Monday, September 29, 2014

Humble apologies...

Yes it's been a while, yes life has been busy, but it's just a matter of making the time to set down thoughts and other blatherings about life in general.

I am going to try and make the commitment to documenting daily life as I know it.   Of course some days it's "get up, way too farting early, go to work, come home, walk the dog, make dinner, and fall into bed and start the entire cycle over again... but along the way I think we can find little gems of moments to document  among the electrons... then again.

So, what's been happening...

After the 'vacation' that was our girls weekend, and frankly, with a nap, a drink and a months time it wasn't so bad... it's herding cats, on sugar, laced with crack.   But really if you ignore the whining and have a little wine - worked out just fine.  Really.  The twitching has almost stopped.

Now the fun part post girl's beach weekend was I got home Thursday, had a meeting that afternoon, and my husband decided to go home to PA - without me - to ride motorcycles with his brother in law; he left Friday morning.  I wished him well, told him to be careful, ensuring the life insurance bill had indeed cleared the bank and enjoyed a second Bubba free weekend.  This one at home, with the dog, and my two new friends, peace and quiet.

He arrived home to PA and back to MD, safe, sound and happy.  He had also made plans... plans with HIS family.  I know!  Now let me preface this by saying if I had come up with idiotic idea my husband of nearly 25 years would have bitched and complained until I was ready to murder both of us!  But because this was HIS idea... home girl had a free pass to simply smile and say nothing.  A strategy I used frequently and often...

His plan??  A one day trip, with an over night to VA Beach with his family, with the niece who had a two day pass from her Army training.  Yes, boys and girls, his plan was on Saturday of LABOR DAY WEEKEND, to get up drive to VA beach, spend the day on the beach, stay over night have breakfast Sunday morning and drive back to Maryland...  I still don't know what they spiked his drink with and they won't share!

We did it -- up o-dark-early.  Packed us and the dog who was going next door for some quality time with the neighbors, she was very confused when our bags went in one car, and hers stayed at home.  But as Shelby is want to do -- one cookie and all is forgotten until she is home alone for a bit. The neighbors take good care of her, and we do the same when we have their little bundle of fluff.

We stop for breakfast, Waffle house of course, enjoy breakfast, and are still way ahead of the rest of the family because -- surprise -- the Army has their own way of doing things.   We later found out they had to inspect the car that the darling solider was about to ride in, and then gave her the all clear to head out -- she did not however, have permission to drive anywhere.   Now let that sink in, a minute, here you can shoot this gun, we will run you until you drop and then run some more but you can't drive your own personal vehicle, and we must over-check your family. 

Well... Bubba and I get to the beach, we find a place to park, ensure that the other half of the family can park there too, we unload, change into bathing suits and head to the beach.  We enjoy about an hour or so of just us, on a very crowded beach, then as Bubba puts it.... "the Griswalds do VA Beach."  Direct quote.

They arrived, on the beach, with blankets... that's it.  They also hadn't eaten at all that day... so we unpack our good spot, haul our stuff to the pizza joint, enjoy lunch.  Then they go shopping, chairs, hats, and in one case a bathing suit.   We haul all this stuff back to the beach, renegotiate out spot on the sand and sit, play in the water, enjoy the peace, Bubba and the niece go off para sailing... we leave the beach late, drive forever to the hotel -- booked by the sister d' Bubba so he can't complain when it done to his satisfaction.  We unload the car, we shower, we dress, we find this hole in the wall place, we finally get to eat dinner about 8 PM.   Post dinner, we fell into bed and died.  Well I did.

The fun part was Sunday morning Bubba finds this complete hole-in-wall place for breakfast.  It was good food - but the atmosphere was not up to his Mama's standards.  The lack of A/C was an issue.   She ate and went and sat in the car...

We said our good-byes, drove home to meet up with my folks - already at the house. We introduced them to PF Changs... Chinese food will never be the same again for them.  (which was proven the next time they were down).

Aunt Ing's folks left Labor Day Monday for VA Beach (no the irony is not lost on me) for the annual Shriner's week of old people on the beach, capped off with a big parade.

Bob and I passed through Mom and Dad's place the following weekend as it was our vacation to the wilds of Western PA... now what should have been a mellow, lovely, unplugged, week was mellow (parts) lovely, (as that part of the world is), and had several parts where my darling husband was trying to kill me.... let me 'splain.

He took his motorcycle up to camp, I followed in the 'support' vehicle; i.e. my car, packed with suitcases, and supplies for the week - oh and Shelby!  It was a longer trip because we didn't take the major highways... we took minor highways... 

Now I'm sure you are wondering where the part of my husband trying to kill me comes in - after all I am not on a two wheel things without air bags and dashboards... well I was until Monday.  After riding up to Mom's on Friday, up to camp on Sunday, riding all day with brother-in-law R and later in the day friend T -- he gets me on the back of the bike.  I have his sister's helmet.  I put on his kevlar jacket.  I get on Lulu and immediately begin to pray to every deity I know - and maybe a few I made up on the spot.  We do all right - up to the top of the hill, we keep going, we keep going, all the way into town.  We decide to go for ice cream, the close place is close, in a fit of stupidity on my part, we go 7 miles down the highway - and get our ice cream, we head back.  Now I will say we're doing all right, I'm hanging on for dear life - every time a truck goes by I begin muttering to those dieties again but I think I'm doing all right.  I figure short rides I would survive, but nothing of any length as frankly this was the most uncomfortable riding position known to man kind.

We hit the turn to the smaller road, heading back to camp and..... down we go.  Hit gravel, took the tires out from under us... I didn't know we were going down until I was bouncing off pavement.  Helmet and elbow too the brunt - along with Lulu's saddlebags and windshield.  People stopped helped to right the bike, and because it was more than 3 miles back to camp -- I got back on the damn thing.    I got a scraped up elbow, Bubba's was also bloodied and scraped up - he just had on long sleeves.  I wouldn't have gotten as scraped as I did if Bubba's jacket had fit better... alas.

No I haven't been back on her.  The trip home was even more white knuckling because now I knew what could happen first hand and it didn't make for happiness...

More later -- I have a trip to Slippery Rock to document and my emotional meltdown on the way home -- great way to freak out the husband. 

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