Watt's Up Musings of an original geek

During the vacation these past three weeks we had turned off the air conditioning in the house. We arrived home to a very hot house. When we walked in at 1 AM the house was 90 degrees. We turned the AC on, all the ceiling fans and tried to sleep. When I woke up I found that the temperature was still 81 degrees. The AC was not working. So I called the local HVAC service company. Well we have two units, one for the upstairs and one for the downstairs. One had no freon, and the other had 30% freon. The service man said that the coils in the attic were old (he actually was surprised that they were still working after 10 years). So instead of doing the simple short-term fix and replacing the coils, we’re replacing the whole system for $10K, yup, that’s 10 big ones. Needless to say that we have to take a loan out for it. But then that’s life in modern america. I just can’t seem to get ahead. Sheesh!

Well we left Liberty, Indiana at 4:35 AM on our return trip. It was still dark out. We carefully threaded our way through Liberty watching our speed. On the way out of town as I sped up to 40 MPH all of a sudden a cop turned on his lights and pulled us over. It was a young guy. He said that we had been doing 42 in a 30 MPH area just prior to the 40 MPH sign which was in sight. Sheesh! To make a long story short he let us go with a warning. Maybe it was because we said that we had just left our relatives home. I don’t know. But from then on I was worried that some other town constable was going to get us. Once I was on the interstate highway I relaxed a bit. To break it up we first drove to Clarksville, Tennessee to Homespun Corner, a wonderful cross stitch store, where Kathy spent some time and some money. Then it was on the road again. This time we drove straight through and arrived back to a very hot house at 1 AM. The road trip was over.

The posts are getting shorter. Sunday some of our family crowd left at the tail end of the graduation party. And so the end begins. Not only the end of the graduation, but the end of our road trip.

Monday was spent resting from the hectic weekend. We’re still at Melanie and Tom’s home in Liberty IN. Grandmommy and Katie left at 10:30 then Justin and Matthew left at 11 AM. Chinese food was enjoyed for dinner. The numbers continue to dwindle.

Tuesday was Patrick’s day. We spent a glorious but hot day outside at the Westview golf course where Patrick had a tournament. He did well and came in 3rd place for his 13-14 year old age group. The group of four he was in was quite competitive coming in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the overall standing. It was fun being outside and watching him skillfully play. [Note: I am horrible at golf.]

Tomorrow morning very early we leave to head home…

The day’s are blending one into the other. Looking back today all are becoming a blur. Wednesday was spent quietly at home. Brian repaired a few things around MaryLib’s home. Katie was busy at school. This being one of her most demanding days of the week. We began packing since we’re leaving tomorrow.

Thursday we traveled from Athens OH to Liberty IN. Saying goodbye to Katie and MaryLib wasn’t hard since they’ll be travelling on Friday once Katie finishes classes. Again the books on tape continue. We finished Envy and started John Adams by McCullough. This tape alone will not be completed since it’s 30 hours long. Oh well. We arrived in the afteroon at Melanie and Tom’s home, Kathy’s younger sister and brother-in-law. Patrick, their youngest, welcomed us with his winning smile. Oh so grown up. We barely saw Casey, their older son and soon to be high-school graduate. That evening we (parents, grandparents, and ourselves) went to the Awards night presentation and we were all very proud and impressed at the bevy of awards that Casey garnered from his hard work. A late evening pizza dinner finshed the day.

Friday was a day of arrivals with Betsey, Bob, Kathy’s older sister and brother-in-law, and their daughter Whitney arriving. MaryLib and Katie arriving. Then the last two was Justin and Matthew who flew in from California and Texas respectively. All day Casey was gone to a sporting event in other parts of Indiana. He didn’t show up until 2 AM. Ahhh youth, they are so resiliant.

Saturday was mixed activities with some people golfing in the late morning to early afternoon. This included Bob Sr. (Tom’s dad), Tom, Bob, Patrick and Matthew. Patrick is quite the young golfer and it was nice to hear about their round when they returned in the early aftrnoon. Another group went to Centerville for antique shopping. Yet it seems that all we do it eat, but then the family spends much of its time sitting and talking in Melanie’s large kitchen so what else can we do. In the middle of the afternoon we went to Mary Fran’s home for a casual indoor picnic lunch of sloppy joes. Returning home we got dressed for graduation. The graduation was at 7:30 PM in the Miami (of Ohio) University’s Willet center. Again Casey was recognized for all his awards and delivered his salutatorian speech. Naturally back at the house the family was hungary again so Justin ordered pizzas, and wings which were quickly devoured.

Sunday is the graduation party. Fifty to a hundred people are expected. Then our family will begin to leave – a sad aspect of events such as these. It is much too short.

We woke late on Tuesday since we had all stayed up late the day before. Katie was busy today with classes, so we stayed at home and took it easy – Kathy stitching and Brian on the computer. Brian did a few small errands and replaced some worn electrical switches in the house too. In the evening we again went out to dinner with Katie and more of her friends. This time it was Jamie, her roommate for the past two years and who will be her roommate next year too, Ursala, who is another roommate for next year, and Jens, a young man from Germany who is dating another friend Stephanie who was unable to attend because she is studying abroad. The restaurant was Lui Lui’s and the food was very good – kinda Pan-Asian. We said we didn’t want dessert, but we has ulterior motive and promptly went to Cold Stone Creamery on Court Street for ice cream. Yum! For some reason we were up late again probably because dinner started late. Some day soon we’ve all got to catch up on our sleep and today might be the day…

We left Buffalo in the at 9 AM on Sunday and travelled to Athens OH. Along the way we again listened to books on tape – finishing Envy by Sandra Brown (15 hrs), and starting Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans. We arrived about 3:30 PM in Athens and immediately stopped by and saw Katie. She had been phoning us during the trip to find out our progress. Upon arriving we met her friends, Kim and David, saw her dorm room and then went over to MaryLib’s, Kathy mom, where we’ll be staying these next few days. The day ended with dinner, talk, and Brian and Katie seeing the Madagascar movie.

Monday was a relatively quiet day, but then most are quiet and peaceful while we’re on vacation. Since we have the car and it’s almost the end of school for Katie, we’ve been helping her empty out her room and transport her things to a storage facility where she’s rented a 5×5 locked space. We’ve been to Walmart once so far for more storage tubs to help in this effort. It’s amazing how much stuff she has accumulated in such a short time. Because this is Katie’s “Parents Weekend”, she’s wanted us to meet all of her friends, so we went to Damon’s for dinner with Kim. Large portions and good talk were had by all. Kim had RA duty at 8 PM and Katie a paper to write, so we dropped Kim and Katie off so they could do their work. MaryLib, Kathy and Brian stayed up late (1 AM) talking animatedly about things including how Ohio University is doing a poor job in allowing Katie to get the courses she needs for her degree. It seems that although she is now a junior she still getting closed out of required classes. This seems to be a institutional problem here since her mother, Kathy, who also graduated from here, encountered the exact same problem when she attended many years ago. MaryLib is considering talking to the administration concerning this issue since she too is a graduate and has “connections”.

Yesterday, Friday, Brian visited his cousin Andy at his shop during the early afternoon. He is a machinist having taken over his father’s, Brian’s uncle’s, business years ago. Power saws, lathes, milling machines, etc. are located throughout his well-used industrial shop. He is his own boss and does both metalizing and machining. Metalizing is applying metal to pieces to build and/or harden specific areas. He was very generous to spend some time with Brian during his business hours. That evening Dad, Ruth, Kathy and Brian had dinner with Andy and his wife Doreen at Olive Garden. They are both delightful and it was fun visiting and sharing stories of our mutual family.

Today, Saturday, has been cool outside, and quiet inside. We’re just taking it easy. We feel that Dad and Ruth get very tired both physically and emotionally while they are here. Then the additional burden of other guests, and dinners out pushes them over their limit. We need to be sensitive to their needs so we’re just taking it easy today – that is, sitting and talking quietly.

We left last Satursday and have been traveling almost a week now. Briefly here is what we’ve done…

On last Saturday we travelled from Austin to just north of Nashville TN. We listened to books on tape (for example, Leading with my Chin by Jay Leno) and the hours whizzed by. We started at about 5:20 AM and stopped at 5:30 PM. We switch driver every 300 miles. So in 12 hours of driving we completed about 850 miles (avg 70 mph). We stayed over at an inexpensive Motel 6 and had a decent BBQ dinner at Jack’s.

Our goal the next day, Sunday, was to get to Lexington KY to see my bro and sister-in-law, David and Linda. We started driving mid-morning and arrived mid-afternoon. It was an easy drive and we continued to listen to “Envy” by Sandra Brown which we had started the day before. We were so engrossed in the book that we overshot one of our turns by 30 miles. Luckily it was easily fixed. We went through Louisville, and then onto Lexington. We had a fun time talking, reminiscing, and catching-up with David and Linda. We stayed over at their lovely new home, although they had been there 5 years, it was new to us.

The next day, Monday, we went to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill while David and Linda were at work. It was about a 45 minute drive south and we toured the site from late morning to early afternoon. This included a demonstration of Shaker music, a horse-drawn carriage ride, lunch, and many demonstrations of life during those times. Arriving back home we dressed for dinner and went to Diane and Greg’s home, their daughter and son-in-law, for drinks before dinner. Diane showed us their luxurious home. Dinner at Dudley’s was nice with good conversation and good food. We also picked up an oil painting that my mother had done of a sleeping nude. Something that had been offered by Dave and I had been planning to acquire for years, but was unable to because we didn’t want to ship it so having the car has been useful for that.

We woke early the next morning, Tuesday, packed the car with the painting in the back seat, said our goodbyes and headed off at 7 AM for Buffalo. Continuing the unabridged version of Envy our 10 hour drive went by quickly and we arrived at 4:30 PM having had one 45 minute delay (dead stop for gosh knows what) on the interstate. It was good to see Dad and Ruth. The Buffalo weather was cold and blustery, and I was underdressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Dinner was at home, and although all we did that day was sit and drive we crashed early and slept late.

We’re trying to keep our stay at Dad and Ruth’s quiet and unstressful so we sit and talk and do minor chores around the house. We hope that they comfortable with us being here since they are getting on in years. They live simply day-to-day, and from meal-to-meal, but that’s fine and they seem happy even though they are getting older and less agile. We woke late on Wednesday, had breakfast, talked, had lunch and when they napped we went to East Aurora to a cross-stitch shop. The evening was quiet with us watching TV (60 Minutes and American Idol) and chatting.

Thursday was again quiet at their home. Brian worked on a blind for the upstairs loft AKA art studio. He had previously tried to make a fancy pull-string mechanism to open and close it, but it had gotten jambed. So this time he undid the strings and simplified it to allow Dad to manually open and close it. The weather was glorious – sunny, dry and 65 degrees. Brian went to see the Parrots of Telegraph Hill in the afternoon and Kathy stayed home to read and stitch while Dad and Ruth napped. That evening Bert (he is married to Judy who is Ruth’s daughter) stopped by from Rochester while on a business trip. He looked good and we had a nice conversation about his sons and family. Again at 9:30 PM we all were exhausted and we headed for bed, although Kathy and I stayed up sleepily to watch some TV in our room.

To post or not to post that is the question. I might or I might not, we’ll see… If I don’t then it’ll be a few weeks until I’m back here. Toodles!

It’s almost time to get on the road. Yet we haven’t prepared and we’re leaving this weekend. Gotta get our act together.