A Long, Long Time Ago

Again, it’s been a few days since I have blogged. I could go forgive me father for I have sinned, it’s been over a week since my last confession. Something like that.

I have been busy so my excuses for not doing are numerous and solid. Emily left for Maine over a week ago and I have been here trying to tie up all the loose ends at work and button up the house and get my self ready for the trip to Europe. Fortunately, Marika has been here the last few days. And we have spent our evenings cruising the internet making travel reservations. It’s not as easy as it sounds. We split tasks. She searches and books lodging and I am booking transportation. And, of course, we want decent lodging and cheap transportation. So it takes forever. I need a travel agent. Why did we trade travel professionals for self help internet booking? Because we are stupid.

So, anyhow, I can give you an example. I need the five of us to get from London to Paris on a Sunday. I can swim the channel, take a ferry, train through the Chunnel, or fly. So I have to search all forms of travel by time of day and speed of trip till I find most efficient method. What I am discovering is, surprisingly, planes are cheaper. Trains are ungodly expensive, boats so slow and pricey I have to say forget about it. But, I get the best price and it may only take an hour and a half of searching. Pain in the ass. I have covered about half the trip. I am on the Rome to Marseille route and I think a rental car is the ans wer. I kinda look forward to to it. But, I priced the 7 day car rental at $33 a day on the internet site. You say that’s $231. No, it’s $1738. And I have not been able to get an explanation for this. It’s fuzzy math at best. I think I need to call a car rental company during the day when their US call center is open. The nice Filipino gal I spoke to could not explain the math. At all. Like I said, this is not easy.

Yesterday was a special day. Marika and I went to Folsom where we met my Dad. He was attending his 70th high school reunion. Ya, 70. Wow. I had talked him into going by promising to show up and get him out of his car, into his transit chair, into the restaurant, and back the other way when done. He needs a lot of help moving around and no one can help unless they know how. His classmates could try but they are as old and decrepit as Dad. So, we showed. It’s really fun to sit and listen to all these 88 year olds (genetic lottery winners) talk about old times (old? Ancient more like). I met three of Dads old girlfriends which is hilarious. One of them told me all the girls were in love with Dad. That makes no sense. I was given a chance at the microphone to say whatever. Actually, was told I had to speak. And so did all the others in the room. There were about 30 classmates there and many more who couldn’t make it. People this old don’t move around the world easily. Some are infirm, some just stay home.

The luncheon was nice. Meal was decent. The point of it all is to get together while they were all still able. His high school was rural and everyone knew everyone else. Most grew up together so they have know each other a long damn time

I was sitting next to my Dads best friend, Jim Campini. He and dad met in kindergarten 83 years ago. Friends ever since. Again, wow. His next best friend Alex Ravez, sat on the other side of Dad. He’s only known dad since second grade. They are all bent old men. But all seem to be doing well enough. All have the same problems with their hearts, livers, and arthritis. Dad told me it’s because they all ate the same food, drank the same booze (a lot) and screwed the same women. Dad is pretty sure the problems are contagious. Right.

So everyone sat around and ate a nice lunch and reminisced. They drank a little wine, not like they used to, one glass seemed the norm. Alex, bless him, found himself a cocktail. I didn’t know they had booze. It’s a wine bistro after all. All in all we were there for four hours. It really is an amazing event to be part of. My Dad first attended a reunion in 1998, his fiftieth. After which, he went all the time. These folks were doing every three months due to age. Now it’s once a year. They are already planning for 71. Optimism is necessary when you are really old. There were a couple more missing this time than last, you never know. Most of these folks know to say goodbye and give a hug. They don’t who will be gone next year. Maybe them.

We managed to load up Dad but not without incident. He had to pee and he did not go to the restroom. He can’t stand unaided so he likes to get to the car. Then we get him wheeled to the open driver door and go through the process of getting him vertical. That’s when he announced it was time to take a leak. He has a car urinal which he filled. Standing in the open car doorway. Then he tells me to get the bottle and dump it in the planter. My dad is a delicate flower. At his age he does not give a shit. At all. It is probably a good attitude when you are near 90, and maybe even for the rest of us. Do your thing, as needed, everyone else can go to hell.

At this point we needed to push him into the car. He lost his balance. We caught him, fortunately, and got him into the car seat. Yay. Hugs and kisses. Marika and I jumped into her car and were off.

Sadly, there is only one road out of Folsom, to the south, and there was a huge traffic problem. Like not moving. Had to u turn and head west and add 30 mins to our trip. Nice.

So, back to the office for two to theee hours of important, necessary work. Important I sez. Then home.

Marika and I made dinner and sat down for the evenings travel res fun. See above, that’s what we were doing. We did not hit the hay till midnight. Long day.