It seems as though the sky over the lake always bids me a spectacular farewell the night before I go on a trip. I wonder if it's the universe's way of ensuring I return-- there was a time when I was a bit spontaneous about changing my location. And Vermont, which is where I am heading, is a breathtakingly beautiful state, with mountain ranges and rivers cutting through it in every direction it seems. And that's not it's only draw. My two closest childhood friends, who also happen to be my cousins, both live there.
Observe as the color of the sun and sky changes with each picture.
I've mentioned my cousins in posts before I believe, and I've definitely mentioned them in conversations here. In fact I told an entire story about two separate occasions when Brad saved my life in 
It seems we were always doing something either dangerous or destructive when we were kids. My other cousin- his sister Heather- had a hell of a lot more sense than we did. She was always involved in the fun right up until the point where we were going to do something to either get hurt or in trouble. Sometimes there was a few words of warning, others she would seem to just Poof before the shit went down or hit the fan.
The first time he saved my life we were about seven and eight years old. We lived in the town of Patchogue on Long Island which is about forty five minutes from NYC (depending on traffic), but a completely different world than the Big Apple. I think the area we were in would be considered the suburbs.
Anyway.
My house was located on a dead end street that had three ponds at the end of it. One on each side of the road and one straight ahead. We spent the greatest amount of time at the one on the opposite side of the street from my house because it had a small 'beach' where you could sit at the edge...actually I'm not even sure if that was the reason. It was just more appealing all around. (For one thing you could walk all along the right side of it and catch bull frogs.)
You couldn't swim in it though- unless you didn't mind losing a toe to snapping turtles. Not to mention it was so thick with leaves and sticks that you couldn't have swam around if you wanted to. And the bottom was silt and muck, when you stuck a foot in it you could feel it sucking you down.
And speaking of sticking a foot in it- another great appeal was the fact that if it was a cold enough winter it would completely freeze over, providing many hours of glorious slipping and sliding- unfortunately the sticks and leaves would be frozen into the top layer making ice skating a chore- but it was still a huge amount of fun in just your shoes. Except of course any time you're dealing with ice you have to be absolutely certain it's safe. We knew the rules and the consequences.
You're probably already filling in the rest of the story, but it didn't happen the way you would think. I didn't walk out onto thin ice.
The left side of the pond was banked and lined by a gate...or maybe it would be considered a metal fence-
-like that. Anyway, there was just enough room on the pond side of the fence for someone with small feet (aka children) to inch along it while holding onto the rungs. Remember how I said Heather would disappear when something stupid was on the horizon? Well it wasn't the first time Brad and I had done the 'cliff edge' challenge, and even in the height of summer there was an element of risk if you fell in, like the snapping turtles. But the winter was much worse of course. And I'm pretty sure she made this point before 'poofing'.
On this particular occasion it was cold. Very cold. Now you might be more accurately filling in the story. If so then you picture me slipping off the side- which I did- and while it was very cold the ice was still thin and I went through. But Brad was fast, in fact he was always super fast, and strong, which is what saved me every time, and this was no exception. I didn't have time for more than one leg to go completely in before he'd grabbed me and pulled me back up. It was still enough time to scare the hell out of me, and as foolish as we often were, we were pretty good about not repeating the same mistakes. (We would just make new ones)
And that is the story of the first time Brad saved my life. And actually it's the most tame of the stories, the least likely I would have actually died. Though the potential was there, I never did find out how deep it was and had I been on my own, shudder. Of course if I had been on my own I doubt I would have attempted it, we were an excellent influence on each other!
Which has absolutely nothing to do with these pictures. I had no clue what I was going to write about when I put them here but somehow I always find myself reminiscing about the 'days of yore' when it comes to my cousins. I think that might be because we were separated when we were 10, 11, and 12, the year my parents decided to move us upstate. We still spent a bit of time together over the next several years, holidays and a good portion of the summer, but eventually it became less and less. Then life after graduation spread us out around the country.
The bonds that we created as children have never been broken though, no matter how much distance has separated us or how much time has passed since we've seen one another. It's always an incredibly good time when we're together and I'm really looking forward to it!
So my beautiful steemit people, I will be a bit sporadic for the next few days, but I will be checking in. You can look forward to some gorgeous photos when I return!
**Chain linked fence, Doh! I'll blame that on a lack of coffee (definitely not age starting to steal my memory)
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