Fast four

I got out of work early on Friday since my dad, step mom, and their two dogs were showing up later in the afternoon.  In addition I had prep to do for the cross country meet I was timing and it also just happened to be Cindy’s birthday as well.  By the time dad showed up I had most of my race equipment at least staged, ready to be packed in the truck.  It probably felt weird for Maggie and Clara to come in without being greeted by Nicki and Sadie but I wasn’t going to be picking them up until Sunday. Dad and Teresa had a good trip down, taking three days to cover the distance instead of the two days I normally take.

On Friday night we had a very nice little party for Cindy’s birthday.  Her daughter, her daughter’s boyfriend and Cindy’s mom joined us for dinner and cake.  It was the first time any of them met my dad or step mom.  We all had a good time and I could tell Cindy really enjoyed having everyone around to celebrate her birthday, something she is unaccustomed to.  Of course everyone had positive feedback on the awesome chocolate birthday cake.

On Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed at 4AM to head to the XC meet.  Cindy stayed home to hang with my dad and Teresa.  The weather in the morning was nice and crisp with temps around 65 degrees.  Unfortunately once the sun crossed the horizon things started to warm up dramatically.  This was the first time I have ever used the bib based timing chips for this cross country meet.  In order to do so I collected left over bibs from last years Turkey Trot as well as some of our normal GCR bibs to accommodate the roughly 775 kids that were participating.   It looked a little odd having Thanksgiving race bibs on the runners but it was a way for me to at least get some use out of the leftover inventory.

Timing a XC meet is more complicated than a normal 5K.  There is special scoring involved and it is a total of four separate races instead of one.  Since I only time one XC meet a year I am always a bit fuzzy on the details but luckily everything went smoothly.  I only had one kid that reported not having a time and I suspect it was due to a human error instead of a technical one.

The meet has an official timer, this year it was the same guy as last year, an ex-military man that totally looks the role.  He was no nonsense, disqualifying 3 kids in the race for breaking the rules.  One boy was disqualified for shoving as he approached the finish line which I guess I can understand.  However he also disqualified two girl teammates for holding hands as they crossed the finish line in joy, technically, a foul, but realistically was nothing.   Even with things going smoothly I did not get off site until around 11:30, it was a long morning.

So when I got home I was immediately on the clock, despite being weary from getting up early.  I needed to get the meet results finalized and posted and all of the race equipment cleaned up and put away.  However we had to be on site at the GCR Oktoberfest by roughly 3:30 so I had little time to spare.  I took a shower and we all piled into Cindy’s Prius to the event, one that my dad and Teresa said sounded like fun to them.  When we got there the final preparations were still ongoing.  Cindy and I worked on getting the tent that would be used for checking people in set up.  Our role was going to be as the front door, taking money and credit cards  as well as selling raffle tickets. Since there wasn’t much else to do at this point, Dad amd Teresa pitched in, helping us with the set up.

The event officially started at 4PM and the flow of people at the start was on the slow side. However after maybe an hour or so things were rolling.  Last year was the first year for the GCR Oktoberfest, a fund raiser for our youth development fund.  Year one was a disappointment, not drawing nearly the numbers that we hoped for.  This year the pricing structure was switched around, making the admission price cheaper, only $10 but the food and beer was pay as you go.  It seemed like the formula worked.  Attendance to the event seemed significantly higher.

I was given a festive, German-looking long sleeve, baggy white shirt to wear as a costume.  Unfortunately I was not able to keep it clean.  When I was eating my tofu brat with mustard that Cindy had brought me, I unknowingly had one baggy sleeve drag through the mustard.  Normal arm movements afterward had spread the mustard all over my shirt before anyone alerted me.  It looked pretty bad.

As we were working, a steady flow of refills of my beer stein were being delivered as well.  The german beer that was being served did not taste good to me at all but it hardly mattered.  Once the first one or two go down taste is no longer part of the equation.  The beer apparently was also much higher in alcohol content than the Miller Lite I will normally consume in social drinking situations.  I was clearly drunk.

Dad and Teresa mingled about, checking out the music and dancing on the stage which I was glad to see.  I felt badly that I was “working” the event while they were there but I knew they also don’t have issues socializing so I knew they would be fine.  By the time 9pm rolled around the money box was stuffed with cash and I had consumed at least six 20 ounce beer steins filled with high octane German beer.

Now of course I wasn’t driving.  Cindy was our designated driver as she only had one beer all night long.  I piled into the passenger seat while my dad and step mom took the rear.  As we pulled out everyone was laughing and talking in the way drunk people do, including myself.  Well about 5 minutes into the drive home I pretty much stopped talking.  I started to feel extremely nauseous.  At first I was sure it would pass.  I knew I was drunk but I never ever have gotten really sick on beer.

I then started to break out into cold sweats.  Cindy touched my arm and asked if I was ok.  I just said ummm hmmm as I tried to back myself away from the ledge.  Finally about 7 miles from home I told Cindy she needed to pull over.  She swung into the entrance of one of the many churches on Immokalee Road.  I walked over to the guardrail and baptized the holy ground with vomit, vomit that also splattered all over my feet.  In total there were three or four sessions until I felt like I was in the clear.  Cindy, in her typical loving way, came over and gave me a towel to clean up with and a bottle of water to wash off my feet.   I’m sure my dad was quite proud of me in that moment.

I returned to the car feeling better that the inner evil that was inside of me had been purged.  It was the first time I had thrown up from drinking in at least 8 years, if not more, and the first time I had ever hit that point on beer.  When we got home I immediately took a shower and collapsed in bed, exhausted.

Sunday morning I woke up with a headache but not feeling as awful as you would think after a night that involved a pukefest.  The four of us went out to breakfast at a dog friendly place called Skillets. Before doing so we stopped at Ali’s to pick up Nicki and Sadie.  Dad and Teresa never saw Ali’s new place before.  The dogs of course were excited to see each other, Sadie was near hysterical.  She was sprinting around Ali’s great room, sliding on the tile and leaping on and off the furniture, it was very funny.

We had to wait to be seated at Skillets for a bit.  When we were seated it was logistically challenging to get the four of us around the table with four large dogs without infringing on the personal space of other patrons.  I wound up eating pushed away from the table to make additional dog space.  It worked out eventually and all four of us had breakfasts we enjoyed although I left a large portion of mine untouched.  My appetite was not fully recovered from the night before.

After breakfast we went to Rural King, we figured it was the type of place dad would find interesting based on the 20 sheep and ranch he maintains at home.  We were right, dad seemed to buy in to the Rural King experience and even bought himself a RK sweatshirt to wear at home since he is literally THE Rural King.  While we were there we picked up some chicken supplies of course.

We then headed back to the house to just relax and let the dogs play.  When we were outside we had to keep a close eye on Clara, she was the only one that went crazy around the chickens, dashing around their coop and scaring the shit out of the birds. We had to drag her away from them repeatedly until she took the hint that the chickens were off limits.   Sadie and Clara played quite a bit.  Maggie primarily wanted to just play fetch with whomever was willing to throw a toy for her.  Nicki just walked around and hung out with a big dog smile on her face.  You could tell she was very happy to have the gang together, even if she couldn’t be the active participant she once was.

I did some work on Dad’s laptop that had not been updated in months.  It literally took 2-3 hours until I got everything on it cleaned up and current.  Cindy prepared a very delicious dinner that we all enjoyed while perched around my flip up table.  Sunday was a pretty laid back sort of day that seemed necessary after running around non-stop the day before.

On Monday Cindy had to work a half day.  I asked dad if he wanted to go for a joyride in the SSR since I wanted to get coffee and rear mirror adhesive for my Tacoma since the mirror fell off for the 6th or 7th time on Sunday.  When we first headed out the SSR had a nasty vibration going on but I have had that happen before after long periods of it sitting dormant.  The tires actually get a flat spot from all that sitting which works itself out as the rubber warms back up.  After about 5 minutes the ride smoothed out.

During the drive dad got to talking about various things, family, politics and the general state of the world.  During most visits I have with my dad one of these conversations normally goes down.  In general philosophical terms, dad and I are in agreement on many things.  When it comes to details that alignment may shift a bit.  My approach to many things has more compromise in it than dad is willing to dispense.

We wound up taking the dogs out for their second meal as in many days, this time meeting Cindy at Panera which has ample outdoor seating.  We ran across an old woman with a small dachshund that I found annoying.  As we walked by her and her dog with our four animals she was emphatically telling us how her dog is scared of other dogs and we need to make sure we keep ours away.  Both Cindy and I thought it was moronic to take your dog to a dog friendly venue if your dog can’t handle other dogs.  She later apologized for coming off so “bossy” about it (drop the “oss” and substitute “itch”) However I got the sense that mentally the woman was not all there so I gave her a pass.

Monday afternoon again was mostly chill time.  We made plans to go see the matinee of The Judge, at Coconut Point.  Going to a movie with dad is a risky proposition as the type of movie he views as worthwhile or good is a very narrow spectrum.  My hope was the quality reviews and strong cast of the movie would win him over.  The theater, as is normally the case was quite empty.  Dad and Teresa commented on the size of the theater, a dozen times bigger than most theaters you will find in their neck of the woods.  The theater was also quite chilly.  Cindy and I, the Florida residents were the least prepared for the aggressive AC.  I had on shorts and short sleeve shirt while Cindy had on a sundress.   Dad and Teresa both had long pants and sleeves.

The movie was quite good.  The story was very complex, well written and really showcased the acting talents of stars like Robert Downey and Robert Duvall.  There are many touching moments in the story and several things that I could connect with based on my personal journeys.  I thought it was very well done and give it an A.  I was glad to hear my dad proclaim he actually liked it as well.

After the movies we shot over to Stir Crazy to grab dinner, our only restaurant dinner of their visit thanks to Cindy’s cooking talents.  We all had meals that we enjoyed as we talked.  It seemed weird that dad and Teresa’s visit was nearly over, it seemed to blur by extremely quickly.  We got back home in time for dad to catch the Steelers game although both of us packed it in by halftime due to heavy eyelids.

This morning they set a 6AM alarm and were packed up and ready to go a little after 7, their visit had to be compressed a bit so that they can meet my brother Patrick before he shoves off for yet another extended overseas work trip.  It’s always sad to see them go as this visit especially seemed like it was even shorter, probably because of how busy Saturday was.  We said our goodbyes until next time.  Who knows, another northern winter adventure might still be in the cards?

As I wrote this I realized how few pictures we took while my dad and Teresa were down here, how dumb.