I read a lot of blogs every day, and I am amazed at how people keep up with all that frequent almost daily posting!
I don't have as much time for this as I used to, but then again, I am working now full time...
So, anyway, I took the "red eye flight" to Boston a little over a week ago to join my family for a few days. I got into Boston around 8 AM and took the bus out to my brother's place. I took a nap and then we drove into town again to pick my Dad up at Logan. The traffic is all effed up since the roof fell on that poor person, but not all that much worse than usual. We parked and then got into the terminal just in time to meet my Dad's flight. It's important to meet my Dad on time; with the Alzheimer's, you just can never be sure if he's going to get very lost.
My brother met him and got him to us by the baggage claim area. My bro went to get the car and I waited with my Dad and my lil' neice for the luggage. I realized, as we were standing there, waiting and talking, that my Dad wasn't all that sure who I was. I knew that this was coming, but it was still a shock. I chatted away and I could see that after a while he knew me, but I don't think he could have recalled my name. As the week went on, I learned that he probably had more problems with all of our names than he did last Christmas.
We got back to my brother's house, had something to eat and turned in. We got up early the next morning, packed into the car and headed up to the Mountains of New Hampshire.
It was very pretty there. We had a two story condo rental way up the side of the mountain. There were warnings not to take out the trash after dark because bears might be out there! This greatly helped keeping the kids in after dark, but for all the time I spent out there at night, I didn't see a single hairy man. I think that the bear business is more about stirring up business for the rentals than anything else.
This area of N.H. is all about skiing in the winter, but during the summer, it is home to Storyland, a children's theme park. I spent two days riding kiddie rides with my neice and nephew; it was sweet, very sweet! Now, you must understand, whereever we went, there were thousands of kids, and especially at restaurants. Crayons were always served before bread and butter. Now matter where we ate, the kids outnumbered the adults by two to one. To their credit, the local restaurants were great at handling the family business; one 300 seat place which had both a great adult menu and a very good kids menu, had a free face painter for the people in line and once inside, there was a play room and a movie room. For those of you who haven't dined out with pre-schoolers recently, I can tell you that this was all a very good thing. The wait staff was extremely patient about all the jumping up and down from the table, but then they probably have something similar with the drunken winter ski crowd...
We stopped at this waterfall area on morning and my sis-in-law managed to get a good pic of Uncle Bunny and the kids.
The next pic is special because it shows something about my Dad; as vague as he can be about what is happening around him sometimes, on other times, he is totally there in the moment. I was just about 15 feet below my brother and my Dad and I told them that I was going to take a pic. I yelled out to my Dad, "Your hiding behind the tree!", and I hit the shutter.
As you can see, he was right on the mark.
It's amazing and strange, the things about him that are there and the things about him that are not. I am happily stunned that his sense of humor remains.
We headed back to my brother's house on Monday, and Tuesday, we went in search of a good lobster roll. We tried one in Plymouth, and at 14 bucks it was not a success. sigh. Then it was off to Logan Airport again. I had an 8 PM flight which would get my home by a little after eleven, but no such luck! The JetBlue Airbus computer did not believe that the emergency doors were closed and locked.
When they herded us off the plane and told us that Burger King was on the way, I thought that we would be there all night, but we were back on the plane and in the air by a bit after eleven. I "slept" on the plane, (it's a lie you tell yourself, it's not really sleep!), and got home around two AM, got to sleep around 2:30 AM and got up at 3:30 AM to get to a 5 AM meeting with my team, followed by an "all store" meeting at 6 AM, where I spoke to all assembled briefly, but effectively. Then I went home and took a nap and went back to work at noon. As I was leaving work at 4:30 PM. I realized that I was finally starting to crash; a good nights sleep fixed all that.
It was a six day vacation, but I must say it was successful; I came back refreshed.
The kids do that to me....
durlx
I don't have as much time for this as I used to, but then again, I am working now full time...
So, anyway, I took the "red eye flight" to Boston a little over a week ago to join my family for a few days. I got into Boston around 8 AM and took the bus out to my brother's place. I took a nap and then we drove into town again to pick my Dad up at Logan. The traffic is all effed up since the roof fell on that poor person, but not all that much worse than usual. We parked and then got into the terminal just in time to meet my Dad's flight. It's important to meet my Dad on time; with the Alzheimer's, you just can never be sure if he's going to get very lost.
My brother met him and got him to us by the baggage claim area. My bro went to get the car and I waited with my Dad and my lil' neice for the luggage. I realized, as we were standing there, waiting and talking, that my Dad wasn't all that sure who I was. I knew that this was coming, but it was still a shock. I chatted away and I could see that after a while he knew me, but I don't think he could have recalled my name. As the week went on, I learned that he probably had more problems with all of our names than he did last Christmas.
We got back to my brother's house, had something to eat and turned in. We got up early the next morning, packed into the car and headed up to the Mountains of New Hampshire.
It was very pretty there. We had a two story condo rental way up the side of the mountain. There were warnings not to take out the trash after dark because bears might be out there! This greatly helped keeping the kids in after dark, but for all the time I spent out there at night, I didn't see a single hairy man. I think that the bear business is more about stirring up business for the rentals than anything else.
This area of N.H. is all about skiing in the winter, but during the summer, it is home to Storyland, a children's theme park. I spent two days riding kiddie rides with my neice and nephew; it was sweet, very sweet! Now, you must understand, whereever we went, there were thousands of kids, and especially at restaurants. Crayons were always served before bread and butter. Now matter where we ate, the kids outnumbered the adults by two to one. To their credit, the local restaurants were great at handling the family business; one 300 seat place which had both a great adult menu and a very good kids menu, had a free face painter for the people in line and once inside, there was a play room and a movie room. For those of you who haven't dined out with pre-schoolers recently, I can tell you that this was all a very good thing. The wait staff was extremely patient about all the jumping up and down from the table, but then they probably have something similar with the drunken winter ski crowd...
We stopped at this waterfall area on morning and my sis-in-law managed to get a good pic of Uncle Bunny and the kids.
The next pic is special because it shows something about my Dad; as vague as he can be about what is happening around him sometimes, on other times, he is totally there in the moment. I was just about 15 feet below my brother and my Dad and I told them that I was going to take a pic. I yelled out to my Dad, "Your hiding behind the tree!", and I hit the shutter.
As you can see, he was right on the mark.
It's amazing and strange, the things about him that are there and the things about him that are not. I am happily stunned that his sense of humor remains.
We headed back to my brother's house on Monday, and Tuesday, we went in search of a good lobster roll. We tried one in Plymouth, and at 14 bucks it was not a success. sigh. Then it was off to Logan Airport again. I had an 8 PM flight which would get my home by a little after eleven, but no such luck! The JetBlue Airbus computer did not believe that the emergency doors were closed and locked.
When they herded us off the plane and told us that Burger King was on the way, I thought that we would be there all night, but we were back on the plane and in the air by a bit after eleven. I "slept" on the plane, (it's a lie you tell yourself, it's not really sleep!), and got home around two AM, got to sleep around 2:30 AM and got up at 3:30 AM to get to a 5 AM meeting with my team, followed by an "all store" meeting at 6 AM, where I spoke to all assembled briefly, but effectively. Then I went home and took a nap and went back to work at noon. As I was leaving work at 4:30 PM. I realized that I was finally starting to crash; a good nights sleep fixed all that.
It was a six day vacation, but I must say it was successful; I came back refreshed.
The kids do that to me....
durlx
posted by durlx at 8/14/2006 12:26:00 AM
3 Comments:
your dad has still himself in him. in other words he's still who he is, eh, and that's really a challenge for us all when everywhere everything wants us to be what we are not. not just gay people, everybody.
that's about as pretty a little waterfall area as ever was made outta new england rock and the convergence of lines in the foto is cool. lordee how the nephew has grown! i remember when he was born...unka bunny creates for the kids a good and wise playpal and comrade, bless him.
"(it's a lie you tell yourself, it's not really sleep..)" is genius.
Durly lovie,
Two posts. All your observations, funny and sad... and all I can think about is that meatloaf, mashed garlic potato and buttered roll lunch!
Food obsessed kisses,
Vera
Sigh...nothing cuter than a redheaded child. Of course, I'm partial... =)~
xoxo,
pebs
Post a Comment
<< Home