Vacation Number One
What a wonderful week we had. My husband and I enjoyed our first full week’s vacation at our weekend retreat home near Cecilton, MD. We have gotten into the habit of taking the week of Memorial Day, the week of the 4th of July and the week before Labor Day off from the drudgeries of work.
If we could have custom ordered the weather, we could not have done better. We had rain one evening that cut a day long picnic short and then it was drizzly the day we had to come home. Other than that, it was bright and sunny for the entire nine days.
Rudy enjoyed fishing all week. He had the ‘big’ boat out a couple of times in the Chesapeake Bay. The rest of the time he used the ‘little ‘boat in the small lake that is next to the entrance to the park. This year he is doing very well, catching more fish so far this year than he did all last summer. He also worked on various little projects that kept him outside, in the sunshine where he prefers to be when we are at Indian Acres.
His big event for the week was flying his first remote control plane! He had, many years ago, built several planes and was determined to learn to fly. But he found the learning curve too large and the tension of putting all of that hard work up (to say nothing of major bucks) in the air only to have it crash way too intense to overcome. Last year he discovered a computer simulator program that allows him to ‘fly’ planes on a screen before he took a real plane out in the field. He has been practicing everyday since I built him his own, personal computer. So one day he took one of the four planes he now has out for his first actual flight. I would have loved to have gone with him to take pictures, but I knew that he would have wanted to be alone so he would be less nervous.
Off he went, but he ended up having a friend go along. His first flight landed the plane gently in a honeysuckle bush. But then he managed several flights where he flew, did some stunts and landed easily. Finally, what he had determined would be the last flight of the day; he decided to do some low fly bys to show off for the friend. About three feet off the ground a gust of wind caught the plane and sent it flying into the ground. He returned with the plane to our house with its nose dangling from the body. It would require some intense repair.
I had started out with a bad, hacky cough. So the first few days, I was content to stay quietly inside. I made some baked beans for the big picnic. These beans are the ‘from scratch’ beans my mother always made and I made a large roasting pan full for everyone to enjoy. The picnic was the Sunday before Memorial Day and followed the traditional Upper Glen Eight versus Lower Glen Eight softball game. The beans went over well and we then had some leftovers to enjoy the rest of the week.
I did some sewing and computing and just putzed the rest of the week. I also went shopping with friends one day, going to Joann Fabrics and then enjoying lunch at Bertucci’s. Later in the week I went with another friend to Here’s Hattitude, a tea room and gift shop in Middletown, DE. So it was a very nice week.
The only fly in the ointment was the news that my father, who is living in a nursing home at age 87, had been diagnosed with pneumonia. He had seemed to have a cold the day we left on vacation. The nurses at Barclay Friends kept in touch until the x-rays confirmed the pneumonia. He is still being treated and responding to the medication. The news kept me close to the cell phone, just in case I needed to go north if things had turned badly for him. I had planned to spend a day in Baltimore with a dear friend of mine. We put that off to a later time.
All in all, it was a really nice time. And even though it is over, we still have a couple of more to look forward to!!
Now I can concentrate on the upcoming celebration of my 60th birthday!!!