Vacation Log - Part 1

My hairbrush decided to stay in Florida.

I was looking for it right up until the time I had to start packing up the car to go home - but it never materialized. I suspect it found some hairbrushy place to hide until I left and is now out drinking Mai Tai's on the veranda at the pool. Which is better than I did.

Damn hairbrushes.

I brought my camera with me, but took only one photo, which I have not yet looked at to see if it is suitable for posting. Not that there weren't a lot of lovely things to photograph, but most of them were going past me at 75 mph on the interstate in lumpy Marry-Your-Kin-Tuckey with truckers snuffling their way in front of me scarily. So I am going to try and give a verbal rendition...

There was, rather amazingly, NO construction traffic on the Borman Expressway on the way down. This scared me, as I am firmly of the belief that if the Borman is ever completely construction-free for any length of time, it is one of the signs of the impending apocalypse. No orange traffic cones at all, that first weekend, and I feared for the souls of those of our Indiana Hoosier Bretheren and Sisteren who had not their Blessed and Holy Icons of Faith to genuflect over and worship. [/sarcasm]

So I took my own sweet time and 2 1/2 days of driving to get down to the Land of the Mouse and Palm Trees and Geckos. Only one notable problem - drove through a McD's for a snack in southern Georgia and forgot to say UNSWEETENED when asking for the iced tea. Bleuch. Uch. YUCKY...

I poured it out. I made lots of yucky noises - then I stopped again at a Road Pilot and got some diet pepsi to wash out my mouth. Yeah, yeah, so I'm "Yankeefied" as a dear friend calls me. At least I have succumbed to the delights of eating grits. Except the name is still a bit off-putting.

Anyhow - I stayed at this place called "Comfort Inn" - and it lived up to its name. The room was big and clean and comfortable. The staff was very friendly, and even their "free breakfast" was pretty OK. Bit on the carb-heavy side, especially for someone with Type II Diabetes, but I managed to find a few things that were "marginal" and just figured I'd go heavy on the vegetables for the week.

Got to Dad's house, it is in this nice gated community out in the boonies in Florida. Well, sorta boonies - it's kind of turning into creeping suburbia. We had dinner, then he went out to a church meeting and I took a nap - and when he came back we talked until midnite. Nice!

The next morning we had to get up early because he plays Bocce. Apparently this is an Italian-invented bowling game with a little white ball and 8 larger balls (about the size of a 16" softball) in 2 colors. Dad is fairly good at it - at least as good as the rest of his group. He says he wants to get on the "travelling team". I love this. The travelling team "travels" all up and down Rte. 27 to the other gated communities. *giggle*

After that we went on a whirlwind tour of the local supermarkets. Publix and Winn-Dixie. Picked up stuff for dinner and breakfast and totally forgot to get lunch stuff - so about an hour later he ran out again to get some sliced meat and bread. That night we made a roast-beef on the Weber grill. He uses his golf cart to cart the weber to the back yard because the grass in Florida is too coarse to drive the weber through on its own. For all that we had a bit of trouble getting the grill to heat up, once it got going, the meat and baked potatoes got done rather quickly and we heated up the spinach and had a small feast out on the screened patio as darkness fell... clunk.

It does get dark quickly in Florida. Maybe I just dont' notice it GETTING dark, but it seems like it goes from "light and sunny" to "damn dark!" in a quick hurry. Didn't matter. The food was great and the company was even better. Granted, my Dad is never going to understand his rebellious, Lib'rul, feminist daughter - but he tries, and I love him for it. We can converse - and sometimes I can even manage to notice that he's gotten quiet and it's the signal for me to STFU about whatever topic I've gotten mouthy about.

Peace in the family. More important than being right. Except with my brother, with whom I cannot back down, because it would be seen as weakness and him "winning" and that just can't happen. I can't go into the reasons here - now - but I will just say that it has to be either a "win" or a "draw" for me - no losing - when it comes to the sibling. I know its all childish attitude and posturing, but for now that is where my head is at and its the only "comfortable" position I am able to accept.

Anyhow - the next morning we went to play shuffleboard. I had never played before, although I had seen people playing. I suck at shuffleboard - very much. I either push the disc thingy too soft and it doesn't make it over the line - or I push it so hard that it threatens to jump over the backboard and head for the tennis courts. I am, however, deadeye spot on with knocking the other person's disks out of the scoring triangle thingy.

448 days