I have been away

I went to Florida. See? This is what Florida looks like.

 Bermuda grass in my brother Mike's back yard. Salt marsh beyond.

 More of Mike's back yard, with oak trees covered in Spanish Moss. 

 The neighbor's house and more Spanish Moss, oak trees, and this time a banana tree and some Spanish Bayonet. Very Floridian.  

 Here is New Smyrna Beach on the east coast of Florida. Looks like a beach. 

 The tide was near high. Here's some sea foam. It isn't green. I didn't taste it, though it looks like merengue. 

Palm trees! This time in the Orlando area in a Publix (grocery) parking lot. 

I went to Florida by myself, the immediate family stayed home. Light came home from Pennsylvania on Wednesday, but I left for Florida the Sunday previous. Stayed at Mike's house for one night (he wasn't there. It was peaceful and I enjoyed it.) Then went to Mama's for a couple of days. Then Mama and I (in separate cars) went to Gainesville so as to spend Thanksgiving with my brother Jim and his family. Jim and his wife host Thanksgiving dinner nearly every year, with the family and various friends in attendance. Since I live so far from the rest of my extended family, I have never been to one of Jim's Thanksgiving meals. I was thrilled. See, pictures! 

 A blurry picture of my mother, not posing. In the first picture I took of her, she had her posed smile on. It isn't as nice as natural. But then she did the whole "I'm drinking a glass of wine" thing, so what's a daughter to do? 

 This is my step-mother, the recently widowed one. She's doing as well as can be expected. She lives next door to Jim. I stayed at her house. 

This is part of the thanksgiving spread, the appetizers. I was too excited about turkey and a nap to take any pictures of the actual feast table. The food was excellent. I love a well cooked turkey. And stuffing. And turkey gravy. And a nap afterward. 

The real reason I went to Florida for Thanksgiving is that we, the family, buried my dad's ashes the day after Thanksgiving. But I'll leave that for another post, because I want to, this might get too long, and Light (who is here visiting still! I get to see her!!) is waiting for me to finish this mess and go out with her to visit a friend. Light is, however, glad that I'm getting another post up, because that strange oriental gentleman with the underwear on his head from the previous post scares her.  

Yes, I'm still here **With Update!

Hello my peeps! I've missed you. I have been kind of busy. Right now I'm in Florida again, this time with Twitch. Twitch is all over my nerves, too. He complains all the time and makes excuses for why he can't do whatever is suggested to him. I don't want to talk about him right now.

I'm very tired. It's quite late, and I've had a busy day. There are a few things I want to relate, but don't know how much I'll remember to say right now. But I really want to get something up here before you all forget about me. And right now I need my blog friends.

Sunday afternoon is the memorial "life celebration" party for my dad. I've been here since Wednesday. My brother Mike arrived today. My brother Jim lives next door to my step-mom's house, so he's always here. My Uncle John (Daddy's brother) was here when I got here, don't know how long he's been here. Yesterday my step-mom's son Tom arrived. It's very good for him to be here. He needs to see how his mom is. She's got Parkinson's and it's getting worse. Not sure what she needs, or what Tom and his brother Sam will be able to do. I'm concerned about her.

Just this evening (Friday night... I know it's officially Saturday, but I'm still working on Friday) we had some good discussion, processing as a family through Daddy's death. There will be more. Tomorrow (Saturday) is a day to prepare the house for the party. It's gonna be a big one, I think. Lots of people have said they're attending. Lots of details to iron out.

Light flew in to Orlando this evening. My Mama picked her up. Mama lives in the greater Orlando area, so she and Light are spending the night there at Mama's house and will drive up to Gainesville tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing my daughter. I guess I'm looking forward to seeing my mother, too, but really I want to see Light.

OK, lets get on to a few other things that have come to mind recently. Let's try bullet points, shall we?

• Had sushi for lunch today. Shopped at a Fresh Market store near the step-mom's house and picked it up from the deli counter. It is pre-packaged from "Sushi with Gusto" which came from, of all places, Greer, South Carolina. Greer is an hour north of Greenwood. So yeah, my lunch today that I ate in Florida was actually made close to my house and followed me down to Florida for me to eat. For the record, it was tasty. 
• The stores in Gainesville have much better beer selections than anything I've found in Greenwood. I got some Samuel Adams Cream Stout, which I am currently testing. And enjoying quite a bit, thank you. Yummy stuff!! I also tried Stella Artois today for the first time. That is available in G'wood, but I've never tried it before. It's OK. Definitely drinkable, but not remarkable. The Cream Stout is definitely remarkable! I got a whole 6-pack of it, so some should make it back home for Superman to share. I was able to get a "make your own 6-pack" from the Publix, which is where I added the Stella Artois. Also got some Magic Hat stuff, can't remember now what it is. Haven't tried it yet. And other stuff that looked good at the time but I forget about now that I'm not looking at it.
• I stayed in my step-mom's house the first night we were here, then moved to a hotel. My Uncle John had reserved a room for himself, but changed the reservations to my name for reasons I'm unclear about. Whatever. He's paying for it. As I said to Mike today, it's on Uncle John's dime, and he has more dimes than I do. It's a much nicer place than I'd have chosen, but I like it. Last night Twitch was with me. Tonight he is at his Uncle Jim's place sleeping on an air mattress in Jim's game room. I am blissfully alone. Did I mention that Twitch and I have had a bit too much together time this week?
• Light will stay with me for the next two nights. She goes back to Orlando with Mama, flies back home Monday afternoon. I'll check out of the hotel Monday and go back to step-mom's house. Her son Tom is leaving on Monday, so I'll get his bedroom I guess. I'm fine with that. I'm finer with staying in this hotel though. This is Florida, and all the people here are used to living here in this heat and humidity. The crazies leave their air conditioning set to nearly 80. It's awful. I can't change my step-mom's thermostat, of course, but here in the hotel I can crank the temp down to a more comfortable range. I'm finally blessedly cool! I fear I might freeze Light out tomorrow night. Though she lives in Pennsylvania, she prefers warmer temps than those that comfort me. First world problems. 
• I miss my husband. He's a wonderful guy, and right now he's too far away. I heard from him today. Work is beating his ass but not as much as the younger kids are. He isn't having a lot of fun. I wish he were here. 
• Man, I really like this Samuel Adams Cream Stout! 
• I told you last week about a puppy. Yes, we have a puppy. His name is Oreo. I took some pictures of him to post here, but I'm too tired to do that now. Also I think the dear deserves his own blog post. So stay tuned. Don't know when  that will happen. I have more to process here about my Dad's life celebration, like the fact that my ex-step-brothers are coming to town. 
• So, my dad has had three wives: my Mama was first, he left her for his second wife Mary who had three boys. Daddy and Mary got together when I was about 8 or 9 years old, and finally divorced when I was in college. I grew up with Mary's sons as my step-brothers. I have two new step-brothers now, but I barely know them. My dad married their mom back in the early 90s when I was married with two little kids. So when I think of step-brothers I think of Mary's sons. One of them, Dan, lives here in Gainesville. Hal lives in Greensboro, NC and Charles lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada now. Growing up with these guys, well, there's a lot of history. Some of it is ... kinda difficult. I haven't seen Hal and Charles in over 30 years. They are twins, and a couple of years older than me. Dan is a year younger than me. I've seen Dan a few times when I come to visit Daddy, but haven't seen the twins in, like I said, a very long time. A lot has changed for all of us. I dreamed about them last night. Both the twins will arrive in town tomorrow evening. We're all getting together for dinner and to go through pictures of Daddy and the family. There will be lots of pictures at the party, and we all get to pick out which ones to display. Together. I gotta tell you, I am nervous about seeing the twins. 
• Right now it's 1:30 in the morning. I am very tired. I had a dream about Hal last night that kind of upset me. Am I afraid to go to sleep now because of that? Or am I just stalling because it's what I do? I've had a glass of wine and a beer, but spread it out over the past three hours so I'm not feeling tipsy at all. Don't know it that's a good thing or not. But my head is beginning to hurt a little and I think it's from the tired not from the booze. And I have successfully written a blog post (in that it is written, not that it is necessarily a good post) which was my goal, so perhaps I should shut up now and go to sleep. 
• I still have stuff to process about my step-brothers, my Daddy, my Mama coming to my Daddy's death party (oops, I mean life celebration party), and probably some other stuff that I'm too tired to remember now. I hope to be able to ramble about some of that stuff here soon. Until then, I'm going to sleep now. Or something. 

Update: 
I survived the first night of get-together with all the family. Seeing the twins was a bit odd, and slightly uncomfortable, but for the most part very positive. The purpose of tonight's gathering was to go through photographs, picking out great ones of my dad to display at tomorrow's (technically today's) party. We found some great ones. Hal brought a bunch that his mother had taken from the years we were all together as that family unit. A lot of them were from building the big house out in the woods. Awesome stuff. I visited a lot of good memories from those times. Hal's stash also had photos from the Christmas we spent with my his mom's parents back in... hang on, let me figure it out... 1974 I think. I have a lot of very good memories from that visit. My dad had a lot of very old photographs from his parents' collection, some from their parents' generation even. Those were very early in the days of photography. There were some great ones of my grandpapa and his brothers as children and young men. I learned a lot about my grandpapa. I saw a picture of my grandmama when she was maybe 20 years old, one that I'd never seen before. I never knew her to look like that. It was a powerfully emotional evening, lots of laughs, lots of memories being tossed around.

Those in attendance tonight were my step mom and her son, who were mostly in the background because tonight's pictures were from before their involvement in Daddy's life. All three of my former step brothers were there; Hal, Charles, and Dan. Dan's S.O. Sunshine and their 3 yr old son Byron were there. Byron is the cutest and brightest 3 year old I've known in a long time. Light and Twitch were there, as were my Uncle John and his son, my cousin Jay. I haven't seen Jay, Hal, or Charles in at least 30 years. No, I may have seen Jay at my grandmama's funeral which was in 1996. Still, that was kind of a long time ago. And of course my brothers Mike and Jim were there. Jim's wife and 8 year old daughter were kinda hanging around in the background, but not in the thick of things.

It was fun showing my kids pictures of me when I was a kid. Light looks a lot like I did when I was in my teens. Actually, when my step brother Charles first saw her he wanted to call her by my name, she looks so much like he remembers me. My youngest step brother Dan is still very trim, but Hal and Charles have both developed quite the gut since our youths. I've probably gained the most weight, but it was a bit comforting that they are large now, too. And shucks, my brothers Mike and Jim are both fit and trim like years ago. They take better care of themselves than I do. eh. 

Finally on my own! (for a little while)

I am writing this from the most adorable coffee shop called The Cathedral Cafe in downtown Fayetteville, West Virginia. I am staying in Babcock State Park in southeast West Virginia in the cutest little rustic cabin. It's a one room cabin with full kitchen, bunk double beds (low clearance) and a lovely screened porch. I took pictures until my camera batteries died. Batteries are on my list of things to get today while I'm out. The cabin has a small (and I mean small) bathroom tacked on as if an afterthought. It has a small shower stall, a low toilet, and a small sink that I wash my face in while sitting on the toilet. Convenient, no? 

On my list of things to do today: go to this café, enjoy the stained glass windows and coffee, and get online! (Except right now the internet connection has gone flunky, so I’m typing this on a word doc until I can hook up again.) I also need to find a laundromat. I stopped at the library in here in Fayetteville to inquire about a laundromat. Nope. No such creature in this town. The nice library man gave me directions to a laundromat in Oak Hill, about five miles down the highway. It’s across the street from a Rite Aid, which is cool because I need one of those too.

I got myself some healthy food at the grocery when I tumbled into town on Tuesday. Or maybe I went Wednesday morning after a good night sleep since I got to the cabin at 8:00 p.m. I don’t remember, honestly. I fixed myself a grilled chicken salad last night, grilling the chicken on the charcoal grill outside my cabin beside the picnic table. Cool beans! Tonight I intend to have a veggie burger (grilled: see above). There’s leftover salad for lunch, or to accompany the burger. I also have plans for an omelet with mushrooms, onions, and tomato.

I leave tomorrow (Friday). Heading back home, where I will once again be reunited with Superman. He and I are both looking forward to that. Before coming to West Virginia I was in Indiana, Pennsylvania with my darling Light. Tuesday was her 23^rd birthday. I was there that morning, left shortly after noon. It was very good to see her.

The ostensible reason for this trip is to take Sproing to Pennsylvania to spend a couple of weeks with his sister Light, away from his sister Diva. Which I did. Sproing and I left South Carolina on Saturday, July 7^th and headed south to Florida. Saw Mama in the Orlando area, my brother Mike came down to hang with us Sunday. On Tuesday Sproing and I went to Gainesville to see my dad and brother. We left there … Thursday? I can’t remember exactly. It took us two days to get from Gainesville, Florida to Indiana, Pennsylvania. By the time we got to Light’s place Sproing and I had traveled together 1700 miles. That’s a loooooooong way to spend in the car with a hyperactive 14 year old!!! We were both tired of being with each other by the time we got to Light’s place.

I am an introvert. We’ve had this discussion before, I believe. That means I like to spend time alone. From the 7^th until the 17^th of July I was in almost constant contact with Sproing. I love the kid, and usually like him pretty well. But my gods! He’s high energy and high maintenance. Light is also a joy to be with, but after so many many many days of not having any alone time I was going bugnuts! As much as I love that girl, I was very glad to leave. I’ve been alone almost constantly since I left her place Tuesday afternoon. Relief!

From all accounts Sproing and Light are doing well together. I set Sproing up with a short term guest membership at the fitness center where Light goes. He spends lots of time over there! He really likes it. When I went to see him there Tuesday morning he was doing drills with one of the guys who works there. They seem to have taken a liking to him, and I believe he’s doing very well. He wants more money so he can join some kind of class there. Light is working with him on that. I left her money to help with his expenses. She’s bribing him daily with an allowance that’s tied to his behavior. She’s such a smart girl.

On the home front, Diva is behaving perfectly for her daddy. Pisses me off, though I’m glad she’s being easy for Superman. Superman himself is doing pretty well. He got sick yesterday, finally. Seems to be some kind of short viral thing. He always gets sick when I leave him. This time he lasted 2.5 weeks before getting sick! I’m so impressed. And this is the longest I’ve ever been away from him, if I recall. It’s hard on him. I’m having a blast, though I miss him. When I’m the one who is away, I don’t have trouble. When he’s gone and I’m at home, I don’t do so well. Especially if he leaves me with those wicked children. Poor guy. I go home tomorrow. I miss him a lot. I wish he could be here with me. We’d have lots of fun in the state park. I think he’d like the cabin, mostly. The low clearance on the bed would be troublesome. He’s a tall fella. I told him that we need to come back in the fall, just the two of us, and get a cabin for a long weekend. Or a whole week! We could get one of the cabins that isn’t so rustic and maybe has a bed that isn’t stacked.

I’m rambling. Again. And I need to do my laundry and get back to the cabin for lunch. So I’m off. Suppose I’ll post again when I get home, probably over the weekend. I expect to be home late tomorrow, as I want to check out another cute town in the other direction from the park on my way out of West Virginia.

I must say, West Virginia sure is beautiful. It has a bad reputation for some things, for sure, but it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. 

Oh, and by the way,

Did I mention I was taking Sproing to Florida to see the relatives? Did I say anything about when this was happening? I ask because I called my mother this evening to tell her we would be at her house tomorrow, and she was totally shocked. Um, I remember telling her I was coming, but I seem to have failed to give her the updates about arrival times. Oops!

I'm typing this from the sofa in my brother's family room in Florida. Sproing and I left home before 8:00 this (Wednesday) morning, and got here at 5:00 this afternoon. The original plan was to arrive tomorrow. Oh, well. The second problem we might have is that my dad doesn't know I'm heading to his house in a couple of days. It's too late to call him now, of course. I hope I remember to call him tomorrow.

My plan was to get a good night sleep, then get up early and take Sproing to the beach before it gets too hot. The good night sleep is shot, since it's technically Thursday morning now. Maybe we'll get up early, do the beach for a couple of hours, then come back here and I'll take a nap before driving to Mama's place. It's only a 1 hour drive from here, but I could fall asleep if I'm not well rested.

I don't know how much I'll be able to do the blog thing over the next few days. I'll be here with Sproing until early next week (don't know exactly what day we're going home). Once I get home, I plan to take that road trip with C to check out the college in Massachusetts that I'm interested in. Nothing is definite, except that in the next half hour I'm going to take a shower and get in bed. Other than that, I'm not sure what will happen when.

I'm having fun, though!

TTFN

The plan was to leave home at 6 this morning. Well, it is 8:30 and here I am ripping off this last post. I was up way too late last night getting packed to get up that early this morning.

I am driving from South Carolina to Florida today to my Mama's house. On Sunday we will board the ship and set sail (there are no sails on this ship, I am assured) for the Carribean. I will probably be able to post again from Mama's house, but I'm not sure about the ship. If I don't post from the ship, at least I will be taking notes (and pictures) to post later.

So ta ta for now, wish me a safe drive (positive energies/prayers appreciated) and I'll check in tonight or tomorrow.

P.S. I'm driving my beloved truck, which, though I adore it, is a bucket of bolts. Remind me to tell you how much my mechanic loves me....