Welcome to Kamp

In my dreams, I see myself at the helm of our Boston Whaler heading towards a flock of birds catching the afternoon tide, sporting a tee shirt, my Smiths and a smile, with my brother, D, and a friend or two holding on to the railings for dear life as we dance over the waves. We then back off the throttles upwind and up current of the gulls, each fire off a cast, reel a bit and are on to fish. We'd land one or two, maybe lose one, keep one, throw the smaller ones back and repeat until we were almost out of gas or until it was dinner time. That is how it was when we were teenagers down at the Jersey shore (except I had Vaurets)--and that is how I'd like it to be later this summer at Montauk Point except for the running out of gas part.

But those long ago days also included myself at the "helm" of a rake, a paint brush, a level and other tools which my father, the engineer and handyman that he is, possessed, and had us use to help around the Mystic, as my parent's summer home was known. I have barely lifted nary a finger here at Kamp Kap, aside from writing a check--and even then, that was mainly M that wrote the checks.

A lot of knowledge my dad taught about landscaping, motors, and general house work is actually in me, and I can in a pinch or an emergency summon up THAT wisdom to get us out of a jam. For example, if an old school boat isn't running, I can generally rummage about the motor to see what's wrong and fix basic things especially if we're off the dock and on the water. (New school motors cannot be assessed like that--you often need wires to a laptop to tell you what's wrong. But they are much more reliable fortunately.)

I do look forward however to making small improvements to our new to us home at the End. Not even I will be able to tolerate the straight out of 1977 bathrooms. Oh, don't get me wrong, I ain't going to rip out the tiles, and replace the cabinets an hour after we close--I'll be at Montauk Point :) But something will be done!

I do look forward to assembling some furniture, the grill and some light painting. But the house is fine as it is. This is NOT to say that $$$ buys you a lot of house in Montauk--because it really doesn't. But that walk to the beach, which is only about 200 maybe 300 yards away, especially at sunrise or sunset, will make you realize that the man upstairs has all the tools you'll ever need.