When I was a teenager I purchased, at some expense, a book of plans for Star Trek ships. I likely bought it at Coles in the Burlington Mall. 

I wasn’t a huge Star Trek fan as a kid. And, if I’m being completely honest, there’s as much chance that I purchased a book of plans for Battlestar Galactica ships as Star Trek ones; I can’t remember.

It wasn’t out of fictional-universe-fealty that my purchase came, but rather from simple fascination with the plans themselves: they were so beautiful and intricate and ordered. Who could imagine imagining such a thing in such detail!

I thought of that book this week after making a sketch of our camper: I love the sketch because, in making it, I came to see the camper with a fresh pair of eyes. I now see the details I didn’t see before: the extra electrical outlet to the left of the door; the way the muted blue and brown decals flow across the length of the camper, and skip over doors and windows to continue on the other side;

I never imagined in a million years that I would be the kind of person who spent summers in a camper by the shore. The gift of meeting Lisa means that now I am this kind of person, and so it’s a double gift: the experience itself, and the gift of realizing that any sentence that contains “…the kind of person…” is worthy of examination as a made up constraint.

We spent the better part of July in the camper, and though we faced mosquito challenges, and plumbing challenges, and thermostat battery challenges, and challenges from being stuffed together in close proximity, it was, on balance, a delight.

I swam more than I ever have (there have been years—many of them—when I haven’t gone near the ocean once). We barbecued. We hosted family for suppers and beach days. We took advantage of our proximity to our lovely nearby Vermont friends, VBJ and LBJ, to see more of them than we ever have before. We installed a life buoy. We read a lot of books. Sketched a lot of sketches. Took full advantage of the nearby rural public library. Saw myriad breathtaking sunsets.

I reminded Lisa this morning that summer isn’t over yet. By a long shot. We’re in town for a couple of weeks of Cat Camp, in service of my brother and sister-in-law, but we’re both hopeful that there is more summer magic to be gleaned before fall.