Afterglow 2015 - Day 8 Saturday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was Pinkman/Jessey's 2nd year at Afterglow at his first full year up here with us. It was certainly a treat that he was able to spend the entire week and that he survived in the end. Not many people can hang with the Recks/Kurutzs/McKissicks and live to tell their tale. Then count him among the lucky few who are worthy to be a part of our gang. And (spoiler alert!) he planned on being part of our gang for a very long time.

Home

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard being a cabin/family of 3 at Afterglow. We are vastly outnumbered when compared to the other cabins/families. But Jenny and I are quite a handful and more than make up for any missing persons in our unit. Sometimes that works against us, but our dear Mother puts up with our nonsense up here just like she has done back home every day since we were tiny little sprouts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always try to be the last one out of the cabin. I don't know why, but it means something to me. It's like I get to take the power that this place gives off, capture it and hold it in my my heart until next year. I was about to walk out the door when I realized that I had yet to take a picture with the geese. How I could I be so careless? This is one of the greatest traditions and I almost forgot about it.

 

 

 

 

 

They say that Home is where the heart is. So it doesn't matter if you call it home for 7 days, 6 months, 3 years or your entire life. While we are up here, Cabin #2 is home. That's why it is so difficult to say goodbye to it. It's hard to leave your home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eddie carved this rock and placed it here in the Fall 2012 during RFT III: The Bee's Knees. Like many monuments or artifacts, it has stood the test of time. Times have changed, people have changed and relationships have changed; but we still recognize the contributions that they have made. When we look upon them now we see a moment in time. That memory is frozen right there when it was made.

 

I've often said that the day we leave Afterglow is always the most beautiful day. That's one of God's cruelest jokes. I don't understand why this always happens, but then again I don't understand why my brother died when he was just 24. There are so many things in this World that we aren't meant to understand. I'll just add these two to the list and hope that someday it makes sense in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Timmy died in April of 2011. We buried him here at Memory Point in July of that year. That means we've been coming up here for 5 years without him. Christ, has it really been that long? It's the oldest saying that there is, but time really does flies by. But still it feels just like yesterday that we were raging with him instead of for him. That makes coming up here so hard. In some ways, it still doesn't feel like reality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was messing around with the settings on Mom's camera and I found a way to use a "fisheye" lens. I took a picture of the lake and Memory Point and it alters reality a little bit. I'm all for photo trickery and alteration, but I prefer to see things as you can with the naked eye. This means no filters, no editing, no photoshop and nothing that changes how it really is. But it doesn't hurt to try it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The car was packed up. The cabin was cleaned out. We were ready to go back home and face reality. But there is always one last thing to do - we need to go back out to Memory Point and say goodbye to Timmy. It's not easy. But we have to do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you wake up on the Saturday morning when you have to leave Afterglow, it hits you real hard that it's all over. But in-between the saying of goodbyes and packing the cars, there are some traditions that take place that remind you that you are still here for a precious few minutes. The first of which is a Aunt Kris and Kevin picture that goes back since he was a young man. The second of which is a picture of the Aunts - Aunt Carol, Aunt Kris and Aunt Rose. If we hold the traditions in our hearts, we will never truly leave here.

 

I want to stay at Afterglow forever. I don't want to die anytime soon, but if I do, I hope my family buries me right next to Timmy at Memory Point. Hopefully that day is a long ways away. So I leave Afterglow in 2016 making a promise to come back again and again.