elf fall down go boom - spring break?
Last week was interesting. It was spring break for the colleges where I teach. We got back from Intercon in time for very, very close family friends to visit (aunt & uncle, using the etic fictive kinship terms) [see, I really do know something....]
These are friends of my parents. Their children are a little bit older than my brother & I; so needless to say, those kids were the cool kids we wanted to hang out with. These are also the people whom I did square dancing in SLC with (what? square dancing in Utah? How unusual).
Bob is, in many ways, a more talkative version of my father. Bob was in the Navy (my father was USMC). Bob worked for the big copper mining company in Utah and also did construction work. Joann is smart & talkative (like my mother). Joann had polio as a child and because of it is much shorter than she would have probably been. Everyone credits the treatments developed by Sister Kenny are the reason why Joann can walk today.
But it was an exhausting week. First, my father was not feeling well for much of the time. He spent all day Sunday, Monday, most of Tuesday, all day Wednesday in bed. As in, he could not easily get up. He would not call the doctor or let us call the doctor.
So, for much of the week it was me, my mother and my aunt & uncle doing the tourist thing.
Tuesday we did Old Town Alexandria (VA). It was very cool to listen to Bob talk about the construction techniques. I wish I had a tape recorder with me, as they asked great questions but also looking at the buildings/streets from a different - construction worker - perspective (I also wish had a recorder with me as he and my father talked at Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum - Udvar Hazy Center on Friday).
I got to show off my museum (hi!) and friends. I think that was my favorite day, except for being worried about my father (who was home, asleep and not letting us call a doctor).
I don't know why but my parents have a thing about the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in D.C. They love it. I think it is crap. And expensive crap at that. But we did it anyone on Wednesday. We went afterwards to the (newish) Navy Museum near the National Archives. I checked their webpage before we went but it didn't say anything about their only exhibit space being closed. Grrrr. But 1) it was free 2) Bob was talking with one of the curators (Bob talks as much or MORE than I do) and the curator gave Bob a cool book about John Paul Jones (because there was a bust about Jones that they were talking about). We did tea (well, ice cream) at Austin Grill on F Street. The WORST SERVICE in the WORLD!!! Seriously. How can you screw up 4 bowls of ice cream? Three of which arrived melted.
But it gave people a chance to sit and talk before we went to the car and headed home.
I will probably write more, but I am exhausted because I still have a sinus infection and I am seriously stressed by a number of things going in my family, one of the biggest being the state of my parent's health (or lack thereof).
In theory the family is getting together and will talk about this on Saturday. Unless we don't. Because we are Finns and screwed up that way.
But it was really great getting to see some of family from out west. They are a "hoot". ;-)
These are friends of my parents. Their children are a little bit older than my brother & I; so needless to say, those kids were the cool kids we wanted to hang out with. These are also the people whom I did square dancing in SLC with (what? square dancing in Utah? How unusual).
Bob is, in many ways, a more talkative version of my father. Bob was in the Navy (my father was USMC). Bob worked for the big copper mining company in Utah and also did construction work. Joann is smart & talkative (like my mother). Joann had polio as a child and because of it is much shorter than she would have probably been. Everyone credits the treatments developed by Sister Kenny are the reason why Joann can walk today.
But it was an exhausting week. First, my father was not feeling well for much of the time. He spent all day Sunday, Monday, most of Tuesday, all day Wednesday in bed. As in, he could not easily get up. He would not call the doctor or let us call the doctor.
So, for much of the week it was me, my mother and my aunt & uncle doing the tourist thing.
Tuesday we did Old Town Alexandria (VA). It was very cool to listen to Bob talk about the construction techniques. I wish I had a tape recorder with me, as they asked great questions but also looking at the buildings/streets from a different - construction worker - perspective (I also wish had a recorder with me as he and my father talked at Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum - Udvar Hazy Center on Friday).
I got to show off my museum (hi!) and friends. I think that was my favorite day, except for being worried about my father (who was home, asleep and not letting us call a doctor).
I don't know why but my parents have a thing about the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in D.C. They love it. I think it is crap. And expensive crap at that. But we did it anyone on Wednesday. We went afterwards to the (newish) Navy Museum near the National Archives. I checked their webpage before we went but it didn't say anything about their only exhibit space being closed. Grrrr. But 1) it was free 2) Bob was talking with one of the curators (Bob talks as much or MORE than I do) and the curator gave Bob a cool book about John Paul Jones (because there was a bust about Jones that they were talking about). We did tea (well, ice cream) at Austin Grill on F Street. The WORST SERVICE in the WORLD!!! Seriously. How can you screw up 4 bowls of ice cream? Three of which arrived melted.
But it gave people a chance to sit and talk before we went to the car and headed home.
I will probably write more, but I am exhausted because I still have a sinus infection and I am seriously stressed by a number of things going in my family, one of the biggest being the state of my parent's health (or lack thereof).
In theory the family is getting together and will talk about this on Saturday. Unless we don't. Because we are Finns and screwed up that way.
But it was really great getting to see some of family from out west. They are a "hoot". ;-)