My campground changed flavor overnight. I watched it happen yesterday. It was peaceful, quiet, and sedate in the morning, and then the cars started arriving. And the trucks, and the trailers, and the RVs, and the campers… oh my, the campers.

I was a little mystified by the speed of the change and then I realized, of course, school is out! We’re in Christmas vacation week and the hordes of small people are descending upon Florida with all of their energy and excitement. And their bicycles and scooters and dogs and general chaos.

It’s mostly awesome. I love listening to kids laugh. They’re building campfires (well, probably their parents are building campfires) and so it smells of wood smoke, on top of forest. And the weather is still absolutely beautiful. Today was as close to a perfect day weather-wise as the universe ever provides.

This morning when I was walking Zelda, I was accosted by three small people. “Excuse me,” said the bravest (not the biggest). “Can you tell us where the park is?”

“Is that a trick question?” I asked skeptically. Because, of course, we were in the park. Everything around us was park. Then I followed up with, “Are you looking for the playground or the hiking trails or…”

I would have added the nature center or the pond or the bike trail, all of which I can give directions to, but the brave one interrupted me with, “The playground.”

“Sure,” I said. “It’s right down this road, just keep going straight.” And I pointed the way.

“Thank you,” all three said in chorus. And as they walked away, the brave one — still not the biggest — started giving lessons to the others about looking behind them for landmarks so that they would be able to find their way home again. It was ridiculously cute. I had to learn that lesson the hard way at a much, much later age.

I went to the grocery store yesterday, for which I unplugged the van, and on my way home, I put the window down to talk to the ranger. Last night, or maybe early this morning, Zelda was super-super snuggly. She wanted under the covers, too. When I finally woke up, I realized it was really cold in the van. Duh, I’d forgotten to turn the heat back on when I plugged in again and I’d also forgotten to roll up the window. (Is it still called rolling when it’s just pushing a button?) It was into the 50s last night, so it was probably in the 50s in the van, too. Nice for snuggling with the dogs, but I was extremely unenthusiastic about getting dressed.

I’m back at a point in Grace that I have written numerous times, from every character’s POV, I think. I would really like to be able to re-use at least some of what I’ve previously written, but I suspect I’d be better off just ignoring all of that and writing it as if I’d never seen it before. It is very, very hard to make that decision, though.

And my power just went out. I wonder if all these people in the park are more than the electric system can handle? I hope it’s not just me. But I guess I’ll post this before I run out of charge on my computer and then maybe go investigate!