All Hail the Queen

Most people have a go to music album to suit their mood. I am no different. I have Queensryche to assist my need for cathartic singing. I have Indigo Girls for singing along on road trips. I have a host of classic metal for times when I just need to release some angst. Then I have my happy music: Queen.

My earliest memories of listening to Queen are from when I was still in elementary school. I recall going to the drive-in movie theater out by the Air Force base. It's gone now (the theater not the base), but I distinctly recall hearing Queen over the little metal speaker. I remember waiting for the movie to start and hearing this song begin:

Love his hat in that one. Good ol' Freddie and his fashion choices.

I remember how that bass line just caught my attention. I asked my parents if they could turn up the speaker, which I don't think they were thrilled about doing. Perhaps they were just surprised; I have no idea, but I was quite taken with the song. It's still one that I turn up louder when it comes on the radio.

I also recollect when Queen performed at Live Aid. I tuned in mainly for U2, but Queen's set blew my little fifth grade mind! Freddie's strutting and Brian May with his signature hair, what more can you ask for right? You can catch the whole set at Rollingstone's Video Flashback.  I defy you not to sing and clap along with "Radio Ga-Ga." Mercury was a master at getting the crowd as evidenced by his echo response vocalization after "Ga-Ga." I think it was the first time I really connected the name Queen with the songs I had heard on the radio.

In high school I was treated to their soundtrack for Highlander.

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Christopher Laaaaaaaam-bert. Thus began my Scottish fetish. 

 

Still one of the most stirring rock ballads I have ever known. Breathtaking and heartbreaking at the same time. Astounding. This is what a benchmark looks like.

Thing is, I never owned a Queen album growing up. It wasn't until college that I realized how great having access to their collection was. My college roommate had volumes 1&2 and it made excellent homework music or play cards music. It was due to her influence that I first heard this, my favorite Queen song:

At work, the Queen station on Pandora is a staple of my day. It is generally safe from expletives save live The Who songs and it always gives me a boost when I am low. I was appalled when Pandora's algorithm tried to sneak "Ice, Ice Baby" in. As if I wouldn't notice! Grrr. I stopped that dead in its tracks with an indignant thumbs down.

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Uh-huh-uh Pandora. 

Forgive the gap--Blogger seems to think Nedry needs a big lead in.

A friend of mine will be getting married soon. She is thinking of having this song as her wedding march:

I don't think there's anything to think about. It's the perfect song for a wedding. I highly encourage her to just do it.  

And there you have it. My go to happy music. It makes me sing. It makes me dance. It makes me feel good. If you can't sing along to at least one Queen song besides "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "We Will Rock You/We are the Champions," you are missing out. If you don't like Queen, I don't think we can be friends. 

All hail the Queen!

 

Retreat

*whew*
*ah*
*contented sigh*
*gasp in awe*
These are all reactions that our usual summer vacation spot conjures within me. Maybe it is all the treasured memories of friends laughing, playing games, and making fantastic meals together over the campfire. Perhaps it is all the wildlife or the sublime scenery.
Maybe it is the skinny dipping.

 Whatever "it" is, this lake has it.
Each year my husband and I make our great escape to the lake. This year we took ten whole days to enjoy our favorite place on earth.
One of our past times at the lake is to read. I read a lot at the lake. This year I got books one and two of the ten volume epic fantasy series Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson done. Highly recommend it to anyone who loves an epic fantasy series, but after book one, they just seem to get bigger. Seriously, if you have trouble getting a 400 page novel down, then buckle up for 800 or more pages of thrilling battle sequences, intrigue, spellcasting, and characters that fall into big holes called warrens. I also reread Armand by Anne Rice (FYI, Armand in the movie Interview with the Vampire looks nothing like the description of Armand. One of her best Vampire Chronicle novels in my opinion.) as well as a book for my online book club, Death by Drowning by Abigail Keam. Unfortunately, that is book two in a three part series and I feel I really missed something by not having read book one. I also got half way through Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I would have finished that one (it's a fast read) at the lake too if we hadn't left the lake two hours earlier than we planned on. I enjoy it more than I thought I would honestly. How could I not enjoy a book that opens with a thank you to Joss Whedon for Buffy? I love having time to just devour a few good books without interruption other than the occasional swim or campfire meal.
Another favorite is playing games. We love to play Phase 10, Set, Skip Bo (Although we never quite remember the rules and I am sure our version is just a "variation."), Canasta, Munchkin, and this year, I even played cribbage. I think the last time I played cribbage I was also camping with the same set of friends. Anyway, we also tried Kill Dr. Lucky. Fun game--think Clue, only the series of events before you play Clue are the focus. Your goal is to kill Dr. Lucky by any means necessary (I tried whacking him with my broom, pummeling by pumps, strangling by apron, and suffocating by pantyhose. Yeah, my attempts were never with the weapon cards; I had to use what items my maid character had on hand.) Beware his dog though; that little beast will try to foil you every time.
Along with the activities, there is also my checklist of wildlife. I always hope for moose of course, but so far I have only managed a dead moose on the trail and sightings of moose droppings. I did see the biggest frog of the lake to date. Usually their bodies are 1-2 inches, but this guy's body was 4-5! Then there are all the tiny fish that swim around you as you try to convince yourself to actually get submerged for a swim. My husband made several attempts at fishing this year. The bats made night fishing difficult and during the day, the fish seemed more intent on teasing him than anything else. Garter snakes are another popular visitor. Listening to loons at night is lovely as is seeing a bald eagle flying overhead as you float on the lake's surface. Deer are frequent and this year we had even more daily visitations than usual.

They seemed to be particularly fond of the shrubbery just behind our tent. Hummingbirds are another guest that I look forward to. I almost thought that I wouldn't see any this trip, but I saw two. One had a higher pitch hum than usual, but he was brilliant red. The other one was probably female because she was mostly tan, but she took a breather in the pine tree so I got a good look at her. Turtles are also residents, but you don't always see them unless you are using goggles when you swim. My hubby managed to capture a turtle in a picture.

See that dot near the bottom directly below the swift? That's a turtle poking its head up to check out what we were up to.

My husband saw a beaver, which I've never seen. You can readily see their handiwork if you walk the trail to the falls, but to see an actual beaver, never happened. There are also a variety of squirrels, chipmunks, and even mice. At the site that we frequently reserve, a black mouse makes his appearance in the morning and returns in the evening. You may catch a glimpse. He's also responsible for chewing the hole in the bottom of our tent last year.  Bears have been spotted there, but not by us. We've seen pictures of bears walking the lake edge when we were sleeping in our tent, but never with our own eyes, which is probably just fine.
This year, we did not escape medical complications unfortunately. I was hoping to, but alas! Our friend was struck with heat stroke. The first days we were there were unusually hot and she had been there the day prior to our arrival which was also intensely hot. She did make a full recovery, but what an awful experience when you are camping. Then, my husband's ax decided to attack. Thankfully he was not swinging the ax at the time, but he had sharpened it to chop wood. Consequently, when it fell off the stump it struck his ankle clean to the bone. Apparently I am squeamish. I always knew I couldn't watch my own blood be drawn, but other people's blood draws didn't bug me. I can watch a video of a surgery online and not get sickened, but when I helped my husband bandage his wound, we came up with a scale of nausea inducement called Hurl Factor. I honestly tasted the sour bile in my mouth and had to look away when I saw the fat layer and sliced tissue. Had we been home, we'd have gone straight to the ER for stitches, but since we were 30 minutes from the nearest medical clinic which would be closed by the time we arrived and about 90 minutes from Missoula, we made due with our first aid kit. His ankle also is doing mighty fine for being in the woods during the healing with nothing but butterfly and waterproof bandages, gauze, tape, and antibiotic ointment.
One of the best parts of the lake though is witnessing a thunderstorm. Holy buckets you need to hear the thunder echo off those mountains. Granted, this year's thunderstorm started with a torrential hailstorm that we drove through when we were returning from an ice run. Coincidence humor there I tell ya. Anyway, the hail was about the size of shooter marbles and we had to pull over briefly. It coated the highway to look like snow and it was so loud on the roof of the truck that we had to shout at each other to be heard. Once that stopped though, we did have one glorious thunderstorm and some mighty fine fog the next morning.

The sunburst on that last one looks like a portal to another world.

Anyway, we have returned to the real world. My face is one big freckle and my husband's ankle continues to heal. The laundry is done and the supplies packed away. The felines have forgiven our absence. We've been camping at this lake together for roughly 20 years. I can't imagine a better way to spend our vacation than at the lake's shores. It is where we rest, recharge, and revel in each other's company. It is where close friends burn the snot out of ham buried in a fire's coals. It is where friends braved the soggy June weather because we were 18 and freshly out of high school and didn't know any better. It is where the daughter of our closest friends got married to her wonderful husband. So many glorious memories and more to be made. 

Blessed be, Lake. See you next year.