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This shoe, #430, was taken when my camera was still attached to my dashboard and we were sitting at light. The bottom photo was taken up on the mountain at Wintergreen Ski Resort in Virginia
The drive to Cincinnati from Pensacola went really well. We stopped over at our friend Kevin’s home on Signal Mountain outside Chattanooga, TN and slept in his driveway for the night before heading out early in the a.m. I did have a little worry about our accommodations in Cincinnati for a bit that about made me have a panic attack, but we got that straightened out thankfully.
We were once again shacked up at Trish’s place for the duration of the holiday stay. Trish also allows me to let my mother stay as well so I can see her more and she can have more time around Nora. But the problem is, Nora does not like to spend time around her. Nora is not fond of old people, she just doesn’t trust them. We think it stems back to when she was very little and the old asian women working at the Chinese buffets would always try to pick her up and should would scream for mommy and daddy to help her. She literally would say “Help Me!” It was fairly humorous at the time but it has made it difficult for both grandmothers to connect with her.
And it really did not help that my mom had contracted a staff infection and a nasty bout of cellulitis under her right eye, causing it to acutely swell and discolor. Plus her eyesight has deteriorated quite a bit over the last few years causing her to walk like a zombie with her arms out and fumbling over things. Hell Sharon and I were even a little scared to get too close. My mom, bless her heart, never did give up to Nora’s dismay. She was determined to hold her, but Nora was having none of that as she kept her distance, always aware of where Grandma Marge was lurking.
Oh yeah, did I mention we came at a time when Trish’s heat was not working. Luckily we come prepared with space heaters. Also good thing it was a mild winter so far!
We took a day to go to a Christmas event that Trish’s YMCA, which she is the executive director of, was throwing for the community. There was craft-making, treats, hot cocoa, caroling and a tree lighting. Even a 30 year santa with a terrible fake white beard was there to complete the event.
The gym was where the crafts were being created and while in there I saw the climbing rope. I had not climbed one since in grade school probably and wondered if I could still do it. I mentioned it to Trish and she told me of a guy that was well over 60 doing it just the other day. I figured I could still do it then. She scoffed at me when I told her…it was game on! I looked at the height for a few seconds and then turned to her and excliamed ” I bet I can do it in under a minute!”
She chuckled and then said once the gym clears out I can try it. She did not think I could do it. And once time came to climb, I too was a little bit hesitant. But I am a good climber, always have been, so I figured I would still be the same monkey I used be so I grabbed the rope and told Trish to time me. She said go and off I went. Hand over hand, and pushing myself with my feet. I was actually going faster than I thought I would. I reached the top, and she informed me I did it in under 15 seconds. I felt so vindicated! I began sliding back done and kinda lost control and burned my hands a bit, but it was worth it. I didnt even need to be triple-dog-dared.
When we got back to Trish’s we noticed Nora was starting to show signs of getting a cold. Not good. Traveling with a sick two-year-old is not good at all. But par for the course with us. A road trip isn’t good without some adversity right? :)
When I lived in Cincinnati I played a lot of sand volleyball during my adult years. I had learned of an indoor sand volleyball complex, Grand Sands, just a mile or so from where I grew up and got with a friend of mine who still plays and we decided to meet up and play. Unfortunately he is just as unreliable as he was when he was 16. Luckily though, I knew several other players there and got in some great games. It some getting used to the ceiling and florescent lights compared to a sky and sun, and walls instead of sand dunes. It was great to be able to get some playing in though, when it was so cold and rainy outside.
My brother Doug always invites us over for a wonderful dinner that he skillfully prepares for us. He takes great pride in what he creates and he has always come through. This evening he was to create homemade pasta and a sauce along with many other sides. But it was the homemade pasta that was to be his centerpiece. We had sat down to eat and a well-prepared salad was passed around as the first course. While eating it, I heard many strange noises coming from the kitchen. I also noticed Trish was staring into the china cabinet pretty intensely.
Come to find out she was looking into the mirror in the back of it, watching my brother work frantically in the kitchen. After about 30 minutes or more we started to ask Doug if he needed any help. The kitchen was a disaster area and he had pasta shrapnel all over him, and was “bloody” from the pasta sauce. It looked like a roadside bomb went off next to an italian eatery! The pasta he created looked like 5 pounds of spaghetti molded into the shape of loaf of bread.
He then looked at us and asked “So what do you guys want on your pizza, I give up.”
We still had a fun time there, catching up on what new is going on and also reminiscing about old times. It was mostly about them seeing Nora anyway and she was quite sweet the whole night despite having her nose run constantly.
The infection on my mom’s eye was not going to go away on its own, I am sure the eye would pop out in a few days if she let it go on any further so the following day we took her to the doctor for medication. We were all hoping for a miracle but the infection was pretty bad and never really went down until the day we were to drop her back off.
It is always something with my mom. Last time we came home to Cincinnati it was the incident with the Clairol. One evening my mom attempted to color her own hair in Trish bathroom sink with Clairol and splashed color everywhere. However being partially blind did not notice so she just walked out. Dripping color the whole way down the steps to the living room. Trish walked into what she described as massacre looking crime scene, only somewhat relived it was not blood as she still had to try and clean it up. Which I guess hair color stains pretty bad in a white bathroom. Trish was calling for me to go grab my mom before she sat back on the couch. I went into the bathroom to find Trish on her knees frantically scrubbing the tile and walls. I torn down the steps to just catch my mom from lying her head on a couch pillow. I helped her get a towel all around her hair and eventually washed it out of her hair in the kitchen sink with sprayer. Trish and I still crack up about the follies of that night.
Over the course of a few days we did manage to get to see quite a few friends. The days passed quickly and it was time to depart. We loaded the van and went to our friends the Costello’s before heading out to West Virginia. We left out at 11:00pm and I stopped driving about an hour past Charleston at about 3:30 am. I was tired. But I was on a mission to get Nora to see snow for her first time and knew we were tight on time and rose back up to carry on driving at around 6:30am. Our destination for snow was Wintergreen Ski Resort in Virginia just off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The drive to get up to the resort was pretty extreme with a 15% grade hill that meandered for around 5 miles up. The van trudged along slowly but it was going strong. Upon getting to the top we were rewarded with several areas with manmade snow where we could go play with Nora for a bit. Keep in mind Nora is a Florida girl through and through and the only experience she had with snow was the white fluffy cotton they used for decorating around the mall. She was cold, and was not fond of the snow. Her only remark was “Its icy.” I made a miniature snowman for her and we took pictures of her in the snow and got back into a heated place so her cold would not worsen. The drive down was white-knuckled. I kept the van in low gear and surprisingly the brakes did not heat up much.
We stopped just a bit after getting down the mountain at a Brew Pub along the Brewridge trail (see this review for more info)
It took us another 6 hours to arrive at Deal Island where we were to spend Christmas. That night, Nora through a five hour crying fit when it came time to go to bed, we still dont know if it was reaction to the cough syrup or what. As the syrup was an expensive natural herbal syrup with little in the way of malicious ingredients. She thrashed about and screamed that she wanted to go home. The best way I can describe it is that she was violently homesick. It broke my heart. Eventually she passed out. She has never acted that way, and did not again the rest of the trip.
The next morning she woke up sweet and told me she was sorry. I told her it was okay. But then she said. “Im sorry I hurt you, are you going to be okay?”
I told her “Daddy is fine, you didn’t hurt me.”
Sadly she answered, “I hurt your heart.”
At first I was puzzled. Then it dawned on me. She heard me say that it was breaking my heart last night, and she took it literal. It was so sweet. I just hugged her and told her that Daddy was strong and that I was just fine.
Another funny thing Nora said that really made my day was when Dave (Sharon’s pops), Nora and I were on our way back from seeing Santa. Every Christmas the local fire department on the island rides Santa, waving and passing out candy, around on a fire truck with lights and sirens blazing through the neighborhoods. So anyway, we were walking in the house and she mentioned the pretty stars. I mentioned to her that the bright one might be a planet. “That one there I think is Uranus.” I told her.
And without hesitation she looks up and then back at me and with a puzzled look says. “That’s my anus?”
Dave and I could not stop laughing. It was one of the funniest things I have ever heard. Out of the mouths of babes my mom always used to say.
Nora was finally getting over her cold and was becoming more like her sweet self just in time to head up to Baltimore to see Aunt Glenda as well as Rachie who was flying in from South Florida for New Years. Not sure how much more whining and asking to have her nose wiped every 5 seconds we could have taken :)
to be continued…