Saturday, November 27, 2010

Destination: Texas




Last week I went to visit my daughter in Texas and promised myself that I would sort of debrief myself here...so here it is.

It was, of course, wonderful to see my girl in person again after a three month absence. She was excited to see me when I got there, which was a thrill all in itself. Not that any of my kids do it on purpose, but I seem to be marginalized much of the time. At least, that's how it feels in me. When you're not the parent that they see everyday it stands to reason. It's not wonderful, but totally understandable.

We (myself, my daughter, her fiance and his mother--who is a widow) did a lot of fun things together. Not the least of which was, eating! The food in Texas is excellent and it usually comes with a dose of southern hospitality. The people are genuinely friendly and homey. I got to meet the fiance's grandparents who were as Texas as Texas gets. Very kind and polite and always smiling and they adore my daughter. It gave me great joy to know that my baby is going to be surrounded by family like that. And her fiance treats her very sweetly as well. When he was in our neck of the woods for a few weeks after his graduation I had my eye on him and it seemed like he was a bit tense and it showed in their interactions, but now that I've seen him in his own element my heart is much more at ease in the way he treats my baby. He really loves her.

One of the cooler things we did was to check out the venue of their wedding. It was nice to be included in the decision making process of that. They'll be getting married outside and then having their reception on the same property in a ballroom. If you have a daughter I would suggest you start saving money right now...holy moley weddings are expensive. I have decided, however, that this is the one time in life to be extravagant. It's not a vacation--I'll have more of those. It's not a vehicle--I'll have more of those. It's not even a house--I'll likely have a few of those in my lifetime. It's my daughter's wedding--it's only going to happen once! And, as they say in Texas, "Yehaw!"

One thing that struck me hard while I was there was the permanence of my daughter being far, far away. That hit me square between the eyes, and I must say, threw me for a bit of a loop. Since she left I had been looking forward to seeing her in a short while, but while I was there I realized that there might be times in our future where those whiles might become loooong whiles. She is not just visiting Texas as I was, it's possible that she might be there permanently. And, with that possibility came the thought that every time I see her will be an event. No more 'just stoppin' by to say hi dad' visits. No more 'want to meet up for dinner tonight?' possibilities. No more 'look out your window at that moon' phone calls. That is hard. Just another something that I'll have to get used to, I guess.

All in all, I can say that I have a peace about the direction my daughter's life is headed. Although it's a long way away, Texas is a nice destination.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Monday

At times I question myself as to why I have a blog. I'm not a writer and certainly my life is not very interesting. Those are not complaints, mind you, they are merely statements of fact. Writers are people who can wax on poetically and seemingly endlessly about miriad of things. I, on the other hand, can give you maybe--maybe a paragraph or two...on a good day. And good days, what are those? Are they not simply normal days into which you add your own spice? Or are they good because of my mood? Beacuse if that were the case I might have one good day in ten. Most mornings I wake up, roll out of bed and either inwardly or in my own sarcastic voice say, "hello again everyone, it's another day! So glad to see you.", or some variation of that. And of course, I'm saying it no one. It's a daily struggle, this thing we call life. Don't get me wrong, my life is not bad, in fact it can be pretty dang good. It just takes me several hours sometimes to get to that conclusion. I try my best to have a good attitude about being by myself, but sometimes it's like being alone on a see-saw. No matter how hard you push up you come flying back down.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

A Party In The Leaves

As I am prone to do, today I did a bit of thinking whilst raking leaves in (and out of) my yard. I'm not sure why it is, but I tend to do my best thinking while doing menial labor. Thank God for menial labor. No, seriously. Thank Him, I'll wait.

So today my thought tended toward politics. While I am not particularly fond of politics, generally, my youngest son is nuts about them. And, as a parent, I have found that it is difficult if not impossible not to be interested in what my kids are interested in. So, politics it is:

I wonder why there's a group called 'independents'. (Think about it!)

My guess is that it won't be long until someone in the press will mistakenly call it a party all it's own. (Not unlike what has already happened with the tea party movement...it's a movement based on the old Boston Tea Party, not a political party at all)

And if that truly is the case, I can also suppose that yet another press lackey will inadvertently (thanks to spell-check) call it 'the independence party'.

At which time a whole throng of idiots will want to join it because it sounds like something they think they believe in.

Which will then prove the statement-- "Independent thinkers are usually neither"--to be true.



But what do I know? I'm just a guy who rakes leaves in a thunderous wind under a tree whose branches are not yet bare :)