Sunny Florida
Where to begin? I was up before seven, buzzing. That means I had... less than four hours of sleep, but I just couldn't sleep anymore. Maybe it's the time zone difference. Maybe there's too much on my mind. Maybe it was all the zoning out and doing nothing on planes yesterday. I feel an odd mix of clarity and fogginess, and suspect I'm going to need a nap later.
I settled into the PT Cruiser with my dad and step-mom Friday morning the 19th, and we set out through a break in the weather. Once clearing the Durango area (where it had snowed the previous day), things were fairly dry and clear. We drove south to Albuquerque, then cut east and wound down the day as it was getting dark in Amarillo, TX. The Cruiser itself isn't too bad, even with my height. I spent most of the time in the back, when I could make use of the whole seat (well, mostly) and when I was in the front, the legroom was decent. In spite of threats, my parents didn't sing me to death. ;)
Day two saw us reach Little Rock, AR. We saw our lowest price for gas here at $1.34 a gallon. Things started going up when we moved on through Memphis and turning south into Mississippi. Each state seemed to have subtly unique terrain from the interstates.
We reached Grenada, MS on Sunday afternoon. There we visited my uncle and aunt - both older than my dad by 10+ years. We toured the town and some sites from my dad's past were pointed out. Grenada has, I'm told, somewhere about 12,000 people. It seems small and dying, though that may be deceptive. Really, when I55 was set up there, businesses moved toward it and abandoned the old downtown area. There's a true town square there, but almost no live businesses around it anymore - that feels a little sad - while there are newer hotels and major buildings out near the interstate. That night we met up with a couple of my cousins and their husband/kids (which are, in turn, 2nd cousins if I remember how that works correctly?). We had dinner out at a local steak/seafood place. It was a bit overwhelming and I wasn't all that talkative, I admit, but it wasn't bad. Most of the conversation was catching up about people and events that didn't really involve me.
We met Walter and Margaret (uncle and aunt) again for breakfast before setting out south. We stopped by the house of a close friend to the family back in the day. She's now... well, I don't want to be rude, but I can really best sum up my impressions of her as a "lonely old lady." Her husband (two, I believe, actually) passed away some time ago and she lives alone (not counting cats). I think she wanted to cling to us - particularly my father - and nearly cried when we headed out a couple hours later.
Monday night we ended up in DeFuniak Springs, FL. Even from there, it was over a 500-mile drive the next day to Jupiter, FL. There, we settled in at Susan's mother's condo. Bea was nice, though I found her eagerness to please a bit stifling (though *sniffle* she felt Bond movies were too noisy/loud/actiony to be watching - as if there's anything else on during holidays >.>). She went one through our stay about how nice the place was and how prices were dropping. Of course "dropping" is all relative.
I stayed the first night on an inflatable mattress in the living room and some minor allergies kicked in. I'm not sure if the latter was location-oriented or linger cat traces, but the Loratadine served well there and made it pretty much a non-issue. The following nights, we rolled down the shutters and I took the mattress out to the enclosed patio to sleep, as that was actually more private. Yeah, I sorta camped out through Christmas. I think the temperature range from about 60 to about 80 while I was there, and it was humid, but not oppressively so. This while Durango was seeing snowstorm after snowstorm. The weather is ridiculously beautiful there this time of year, but it didn't feel like Christmas at all and I know the heat and humidity are much less tolerable in the summer.
Of course, it's all (sub)urbanized out there. One word summary for the area: Condos. Five word summary: Condos, condos, condos, strip malls, condos. It didn't hit me right away, but you can't really see the stars there, just a few brighter ones perhaps and planets. The plants are different. The places is... alien. Not bad, but not home either.
We met repeatedly over the next few days with Susan's brother Steve and his wife... Susan (usually "Sue Em"). Hmm... is there a term for "step-uncle?" Things settled into a very odd pattern, probably due in part to Italian heritage, where we'd get up and gather slowly toward breakfast. We'd eat at the dining room table, then linger there a while, then spread out to the living room. Then lunch was prepared and we'd gather, eat, linger, lounge... then dinner... The day revolved largely around the dinner table, one meal almost flowing into the next. That, to me, is downright unnerving. I'm used to eating and going on to something else. Lengthy family meals are straaaange.
Bea's condo is nice, but seems more for one person or a couple. It's slightly less square footage than I have, but on one level (with neighbors to two sides and above). There's a nice enclosed patio area, but the main bedroom is a little small and the guest room is really only a guest room (ie. you can barely fit anything but a bed). Steve and Sue Em have a house. A really nice house that he's done work on. It's got a lovely open kitchen, a den, a large enclosed patio area with a pool, and still room for a yard. Of course, buildings there seem to be $350k and up. Heh. He does internal security work for AT&T, while she's a... doctor's assistant, if I recall (different than a nurse?), so they're in a whole different tax bracket.
We opened gifts on Christmas morning, but it still didn't feel anything like Christmas to me. Too much else was different. Friday we jetted around a bit. We visited the lighthouse that was something of the founding feature of the town (which built up around it more or less over the years). My dad and I swung by a mall - which didn't seem too busy overall, though there were lots of people out and about on the day after Christmas. We went to the beach. We went out to dinner at a catfish place (Mississippi catfish in Florida, heh).
Saturday, I packed up and we left in the middle of the day to Fort Lauderdale, so I could catch my flight back home. Five hours on a place to Phoenix. Ugh. That was a trial. It was far more cramped than the car and there was nothing to do. A two-hour-and-change layover in Phoenix and I was on a relatively brief one-hour flight into Durango again. At almost midnight local time (2 am back in Florida), I was back on Colorado soil getting driven home on partly- to fully-snowpacked roads, having gone from about 80 degrees to about -8.
The trip, like most, was good for a change of perspective. It was good to put faces to names after so long. It was good to make an appearance of myself to relatives not seen in a dozen years or more. But for all that, I was ready to go home by Wednesday or Thursday. I didn't see anyplace I felt I would want to live. My dad pretty much pulled up his personal roots when he left Mississippi decades ago and he doesn't really miss it. I'm a step beyond that, I think, as I really don't feel any connection down there in spite of being born in the state.
I don't have, or really want, that kind of tight-family life. I've filled the space in my existence with close friends and hobbies. Most of those connections are carried out via the internet, true, but is that really any less real or rewarding?
Back to work Tuesday. I have some work ahead of me, though, if I want my truck to go anywhere in the next week. At least it's not nearly as buried as it would have been without kindly roommate effort.
I settled into the PT Cruiser with my dad and step-mom Friday morning the 19th, and we set out through a break in the weather. Once clearing the Durango area (where it had snowed the previous day), things were fairly dry and clear. We drove south to Albuquerque, then cut east and wound down the day as it was getting dark in Amarillo, TX. The Cruiser itself isn't too bad, even with my height. I spent most of the time in the back, when I could make use of the whole seat (well, mostly) and when I was in the front, the legroom was decent. In spite of threats, my parents didn't sing me to death. ;)
Day two saw us reach Little Rock, AR. We saw our lowest price for gas here at $1.34 a gallon. Things started going up when we moved on through Memphis and turning south into Mississippi. Each state seemed to have subtly unique terrain from the interstates.
We reached Grenada, MS on Sunday afternoon. There we visited my uncle and aunt - both older than my dad by 10+ years. We toured the town and some sites from my dad's past were pointed out. Grenada has, I'm told, somewhere about 12,000 people. It seems small and dying, though that may be deceptive. Really, when I55 was set up there, businesses moved toward it and abandoned the old downtown area. There's a true town square there, but almost no live businesses around it anymore - that feels a little sad - while there are newer hotels and major buildings out near the interstate. That night we met up with a couple of my cousins and their husband/kids (which are, in turn, 2nd cousins if I remember how that works correctly?). We had dinner out at a local steak/seafood place. It was a bit overwhelming and I wasn't all that talkative, I admit, but it wasn't bad. Most of the conversation was catching up about people and events that didn't really involve me.
We met Walter and Margaret (uncle and aunt) again for breakfast before setting out south. We stopped by the house of a close friend to the family back in the day. She's now... well, I don't want to be rude, but I can really best sum up my impressions of her as a "lonely old lady." Her husband (two, I believe, actually) passed away some time ago and she lives alone (not counting cats). I think she wanted to cling to us - particularly my father - and nearly cried when we headed out a couple hours later.
Monday night we ended up in DeFuniak Springs, FL. Even from there, it was over a 500-mile drive the next day to Jupiter, FL. There, we settled in at Susan's mother's condo. Bea was nice, though I found her eagerness to please a bit stifling (though *sniffle* she felt Bond movies were too noisy/loud/actiony to be watching - as if there's anything else on during holidays >.>). She went one through our stay about how nice the place was and how prices were dropping. Of course "dropping" is all relative.
I stayed the first night on an inflatable mattress in the living room and some minor allergies kicked in. I'm not sure if the latter was location-oriented or linger cat traces, but the Loratadine served well there and made it pretty much a non-issue. The following nights, we rolled down the shutters and I took the mattress out to the enclosed patio to sleep, as that was actually more private. Yeah, I sorta camped out through Christmas. I think the temperature range from about 60 to about 80 while I was there, and it was humid, but not oppressively so. This while Durango was seeing snowstorm after snowstorm. The weather is ridiculously beautiful there this time of year, but it didn't feel like Christmas at all and I know the heat and humidity are much less tolerable in the summer.
Of course, it's all (sub)urbanized out there. One word summary for the area: Condos. Five word summary: Condos, condos, condos, strip malls, condos. It didn't hit me right away, but you can't really see the stars there, just a few brighter ones perhaps and planets. The plants are different. The places is... alien. Not bad, but not home either.
We met repeatedly over the next few days with Susan's brother Steve and his wife... Susan (usually "Sue Em"). Hmm... is there a term for "step-uncle?" Things settled into a very odd pattern, probably due in part to Italian heritage, where we'd get up and gather slowly toward breakfast. We'd eat at the dining room table, then linger there a while, then spread out to the living room. Then lunch was prepared and we'd gather, eat, linger, lounge... then dinner... The day revolved largely around the dinner table, one meal almost flowing into the next. That, to me, is downright unnerving. I'm used to eating and going on to something else. Lengthy family meals are straaaange.
Bea's condo is nice, but seems more for one person or a couple. It's slightly less square footage than I have, but on one level (with neighbors to two sides and above). There's a nice enclosed patio area, but the main bedroom is a little small and the guest room is really only a guest room (ie. you can barely fit anything but a bed). Steve and Sue Em have a house. A really nice house that he's done work on. It's got a lovely open kitchen, a den, a large enclosed patio area with a pool, and still room for a yard. Of course, buildings there seem to be $350k and up. Heh. He does internal security work for AT&T, while she's a... doctor's assistant, if I recall (different than a nurse?), so they're in a whole different tax bracket.
We opened gifts on Christmas morning, but it still didn't feel anything like Christmas to me. Too much else was different. Friday we jetted around a bit. We visited the lighthouse that was something of the founding feature of the town (which built up around it more or less over the years). My dad and I swung by a mall - which didn't seem too busy overall, though there were lots of people out and about on the day after Christmas. We went to the beach. We went out to dinner at a catfish place (Mississippi catfish in Florida, heh).
Saturday, I packed up and we left in the middle of the day to Fort Lauderdale, so I could catch my flight back home. Five hours on a place to Phoenix. Ugh. That was a trial. It was far more cramped than the car and there was nothing to do. A two-hour-and-change layover in Phoenix and I was on a relatively brief one-hour flight into Durango again. At almost midnight local time (2 am back in Florida), I was back on Colorado soil getting driven home on partly- to fully-snowpacked roads, having gone from about 80 degrees to about -8.
The trip, like most, was good for a change of perspective. It was good to put faces to names after so long. It was good to make an appearance of myself to relatives not seen in a dozen years or more. But for all that, I was ready to go home by Wednesday or Thursday. I didn't see anyplace I felt I would want to live. My dad pretty much pulled up his personal roots when he left Mississippi decades ago and he doesn't really miss it. I'm a step beyond that, I think, as I really don't feel any connection down there in spite of being born in the state.
I don't have, or really want, that kind of tight-family life. I've filled the space in my existence with close friends and hobbies. Most of those connections are carried out via the internet, true, but is that really any less real or rewarding?
Back to work Tuesday. I have some work ahead of me, though, if I want my truck to go anywhere in the next week. At least it's not nearly as buried as it would have been without kindly roommate effort.
Glad to have you back, safe and sound.
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