning can’t strike twice, right?
One camper over, maybe
Propane fills the air
Furnace clicks on and off
Middle of the night worries
He shuts it down
We’ll look tomorrow
Pile more covers on now
Tomorrow dawns bright
But a cooler is black
Sucked up against the air intake
Camper still standing
Surrounded by family
One glimpse up reminds us
Blackened tree limbs stretch out
Shading the replacement camper
As we gather at the lake.
And now for the rest of the story…
You might recall the Labor Day in recent years when my in-laws camper burned down? No one was hurt, but the blackened tree limbs are still visible at the campground where our families go camping quite often. We’re camping now, and the in-laws are camped in the same spot with their new camper.
Steve and I our camped next to them in our camper. We put our picnic table up under our canopy. During the course of the day, a cooler sitting on top of our picnic table was pushed up close to the camper. Unfortunately, it was right in front of the furnace intake valve. That’s why the furnace wouldn’t work. It kept sucking the cooler up against it, shutting off the air supply.
Steve found it the next day. The cooler was black except for a perfectly round impression of the air intake valve. The side of our camper, less than a 2 feet area, was also black, but I was able to clean it right up. We moved the picnic table away from the furnace intake. And I felt extremely lucky that a) my husband noticed the furnace problems and b) shut it down.
And that’s my story. I’m sticking to it. Thanks for playing.
