Abbey's Road

It’s been a few months since you last heard from me. I’ve been mostly visiting family and friends on my way back East since I left Jackson. I stayed for a few nights in Grand Lake, CO with Jim and Jeri Moat, some friends I know from my Austin days. Jeri was out of town the first 2 days so Jim and I were having a grand old time doing guy things like hiking, fishing, shooting skeet and, of course, drinking beer. It was my first time ever shooting skeet and I was more surprised than Jim when I finally hit one after 6 or 7 tries. I owed it all to Jim’s helpful advice – “try looking at the thing and pointing the gun where you’re looking!” Actually, what he said was a lot more constructive than that. We had done enough of the guy stuff by the time Jeri got home so she didn’t spoil our party.

Trail Ridge road through Rocky Mountain NP was closed so I had to drive down and around and back up to get over to Loveland to see the Gibbons. They start to get nervous if I don’t stop in every so often and I hadn’t been there since March so I didn’t want to push it any longer. I happened to be there over Homecoming Weekend for Ryan and Andrea. It was Andrea’s first Homecoming dance and I could tell it was killing Dan that his “little girl” is growing up. Being her godfather I am quite proud of how she has turned out, even though I’ve had nothing to do with her upbringing.

After Colorado I stopped at my brother, Michael’s, outside of Chicago. A few weeks before, when I was telling my niece when I would be coming, she asked me if I was going to the St. Zachary Fashion Show. St. Zachary is their elementary school. Not being able to say no to her, I said “Sure. Of course I am.” Then I added, “Well is your dad going?” It turns out he had never been to one before, but had always talked about going. So this was the year that the guys invaded the show. There weren’t enough of us to get our own table (Michael’s friend, Johnson, was the only other brave guy) so they stuck us way in the back with some unruly women. They were a bit standoffish at first, not thrilled at being stuck with “some guys”. After a few drinks our table was rockin’ though, and we ended up being the talk of the show. We did get a little out of hand and someone, who will remain nameless, tried to abscond one of the door prizes, but things calmed down when it mysteriously reappeared. Our table mates have already requested to be at our table next year.

After Chicago, there was a one night stop in Buffalo at the Tomasiks, a two night stop in Syracuse at the Rahims, and then finally on to Amsterdam to my brother-in-law, Bob’s. A month or so before, my nephew, Robbie, had conned me into taking him and his friends to a “Death Cab for Cutie” concert in Rochester. To be honest, he didn’t have to do much conning. I have heard the band a lot on the radio and I actually like them. I figured his father was happy he didn’t have to make the 3 hour drive with 4 teenagers, but I found out he would’ve liked to have gone. But Robbie is in those teen years when it’s not too bad to be seen with your uncle, but it’s definitely not cool to be caught with Dad. There were 3 other kids and when they showed up at the door I found out that Robbie’s new girlfriend, who I had just found out about, was a last minute substitution. Good thing Dad didn’t come along. That really would have been embarrassing! I had never heard of the opening band, “Ted Leo and the Pharmacists” (have any of you?), and after I heard them I didn’t really care if I heard them again. They were at least tolerable. On the other hand “Death Cab”, as they’re affectionately known, didn’t disappoint, and I didn’t even have a headache or ringing in my ears after the show. The only bad part was the 3 hour drive home in the rain. There was one tense moment when a security guard came over and told one of Robbie’s friends, who was not so discreetly filming the concert, to bring his camera and step outside. I wondered for a minute if I should go with him, but quickly remembered that he wasn’t my kid. It’s so much easier not being a parent. Besides, I would’ve picked him up if they had taken him down to the station. They only took the tape away, so sorry, no pictures from the concert. Click here if you're dying to hear some of their music or how they got their name.

I stayed in Amsterdam two weeks, saw a lot of friends, and managed to get to Saratoga once or twice. I stopped in Kingston on my way down to my parents to have dinner with some friends from my early IBM days. It’s become a bit of a ritual when I’m in the area. I got there pretty early so I went by our old house in Woodstock and decided to stop in and see our neighbors, George and Sara Smith. It had been quite a few years since I had seen them. That was our first house and they were always willing to give us a hand or guidance when we were looking lost. And George had a great snow blower that came in real handy since we had a fairly long driveway. It was real nice catching up with them and finding out what was happening with some of our old neighbors.

I made it down to Delaware in time to see my nephew, Greg, run in the Delaware State Cross Country Championships. I know, it’s not exactly a big state, but he ran a great race and came in 9th. Not bad for only a sophomore! Congratulations, Greg. He made 2nd team All-State, too. His mother doesn’t like to brag, so I’ll do it for her. Cross Country isn’t the best spectator sport, but I still like to go and watch. It reminded me of when I used to watch my brother, Jim, run in his high school days. I ran one year, but found I wasn’t as excited when I was the one who had to do the running.

The following day I went to a mini-reunion of some of my high school friends. They had a band when we were in high school and used to play at a lot of dances. Back in the spring they reconnected with some members that we had lost touch with and decided to get together and play again. They did it the first time in June, when I was on the West coast, but I was happy that they did an encore in November so I could make it this time. Some of the old “groupies” even showed up (including myself). We’ve aged quite a bit, but many of us thought they sounded as good, if not better, than they did all those years ago. Maybe it’s just our hearing is going, but we still had a great time. My parents even stopped by to see my old gang, though it wasn’t exactly their kind of music.

We celebrated my Dad’s 80th birthday the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Most of my family, and a bunch of my cousins, made it down for the big event. We knew my Dad had a great time because my Mom actually was ready to go home first for once. While I was at the Gibbons they showed me a video that their kids put together for Dan’s father and I thought that this would be a great idea for Dad. I even volunteered to do the work since I don’t have a job. My brother Jim doesn’t either right now, but at least he’s looking. Anyways, it turned out to be more work than I had hoped, even though everyone got me pictures on time. The software we chose was a bit buggy and my sister’s computer was a bit temperamental, but we managed to put together a pretty nice slideshow despite all the problems. I quickly remembered why I don’t want to work in the computer industry any more. I think I prefer working on roofs. I sure felt like I needed a vacation after that. All this work is killing me!

Last week I bought a used car, an ’01 Subaru Forester. No, I’m not getting rid of my RV. I plan to tow it so I won’t have to drive my RV everywhere. In case you’re wondering, I plan to keep at this next year, though I hope to stay in places a lot longer than I have been – like a month or more at a time. Having a car will make that a lot easier.

This is not my car, but it looks exactly the same. Stole the picture off the web.