Florida Vacation
florida trip was nice. saw a big ass 6 inch grasshopper and a rattlesnake crossing the road. ...single-file. no actually we saw the grasshopper at the hotel. kathy's mom paid for our hotel and got us a real nice (real expensive) room right on the st. john's river. it had a jacuzzi spa and just a beautiful view. though being so close to the river, kathy suggested we check for gators every time we walked to or from our hotel room.
had fun with kathy's family. we shot off fireworks one night which was cool. i was bummed that they didn't make a bigger deal out of her coming though. it was basically "hi, kathy," which i found sad, but that's just how they do it in her family i guess. if i'd been 2000 miles away for 15 months, my family would be jumping up and down and crying and making signs at the airport and such. hers just seem like meh. her mom and brother Thomas were good about making time for her at least, though Jonathon, her 15yo nephew she loves so much, barely saw her and didn't even come to her birthday dinner. :\. i politely but directly told Thomas, Jon's dad, i would have dragged Jon there in light of how much Kathy loves that kid. Thomas said it wasn't worth it to him to fight with Jon. :\ she'd been gone 15 months. just a weird family. maybe it's a southern thing.
Thomas was pretty cool though. he's like me in that he's funny as fuck. we cracked each other up a couple times. he made Kathy's 6yo niece Emily available a lot, which was nice. we made a night of driving with her down to St. Augustine and went swimming with her and Thomas another day for 3 hours, resulting in probably the worst sunburn i've ever had. i took a lot of hot baths (which felt like death) and put on a lot of Lidocaine to numb the pain, and it worked pretty well since the INTENSE UNGODLY BALDWIN pain had subsided some within a couple days. it's long gone now, though i am still molting.
the flights weren't bad. both coming and going the Phoenix-Nashville legs were really sparse, giving us a whole row to spread out in. Nashville-Jacksonville was filled to capacity each time, but that's only an hour and a half flight, as opposed to the 3 hour 15 minute flight from Phoenix to Nashville. neither Kathy or i like flying, her much less than i. she was a trooper though, and i think my degree came in handy as i kept telling her what the sounds were she was hearing and feeling (landing gear, turbulence, etc) and that it was normal. being the rock was tough at times, since i don't like flying either, but i think it helped her a lot, and that and pie is what it's all about.
nice trip, but by the end we both agreed it was nice to come home to our bed and our kitties. and within a day of being back, we also agreed Phoenix is much hotter, and that the next time someone says "but it's a dry heat," we're going to shove their head in an industrial oven and set it to Dry.
had fun with kathy's family. we shot off fireworks one night which was cool. i was bummed that they didn't make a bigger deal out of her coming though. it was basically "hi, kathy," which i found sad, but that's just how they do it in her family i guess. if i'd been 2000 miles away for 15 months, my family would be jumping up and down and crying and making signs at the airport and such. hers just seem like meh. her mom and brother Thomas were good about making time for her at least, though Jonathon, her 15yo nephew she loves so much, barely saw her and didn't even come to her birthday dinner. :\. i politely but directly told Thomas, Jon's dad, i would have dragged Jon there in light of how much Kathy loves that kid. Thomas said it wasn't worth it to him to fight with Jon. :\ she'd been gone 15 months. just a weird family. maybe it's a southern thing.
Thomas was pretty cool though. he's like me in that he's funny as fuck. we cracked each other up a couple times. he made Kathy's 6yo niece Emily available a lot, which was nice. we made a night of driving with her down to St. Augustine and went swimming with her and Thomas another day for 3 hours, resulting in probably the worst sunburn i've ever had. i took a lot of hot baths (which felt like death) and put on a lot of Lidocaine to numb the pain, and it worked pretty well since the INTENSE UNGODLY BALDWIN pain had subsided some within a couple days. it's long gone now, though i am still molting.
the flights weren't bad. both coming and going the Phoenix-Nashville legs were really sparse, giving us a whole row to spread out in. Nashville-Jacksonville was filled to capacity each time, but that's only an hour and a half flight, as opposed to the 3 hour 15 minute flight from Phoenix to Nashville. neither Kathy or i like flying, her much less than i. she was a trooper though, and i think my degree came in handy as i kept telling her what the sounds were she was hearing and feeling (landing gear, turbulence, etc) and that it was normal. being the rock was tough at times, since i don't like flying either, but i think it helped her a lot, and that and pie is what it's all about.
nice trip, but by the end we both agreed it was nice to come home to our bed and our kitties. and within a day of being back, we also agreed Phoenix is much hotter, and that the next time someone says "but it's a dry heat," we're going to shove their head in an industrial oven and set it to Dry.