Exercise In Patience

Well, I'm back home now - sitting in the dining room - what has become my 'office.'  No more lovely plants or animals to enjoy - except the pumpkin sitting on my dining room table and of course, the cat - who does seem to be glad to see me!

So what happened to the rest of my last day up North...  well, Michele and I went to see 'The Duchess' - which I enjoyed - especially the music - composed by Rachel Portman.  One thing I found amusing was at the beginning of the film they show Kiera Knightly running around with her friends and then she finds out she is going to be married to the Duke - so at the wedding, they put her hair all up - actually it's a wig - but I swear it reminded me of the Bride of Frankenstein!

After the movie - we went back to the house and carved up one of the pumpkins from our outing the other day so we could roast the seeds - the entire process is chronicled in pictures  - check them out here  - also included in the pictures is one of my dad leaning forward so he can see and hear the TV better - his boy, McCain was on!  When Michele and I got back from the movies and started talking with my aunt in the other room - we noticed that my dad kept turning the TV volume up - it was at that time that I snapped the picture!

After that I spent a little more time out in the garden reading my book and then we had dinner.  After dinner, my dad held court and was telling stories about the Gallery.  Our favorite story was about the tall Spaniards that live in Mexico City that come and visit the Gallery!  It makes me laugh just thinking about it (and Michele, I bet you are laughing right now too)!  He also talked about white water rafting with wetsuits - God Bless Him!  We turned in relatively early since we had an early morning wake up call! - 5:15am!

We were up - packed and driving out of the driveway at 6:02am.  I stayed awake for the first 45 minutes - felt like I should keep my dad some company while he was driving that early in the morning!  At about 6:45am though - as the sun was coming up - I did get my pillow out and nap for about an hour.  At 8am my dad took this offramp that led to nowhere and I asked him what he was doing - he told me it was my turn to drive.  He must have been pretty tired - didn't give me much warning and since there really wasn't any place to stop - he got back on the onramp and pulled over to the side of it so we could change places.  He was asleep within 15 minutes!  Come 9am, though, he was up and ready for 3 hours of Rush Limbaugh!  I only had to endure 2 hours on the way up since we ate an early lunch - but I knew there was no getting out of it this time.

And although it was a wonderful weekend - and I could have gone for several more days of rest and relaxation - there is something to be said about being at home.  And God knows that the drive home was definitely an exercise in patience - between Rush Limbaugh and my dad barking driving directions at me - God Bless Him.  We didn't stop for lunch or anything - except gas and the bathroom - so we made it to Big Bear around 1:30pm - which was nice for me since I could then get back on the road by 2pm and drive another 2 hours to get home.  So it was nice to be home relatively early - unpack and do a load of laundry.  Also take some time to get my game face on before I have to go to work in the morning.  Michele - thanks so much for your hospitality - and thank your mom also - and if you are ever in So Cal again - feel free to stop on by and stay a bit.