|
| DishesThe other day when I was loading soap into the dishwasher, I counted one cereal bowl, two dinner dishes, and 9 cat dishes. That is easily explained by the fact that cats outnumber humans 2 to 1 in our household, and they eat more meals at home. Still, it was an interesting datum. | | |
| DullI am really thankful that my life is so dull and routine. One of the reasons I don't post so much on Xanga anymore is that not a whole lot happens to me. I do not face any physical challenges. My marriage and friendships are stable. I have been greatly blessed at my church. I have a steady job. Lack of excitement is really a good thing, but it is not much fun to read about. I am not so gifted a writer that I can make interesting posts out of so ordinary a life. My internal life is interesting -- to me anyway -- but it is chaotic and fragmented. A diary of thoughts is really hard to get right without it being self-absorbed[1]. Krissy once told me that I "added value" in my posts.[2] That was a huge complement from someone that I deeply admire and respect. I was so gratified that I've tried to live into that ethic.
------
[1] Note, I wrote "being" and not "seeming." This is the height of self-absorption.
[2] Over three years ago in a random IM exchange.
| | |
| ExhaustedI drove 500 miles in the last couple days. I drove 1000 miles in
the last couple weeks, and then 2000 miles the previous two weeks.
These six weeks of back to back business and personal travel are
grinding me down. I feel vague and unfocussed most of the time.
One positive, however -- I really appreciate it when I have an
opportunity to sleep. I slept in until 10AM last Saturday, and it
totally transformed my outlook on life.
Another positive -- I had the chance to mow the front lawn on
Sunday. It looks really good. The window of the computer room looks
out from the front of the house, and I am looking down on a textured
green surface with a curving slate path running up from the house to
the road. To the right of the path is a jungle of tomatoe plants.
It's quite a peaceful view.
| | |
| Home Alone
I am home alone. The rest of my family is continuing the execllent
adventure across the continental US. When I called this morning they
were in Arizona. At 8AM local time, they were not quite awake. I must
be the only early riser in the family. When I am by myself, I am
often too lazy to cook and eat, but too cheap to go out. Fortunately,
I had a $1.00 off coupon for Rotissarie Chicken at the deli department
of a local supermarket. I went throuth the checkout line with the
chicken and a bag of cat food. I thought of saying to the checkout
clerk, "Everybody eats dinner tonight!"
It has gone back to being hot and muggy. I was so hoping for fall weather, now that September is here. | | |
| Vacation August 31 - September 11These entries were copied from another journal where I blogged them every day or so. They are not very exciting but I want to keep a record of what we did.
Road Trip
We're
getting ready for our family road trip. This is exciting, between
seeing my mom and dodging hurricanes. We've got someone to stay in our
house and take care of the cats, so I don't expect that there will be
any problems on the home front. We leave in 2 hours.
My mom lives with my sister and brother-in-law in Bryan Texas.
My wife and I are driving the family minivan to california with my son
so that he can have it to use when he is at school at the University of
Santa Clara. I'm going to fly home from Texas on the 11th. They are
going to continue all the way across, stopping to visit the Grand
Canyon. I will try to keep my friends up to date on this. First DayWe're taking a family road trip. This is exciting, between seeing my mom
and dodging hurricanes. We've got someone to stay in our house and take care of
the cats, so I don't forsee any problems on the home front. A, and B will
continue on to California, and I will fly back from Texas.
We drove east
on I-66 to I-81, and drove down the Shenandoah Valley. Our Garmin GPS is
wonderful. A (the smaller carbon-based life form, in whose honor we are making
this trip) objected to British English, so I switched the GPS to American
English, but I kept the New Zealand accent.
We stopped in Lexington, VA
to have lunch at Ruby Tuesday with Ashley, one of B's writer friends. Ashley has
4 cats! and has written 17 books, all while working full time. She just retired
and moved to Virginia.
We also brought the XM Satellite radio. (My
birthday present this year was a power strip that multiplies the cigarette
lighter power outlet to three ports, so we can run the GPS, the XM Satellite
radio, AND charge a cell phone if we need to. We spent the afternoon happily
listening to '60s folk music.
We are now checked into the Best Western
Colonial Inn, in Kingsport, Tennessee. When I saw the big "High Speed Internet"
banner on the side of the motel, I announced that this was the place we had to
stay. A, and B are in the exercise room while I happily surf the 'net.
Day 2We must've been tired, because we slept in until 0830 Monday morning.
B. was astounded at the continental breakfast offered by the Best
Western hotel. (I mentioned to A. that it is clear that B. does not
travel much.) But it was good. I ate three hard-boiled eggs, a bowl
of raisin bran, and a couple of pastries.
We drove south and
west from Kingsport, Tennessee, through Knoxville and then west toward
Nashville. Shortly after we crossed into the central time zone we
decided that since we were in Tennessee we should eat BBQ. So I
punched BBQ into the GPS and we found Lefty's Bar-B-Que in Crossville,
TN (motto 'Serving Cumberland County Since 1982' - admonition "Pig Out
at Lefty's"). It was really wonderful. I had a BBQ sandwich with
fried okra as a side. A and B split a BBQ platter with fried okra and
onion rings.
As we drove we played with XM satellite radio.
We each got a band for presets. I punched in the three Christian
stations, the '60s, and '70s channels, Reggae. and a few others. We
also spent a lot of time listening to CNN and Fox to keep track of the
hurricane. We also listened to the opening of the Republican
convention.
We met up with one of B's writer friends, that
will be putting us up for the night. The four of us had a wonderful
time talking and then we all went out to dinner at Steamboat Bill's in
Hendersonville. Now the two ladies are off in the family room
chatting about writing and writers.
Day ThreeToday we took a short detour into Kentucky to visit Mammoth caves, just
a couple hours north of Nashville. Mammoth caves is the longest
explored cave system in the world. Forty one of us tourists piled into
a bus and were driven over to the "New Entrance" to the cave system.
We hiked for four hours and saw some really wonderful things. One of
the high points of the tour was eating lunch 260 feet below the surface
during the middle of the tour.
After touring the caves, we
drove back to Tennessee, and drive west to Jackson. We're now soundly
settled in at the Baymont Inn & Suites. We had a lovely steak
dinner and are now listening to speeches from the Republican
Convention.
Day FourOn Wednesday we left Jackson, Tennessee, and drove all the way across
Arkansas. It rained on us all day. It was too wet to stop in Memphis,
TN to see Graceland, and the ring road took us north around the city
instead of South, where we could have passed by Elvis Presley Blvd, so
we had to give it a pass.
The Mississippi is very wide at
Memphis, and It was raining pretty good. Arkansas is very flat near
the river, there. We crossed lot of smaller rivers meandering across
the plain. There were various grain crops, including rice. I can
imagine Arkansas being under an inland see.
We stopped for
lunch at Craig's Bar-B-Que in De Valls Bluff, Arkansas, This little
town is about 10 minutes off the interstate highway, and the shop is so
small that it has no entry in the GPS. B. found an entry for it under
"50 Things" in the Sept/Oct edition of Gardens and Guns magazine. It
was a house that had been remodeled into a BBQ hut. There was one
small room, with 7 tables. When we got there there, it was pretty
crowded. A dozen or so working men in blue jeans, with tape measures
at their belts. Some of them had waterproof shells. Many of them were
wearing mesh-backed base-ball caps. It had a limited menu, but the
BBQ was really good.
We continued to drive, and ended up in
Texarkana. The first place we stopped, a Ramada Inn, had problems with
the wireless. "Oh the wireless is down," was the answer to my inquiry,
so I said, "Then we have to check out." We bundled up our stuff, got
our money credited back (they promised wireless internet, and didn't
deliver) and we went across the street to the Quality Inn.
We
ate at Longhorn steakhouse. A filled up on coke and could not finish
his chicken-fried steak, so we brought it back to the motel and he ate
it for breakfast the following day.
Day FiveOn Thursday we slept until we woke up and then took our time getting
ready to roll out. We all used the exercise room, and A. had leftover
chick-fried steak for his breakfast. The rains had passed off, the sun
was out, and the sky was full of little fluffy clouds. We learned
that there were still refugees from Hurricane Gustav in the motel. It
had been quite full, and we were lucky to get a room.
We
drove about an hour and a half from Texarkana to Sulphur Springs. We
parked in the main square and had lunch at the Plain and Fancy sandwich
shop. B had the Fiesta salad, and was so impressed that she asked about
the salad dressing. The key is lemon chipotle vinaigrette. After that
we drove over to Brad and Faith's house and chatted with Faith for
about an hour. She had put the babies down for their nap, and we were
able to have a good conversation.
Then we drove to Irving
Texas (an area between Fort Worth and Dallas) and met with Brad in the
lobby of the building where he works. That was a briefer conversation,
but I was very eager for Brad and B. to meet each other. Afterward, B.
commented that I had nice, respectable friends.
We drove south
from Irving past Waco to Bryan Texas. The air was clear and the late
afternoon sunlight golden. It was cool and dry, but the land was green
after so many days of rain. My brother-in-law was waiting for us with
my Mom. The five of us had dinner together. I went out with my
brother-in-law to get a fresh pizza at a place where they assemble the
pizza for you, you bring it home and bake it in your own oven. It was
really tasty. My sister got home late and had a plate we had prepared
for her.
Day Six and SevenOn Friday and Saturday we relaxed at my sister's house and tried to
make ourselves useful. My mom lives with my sister. My brother-in-law
is a Lutheran minster. He saved up some work that requires three
strong men. They live in Bryan, but have 20 acres in Brenham. On
Friday we went out to look at the land. On Saturday I took my mom
shopping, and then we helped my brother-in-law disassemble his
workbench and haul it out to the utility trailer/workshop he has out at
the land. I also stopped by Wallmart to buy a pair of pants to wear to
church.
Friday night we went out to a sushi restaurant.
Saturday night we had "Campbell's chicken" a staple from my youth,
based on Campbell's condensed milk (omitted in current version of the
recipe) and cream of mushroom soup.
Day EightOn Sunday we all went to the church where my brother-in-law is the
pastor. It was Sunday school appreciation day, so the church was full
of kids, and families. The church will hold a couple hundred people,
and I didn't see any vacant pews.
There was a luncheon in the
parish hall afterwards. Folks from the church grilled hamburgers, and
we had chips and homemade desserts. I was amazed how many people in
the congregation remembered me from when I was there before (though
some of them may have confused me with my brother, who has also visited
this church).
In the afternoon we helped my sister load the
recycling into the back of her Toyota Corolla liftback, and one of us
went with her to the recycling center.
For dinner, my
brother-in-law grilled steak and chicken. The steaks we ate Sunday
night, and the chicken was saved for Monday. We also finished off a
pear cobbler that B made on Saturday.
After dinner we sat
around in the family room/study and chatted into the evening. It is
very relaxing to just sit with family and talk.
WrapupOn Monday I helped my brother-in-law distribute food. His church
takes a turn at the food one week a month. A week of meals is prepared
and frozen, and volunteers distribute it to folks on the list. Seveal
of the folks he knew through one or the other of his churchs. Some he
met for the first time that day.
Tuesday and Wednesday we helped my brother-in-law replace the back
door to his house. Even with a pre-hung door, that was difficult,
tricky work.
On Thursday, A and B dropped me off at DVW airport, and continued
West to Amarillo. I had very convenient flights. They were all on
time. My 50 minute layover in Atlanta was just the right amount of
time.
Now, I'm home. The cats were very glad to see me.
| | |
|
