Wow has it really been that long? An eternity in blog time…
My trip to PA has concluded. As normal it had some good times but I’m always more than ready to get back home. I dropped off Nicki at the kennel Thursday morning. I had her bed, her feeding table, paper plates, her food, her water bottle, 2 toys and dog treats with me as well. The one lady that was also dropping off her dog said she felt like a bad momma after seeing all the accessories I was delivering with our pooch. I made it clear that I was only following orders from the wife. I set up everything in her kennel ahead of time and then helped take her back. She again had that terrible look of distress as we closed the door on her, and again I hurried out of the kennel without doing a double take. It really sucked.
After I dropped her off, I decided I wanted a toy to help me pass any dead time up in PA. I stopped by Wal-mart and grabbed myself a Gameboy Advanced SP and the Madden football game. However, I couldn’t use it on the plane because it had to be charged. Instead I spent the trip up reading a compelling book my Dad had sent me, “Into Thin Air”. It is a book about an expedition to Mt Everest in 1996 where a dozen or so people died during the climb, or more accurately, the descent. It was an amazing story about survivng extreme conditions and the brutal life and death decisions that had to be made up there. In multiple instances, people had to choose to save themselves or die trying to pull someone else down. Strangely, this tale of death and suffering somehow triggered a desire inside me to do something a little more out of the box with my recreation. I’m not getting any younger and the opportunities I have to challenge myself to do such things is limited. No I’m not planning on taking up mountain climbing, something that would be pretty impossible in the flatlands of Florida. But I do want to do some different things, expand my horizons. The author has a line in the book that stuck with me. He described his life up to the climb as “a series of small satisfactions that added up to some semblance of happiness” I think that could be said for many people that never feel quite fulfilled or truly happy, even if from the outside looking in, it looks like things should be ideal. If you don’t push yourself to do the hard things, your reward or personal satisfaction will only be as great as the effort you expend. It’s a good book, I’d recommend it.
Once I got to PA I was greeted with wet damp weather in the 50’s. I had worn shorts and a short sleeve shirt with no coat. People gave me some looks like I was nuts but I packed light and didn’t have lots of room in my bag for big bulky clothes. I had arranged for a rental car with a company I never heard of before, Payless. They were maybe 10 or 20 bucks cheaper than everyone else for the 4 day rental. I soon found out why. As I am standing outside waiting for one of thier vans to drive up for 5, 10, 15 minutes I am getting increasingly frustrated as I see van after van for the major chains drive up and off. After 20 minutes outside in my shorts I was getting a bit chilly. I look at my reservation sheet again. I see one line about pickup and a number to call. Evidently you have to call this place if you want to be picked up….. ah damn it. So I call the number, they say someone will be out in 10-15 minutes. Great. So I spent a half hour waiting to get picked up. By the time the van pulled up I had already decided that the 10-15 bucks I saved wasn’t worth it. I was the only person on the van as we went back to thier office. The van had spanish sounding rap blaring. I noticed the driver had a Yankees hat on and since the Yankees had just gotten eliminated the night before I struck up a baseball conversation with him until we arrived at the rental lot which was in an area I never saw before. I got my Ford Focus and was finally on my way. I flipped on WIP and heard Howard Eskin, one more thing I missed about PA. Unfortunately, by the time I hit the major arteries, it was just about rush hour so my commute up to Collegeville took an hour and a half. I was thinking how I couldn’t stand to be in such delays daily, when I realized that I already did sit in these jams…..
When I got to my brother-in-laws I got a big hug from Ali and greeted everyone. I got to see my new niece, Laiken. She is only 5 weeks old, so she did very little besides sleep and eat. She still had the newborn, squished look to her. She is a well behaved baby. Almost immediately I was asked if I wanted to hold her which I respectfully declined. I don’t really like holding tiny babies. They almost seem too fragile and I don’t enjoy the accompanying “Aw, you look so cute holding the baby, when are you going to have one?” banter that is sure to follow. My father and mother-in-law were also down for dinner. We had a nice sit down dinner. I told Ali about the sad drop off of Nicki which upset her. We went to bed relatively early, I was quite tired. The guest room bed was only a double so for Ali and I whom are used to sleeping in a king, a double felt like we were in a sleeping bag. Neither of us slept very well as everytime one of us would move, the other would be instantly aware of it.
On Friday our agenda was to visit Ali’s grandfather for lunch and then meet Rich and Beth for dinner. It was good to see “Pop Pop” and he seemed to be doing better than was reported the last time Ali was up to see him. Pop pop runs a tight ship and shortly after we arrived, we were off in his Suzuki 4wd to Friendly’s for lunch. He is 91 but still drives. He actually drives pretty well and isn’t afraid to drop the pedal when need be. After lunch we went back to his place to hang out for a bit. Pop pop is full of stories and he still remembers pretty much everything. While we were there we pulled out his vaccum and moved his furniture and gave the place a good sweeping. He can’t do that sort of stuff himself anymore.
We had a little time to kill before meeting up for dinner so we went to a couple stores and just browsed around. I picked up a couple used games for the game boy. I have to admit, after playing the XBOX which is cutting edge as far as visuals go, playing the game boy is a big letdown. Madden 05 reminds me of football games I played 10 years ago. The players are poorly animated, move about in a jerky almost uncontrollable fashion and they are so small it is next to impossible to avoid eyestrain if you play the game for any extended period of time. The used games I got were ok. It seems like there are certain types of games that translate well to the gameboy, things with large graphics that don’t require lots of fast input.
Ali drove to Rich and Beth’s so I could pop in the new games in the GBA and give them a quick spin. We got to see thier cool dog, Nugget and then went out and had a nice dinner. I had 3 big beers and then 2 more back at Rich’s place. I had a pretty good buzz going as Ali can verify my annoyance factor was high. It was good to see them and it is one of the other few things I miss about PA. In Florida, we have not made the same kind of friends as we have in PA.
Saturday was another full day. We met up with Pop Pop for the second day in a row to go to lunch at Red Lion, a hardcore PA Dutch style restaurant up in the Schuykill Haven area. It was a long drive and as we cruised along Pop Pop would point out how so and so lived there, how he did so and so here. He remembered great detail about everything, much more than I would expect to myself if I make it to 91. The drive was very scenic, going through the rolling hills with the bright, colored foliage of fall, something foreign to us in SW florida. Red Lion was fine, it wasn’t full as only a few people were scattered at tables here and there. I got a chipped beef sandwich, something I don’t think I ever ordered before. I guess I wanted to eat something appropriate for the area. It came out dry with nothing on it. So I requested some beef gravy for it to help out with some flavor. It was ok but the next time I am in a similar restaurant, I don’t think I would be ordering it again. The commute back home was even longer as Pop Pop took us by some other spots from his past. Once we got home Pop Pop was ready for his nap so we said our goodbyes. I like seeing pop pop. Ironically as we were dropping him off, avid blog reader Lisa, an ex-coworker of mine, spotted me going up the steps and stopped for a few minutes to chat. It was ironic for us to cross paths. After a brief chat and exchange of the latest and greatest, she was off.
Our next stop was to see my grandmother. We woke her from a nap in her room, but she was surprised and glad to see us. Grandma is 78 now and not quite as sharp as she once was. We heard several stories repeatedly and it is sometimes hard to find what to talk about in those situations. She has one roommate that is very funny and acts younger than her years. After spending maybe 15 minutes there we said goodbye to grandma and were off to my brother’s place. As we came inside, I saw my other new niece, Caroline, swinging away. She is only a week or so older than Laiken. She was a cute baby. It was weird to see the first child of my siblings. I interacted with her and I even held her for a little while. I knew I would have less time to interact with her so I wanted to make sure I held her. She too was quite the agreeable baby. We chatted for awhile and heard the stories regarding new parenthood. Then Todd and I played his long anticipated game of football on his new Playstation 2. He was thrilled to win. It was a strange game where I dominated statistically but threw multiple interceptions, 2 of which Todd returned for touchdowns. He was gloating but I didn’t really care, it didn’t mean all that much to me. I told him an XBOX would have been a wiser choice as it would have allowed us to continue the rivalry long distance.
After game time was done, we headed out to dinner. I suggested Victor Emmanuels as it is one of my favorite Reading restaurants but the fear of a huge wait while hauling a newborn with was daunting, so we went to a place named Casa Grande instead. We had a good dinner. Ironically we were subjected to kids screaming, other than Caroline. She sat quietly by as multiple children screamed at various times. It seems that once you have kids, the vast majority of everything that is discussed during dinner is child related. Dead spots in conversation can be filled simply by just commenting on whatever the baby is doing at the moment. Todd seems to really be into the magic of being a father and I am very happy for him. After dinner we hung out for a bit. I declined another crack at Todd in football as Ali was pretty beat.
After another restless night of sleep we awoke early Sunday. We discussed hitting the local gym that Ali had been using since she was up there. It was in the 40’s that morning but I still went out in shorts. We got there a few minutes after 8 and put in almost an hour and a half of time in. It was a nice new gym with lots of “stuff”. I did a varied workout, trying to hit all the major body parts I normally do in a full week of workouts. Since the new gym isn’t open yet down here, I have been getting by by doing abbreviated home workouts so I don’t lose too much. Evidently the combination of not doing my normal routine and working out early in the AM made quite a difference. I felt very weak and by the time I was done I felt light headed and spent.
We ate a late breakfast and then got ready for Eagles football. The game was a nail biter, filled with great plays on offense for the Birds, followed by thier defense acting like an open door, allowing Cleveland to march up and down the field on them as they pleased. There was some real questionable decisions by Andy Reid towards the end, like when he called a bomb on a 3rd and 1 as they were moving towards game winning, field goal range. There also were some horrid roughing the passer calls against the Eagles. The second one basically cost the Eagles the win in regulation as it came on a last gasp, 4th & 6 failure by the Browns. On the play, Dawkins was up in the air as the ball was thrown, bumped into Garcia lightly, tried to help hold him up and because Garcia tripped over his own lineman, they call it roughing. It was just a ridiculous call and the situation amplified it’s absurdity. Well in the end it was a mute point as Akers booted a 50 yarder through in OT to seal the deal. Tough game.
The rest of Sunday we spent watching more football, having dinner with Ali’s dad who stopped down and packing for the trip back home. I also spent a lot of time playing with my little niece Lauryn and I got around to holding Laiken for an extended time. She slept on me for three quarters of the Eagles game. We were both anxious to get home and grant parole to Nicki. Ali set the alarm for 5:30 as we planned to be out the door at 6:30. The next morning I awoke and was distressed to read 6:16 on the clock! Damn it, we overslept! I scare Ali out of her slumber, pointing out that we slept through 45 minutes of the radio playing! Damn! I rush into the bathroom and begin doing minimal preparations so we can get out the door. As I went back into the bedroom, Ali tells me the clock got messed up. A look at our other time pieces confirmed that it was actually 5:15 instead! Somehow, the time on the clock AND the alarm time was incorrect. Unsure of how this happened, we were able to slow our pace to a steady jog and got ready to go in plenty of time. We said goodbye to my brother and sister-in-law and thanked them for thier hospitality.
We encountered some heavy commuter traffic on the way to the airport but were still able to get there in plenty of time. On the flight back, Ali was in first class and I was in coach. Her brother used some of his airmiles to upgrade her seat. Besides the bigger seat, it wasn’t really worth it. They served no meals, only snacks and there were no other big perks. I was seated in an exit row, my preference as it accomodates my long legs. There was a woman in the window seat that was travelling with a girlfriend. She asked if I or the guy next to me would switch seats so her girlfriend could sit next to her. I explained that I picked the exit row because of my height, otherwise I would have switched. The other guy just ignored her. The woman wasn’t happy and slept in her seat, silent the entire trip. Oh well. I struck up some conversation with the guy next to me. He appeared to be around 50 and from the facts I gathered, he sounded like a guy with substantial money as he was part owner of a condo building in Marco Island. He also said he had 360,000 airline miles to use up. I tried to maintain an adult conversation. However, being next to a wealthy, successful businessman made me scuttle my plans to whip out the Gameboy and play a few games of Madden because I didn’t want to appear childish. Instead I read my men’s health mags and then asked to look through the gentleman’s usa today when he was done with it. Silly.
We landed safely. Ali’s luggage was tagged with a PRIORITY tag since she was first class. And as you would expect, her first bag came out almost right away on the belt. Awesome! Well the second and final bag showed up 15 minutes later with the same PRIORITY tag affixed to it. Ugh. We went out to the lot and found the Sentra. Ali hadn’t seen it since the window tinting was done. It makes the car look a bit sharper and when we sat inside, we noticed the car was noticably cooler than it normally would be after sitting out in the florida sun all day. We rushed to the kennel to save Nicki. I was the one to first greet her back in the kennel so I could retrieve her supplies. She was very excited to see me and jumped around excitedly. That didn’t compare to the reception Ali got out in the lobby. Once Nicki saw her, she sprinted across the tile and slid into Ali’s arms, simultaneously releasing multiple puddles as her bladder was overcome with excitement. The reunion lasted awhile as we tried to avoid having Nicki step in the mess she created. On the drive home Ali sat in the back seat with the dog so the love fest could continue. We got back home to find everything intact and reassured to be back in sunshine and 80 degree weather.
The PA trip was a good one as far as PA trips go. As usual, it would have been nice to spend more time to see more people but it seems like 4 days is about as long as we(I) do at a time up north. The fall scenery was pretty, seeing our friends and relatives (new and old) was great. But we were both happy to return to our now familiar stomping grounds. Being around babies for 4 days was an interesting experience. I think I could handle fatherhood, whether I want to is still questionable. Sooooo much time is directed towards the kids it is next to impossible to not lose yourself in the process. If you are still reading, damn, must have some free time on your hands….
