Orlando, Bush whacking, rest
Nicki and I pushed out the door around 8 am on Friday. The GPS has us going a more direct route up the center of the state instead of up I-75 to route 4. Although it is more direct it also went through many small towns with slower speed limits and traffic lights so I don’t know that it was any faster, in fact it may have been slower. It took me all of 3 and a half hours to get there. Nicki repeatedly wanted me to roll down the windows so she could stick her head out. At first I wouldn’t do it because I figured I was going too fast. She kept waiting and waiting for the windows to magically open so I eventually relented and let her stick her head out. I figured she would figure out it a few seconds. Nope, she seemed to have her head blowing in the hurricane force wind. She would sit down for a few minutes and then go right back to sticking her head out. Dogs are weird.
I warned Ali we were arriving so she could come out and greet us outside. If Nicki’s first sight of Ali occurred indoors she would pee all over the floor for sure. After almost a week of not seeing Ali, Nicki was besides herself with excitement. When we got up into the tiimeshare it was more or less a subdued scene. Ali’s Dad was napping and everyone else was sitting around with some cartoon on the TV for the two kids. My neice Lauryn had developed a fear of dogs since we saw her last so she grexxed and whined when she saw Nicki. Nicki despises children and was equally scared of my neices. My other neice Laiken had no such fear of dogs and was very interested in Nicki. Nicki wanted nothing to do with it. I had not seen my neice Laiken since she was a few months old. Now she is walking, talking and is basically a holy terror that wants to get into everything. She didn’t really know what to think of me.
After I had been there 10 minutes or so, my brother, sister and mother-in-laws along with the girls were out the door on their way to downtown disney, leaving Ali, Nicki, Ali’s dad and me. I thought it was a bit odd that everyone took off right after our arrival but soon found out that it was pretty much the norm. A lot of hurrying up to get places and not a whole lot of enjoying the being there part. So while Ali’s dad watched fishing shows on ESPN, Ali and I ran out to Subway and brought back sandwiches for the three of us.
The timeshare was nice. We had 2 units, one 1 bedroom unit and one 2 bedroom unit connected by a door. I was worried it would be less than advertised but for 450 bucks for a week you couldn’t beat it. It was literally 5 minutes from the Disney parks so you could not beat the location.
After we ate lunch we decided to go to downtown Disney and try to catch up with the others. Ali’s dad was fine with dog sitting. After we got there we tracked the others down via a cell phone call. Then the whirlwind tour started. We went from store to store in quick succession. They snapped a few pics of the kids and then in about an hour or so they were ready to head out. Ali and I opted to stick around and look around a bit. I assume part of the fast pace of my in-laws was because of having two children there that may have been too young to enjoy the experience. I think being close to double digits in age is probably the optimum age for kids to enjoy disney. I doubt they will even remember their time there.
It was very hot in Orlando for May, it was in the lower 90’s. Ali and spent maybe another hour walking around seeing the sights. We went into a huge Virgin record store where I got to see my first Xbox 360 in person. They had 6 of them set up, each with a different game. You know games today all pretty much have outstanding graphics, it’s just a given because of the technology out there. But damn, the 360 took it to another level. You have to see it first hand to appreciate just how good the graphic quality of the games are. For a few moments I felt the need to have one, but quickly I reminded myself how since my WoW addiction started, my playtime on my XBox has dwindled down to practically nothing. Those graphics were sooooo good though.
We got back to the timeshare around four. Ali had done some homework about restaurants that had outdoor seating and allowed dogs. She made reservations at some italian place. She was nervous because she didn’t want to be the fall guy if the place sucked. The place was 20 something miles away so we allocated 40 minutes to get there. Thanks to gridlock on I-4 it took 60. On the way over I discovered that although the AC now did a fine job of keeping the passengers in the front of the van cool, with temps in the lower 90’s the people in the back were uncomfortably warm. So in an effort to keep them cooler my father-in-law had his window down and they had the sliding windows in the back open which totally eliminated any benefit of the AC. I felt bad that they were hot back there. I knew that my brother-in-law had to be wishing that they just rented that full size SUV they were going to get. But hey we saved them the 700 bucks they were going to have to spend on the rental. The party van was cumbersome fully loaded down with seven people. At highway speeds any movement was exagerrated and hitting the brakes hard resulted in a strong pull to the right and a pulsating brake pedal that screamed for attention. I need to get the brakes fixed sometime.
The GPS got us to the restaurant just fine although it had the side of the road for the establishment reversed. The place was nice, right by the lake. It was windy outside but otherwise very nice. The place was right by a lake where jet ski’s were pulling guys on those big inflatable discs that get airborne. It was fun to watch them. Dinner was fine and after a couple hours we were on our way back. Luckily the traffic had subsided. When we got back there it was time for everyone to pack. They wanted to leave at 5:15am to give them 2 full hours to get on the plane.
Our bedroom had two double beds. Ali and I slept in one bed and Nicki slept in the other. It was not a good nights sleep. If Ali or I moved an inch we would wake the other up. Needless to say we both felt like death when the alarm fired off at 4:30 am. Ali’s parent’s alarm did not go off and they didn’t wake up till shortly before 5 so they had to hurry, hurry, hurry up. We piled in the van and I drove them to the airport. We gave our hugs and goodbyes and went back to the timeshare. We had all of our shit to pack up yet as well as all the kitchen junk to clean up. I originally had the idea that we could pack it all up immediately and get on the road nice and early so we could get home before lunch. However Ali said there was no way she would be able to follow me home in the car if she didn’t sleep a little. So Ali laid back down and slept and I packed up little odds and ends the best I could but many things I needed some input from Ali before packing so I couldn’t do it all. So after I did what I deemed I could I flipped on the TV. For some reason I found myself glued to an infomercial for Appliance Direct. The guy and woman that do these commercials are hilarious. The infomercial simply repeated the same clips over and over. In a half hour I probably saw the same clips 4 or 5 times but I kept watching. It’s that funny. You HAVE to see this for yourself. Go here and view the commercials on the right side.
After a couple hours Ali woke up and we got all the junk together. Ali’s obsession with recycling meant we were filling the Sentra’s trunk with 6 bags of recyclable materials. I don’t even bother to suggest that it isn’t very practical to haul trash 200 miles so we could dispose of it at home, I guess I’m just used to it by now. I drove the van and Ali followed in the car. The drive back was long and more than afew times I found myself extremely drowsy. I battled it one time by stopping and grabbing a cup of nasty coffee from a gas station. Later in the trip after the coffee wore off I would stay awake by holding my breath. Oxygen deprivation does a fine job of keeping the brain alert.
Finally we rolled into the driveway sometime around 1:15. It felt good to be home but I was already gnawing at the bit to get stuff done, put away and back to normal. After I unloaded everything from both vehicles I was off to the grocery store while Ali put away stuff inside. After returning I ripped into the list that I created while at the grocery store. I was outside until after 6pm doing chore after chore.
One of the big chores is watering. We have had basically no rain for a couple months. Our grass is a brown mess. Last week I broke one of our two travelling sprinklers through some stupidity. I needed to adjust the one sprinkler but it was running. Instead of turning off the water source or simply grabbing the hose and pinching it I decided to walk up to the sprinkler and stick my foot out to stop the spinning arms. The sudden stop was enough to break the sprinkler arm. I cursed myself for my dumb move. It left me with one sprinkler to cover the rest of the yard.
Well on Sunday my second travelling sprinkler died. It was an old Thompson unit that I had gotten from our old neighbors. The nylon worm gear had stripped, leaving it incapable of movement. I could hardly believe that both of my sprinklers had bit the dust in the space of a week. So now I need to find a replacement after not being able to find any replacement parts online for either unit.
We had to wake up to the alarm once again Sunday morning for a race. Because of my still ailing knee I was unable to run so I was relegated to being a cheerleader / picture taker. I felt like a schlub not being able to run. Ali finsihed in just under 31 minutes, a slow time for her but she said even though it was 7:30 am, the course was VERY hot. I saw more than one person throw up after they crossed the finish line. Being a spectator allowed me to closely watch the various running styles of people. Some were quite odd. One guy grunted loudly with every breat the ENTIRE race. There is no way I would have been able to run close to the guy, it was so annoying. He also carried his hands very high and made a motion that almost looked like he was rubbing his nipples. Another old guy held his hands even higher and almost looked like he was waving bye bye to people. A runner in his 70’s actually went down twice as he approached the finish line and had to literally be helped across the line. I was worried he had a heart attck but he was just dehydrated. I guess it was hot.
The rest of the day was fine with me knocking out a few more chores and playing WoW for the first time in 3 days. I convince myself that my addiction to WoW isn’t too dangerous because I have the ability to push it away if need be, if I go a day without playing it isn’t the end of the world.
Ali was playing this video last night. It was a comedian who did an impromptu roast of W AS HE WAS SITTING THERE. I mean it was cutting stuff, viciously brutal and honest about how much of a boob Bush is. I could not believe he was present for the berating. Once again you have to see this to believe it.