Daily Report: Wandering and Visiting

I slept in a bit today, being back in the comfy bed... where I shall now remain for the rest of my vacation (another 3 days). Vinnie and his retinue went home today, leaving at 10:00 a.m. and driving to Chicago, arriving at 9:00 p.m. So with a car filled with toys and diapers and wipes and a crib, they drove off leaving the house much quieter, and a fair bit emptier as well. There is still, however, a lonely high chair standing in the kitchen, and a bathtub full of forgotten floatey toys to remind us of Vinnie and his happy squeals and his excited shout of "Eh!" whenever he saw something cool.

Mom, Paul, and I ate lunch together, and then afterwards I decided to set off for Dad's house for a visit. Unfortunately nobody was home the first time I stopped by. (Although I have accused my Dad of avoiding me in the past, this particular time I had stopped by without calling in advance, so he can be excused.)

So instead, I first drove off across town to buy the discounted "Tuesday Special" gasoline... $2.96 per gallon. Heh. I've seen tons of motorcycles since coming back. At 40-70-plus miles per gallon, I'll bet I know why.


After getting gas, I drove out into the wilderness. The area around Bath is a great treasure trove of old dirt roads leading up into the hills. What's also fun is that with all of the large businesses and industries in the area, there is a fair amount of wealthy people who build out in the country, and you can be driving along the most desolate road, and all of a sudden come across a gorgeous 5,000-square-foot ranch house on a 3-acre lawn. However, most of the time, you are going by small tired farm houses, or old trailer homes, or even ramshackle little cottages. In between bits of civilization however, there are just miles and miles of quiet wooded stretches of road.

After my ride, I stopped back by my father's house and Judy was there, but Dad was still out golfing. On the way back to my mother's house, I stopped by my childhood friend, named Scott, parent's house to see what he was up to. Unfortunately, I got the impression from his stepfather (from things he said, things he insinuated, and mostly things he didn't mention) that Scott is very much the same person he was when I knew him 30 years ago: Emotionally labile and a bit skittish when interacting with the world. His stepfather called his mother who called Scott, who didn't answer. She called again and left my phone number for him to call, but as of the end of the day, he still hadn't called.

After a couple of hours sitting at home, I went back to my father's house (who was now home from golfing), and we had a vodka tonic and chit-chatted for a nice long while. I'm trying like hell to get him and Judy to come visit me in Thailand, but my father hates traveling and something like a trip to Thailand is the kind of thing he doesn't often do... however, I'm hopeful that I've explained to him how much a visit from him would mean to me, and hopefully he figured that out.

After visiting with Dad, I drove over to Montour Falls to Paul's house. The boys (the 8-or-so sons and grandsons) of the family were all out on an "I Hate Girls" camping trip, leaving just the ladies of the family (and Paul and me) at home. Today was Greg and Noi's daughter's (named Nee-nee) tenth birthday, which we duly celebrated. We had spaghetti and meatballs per her request, and a really good German chocolate cake for dessert.

I spent some of the evening looking at Greg and Noi's wedding pictures from Thailand. They had quite a shindig up in Udorn, and this year is their 20th anniversary. I also sat with Paul's daughters, Sharon and Brenda, at the kitchen table as they prepared for a cub scout jamboree by making some silly things the kids could wear on top of their heads for a cartoon party of some sort.

After that, I drove back over the hills to Bath, and went to bed. I've got the house to myself tonight, and I've edited some photos, and am going to read my book.

Here is Mike's Thousand Words: The Waneta Valley, 8:30 p.m.