There's so very much to write about
Been at Pat's since late Saturday, and the days go by both quickly and slowly. Like it's not long after 7 and we're already past a movie (demolition man) and dinner (I am intensely proud of myself to have riffed off a Green Chef recipe for shepherd's pie* I did at BadM's a while back (my oven's top element's been kaput since '05; it's a bit weird to have cheese in Shepherd's pie but :shrug:).
It was really really nice to see John from college and to meet his wife (Ft Wayne) and zomg was that an overwhelming farmer's market.
The visit with Uncle was also surprisingly good. In some ways right until a couple days later.
One thing we did on the Thursday was to first spend time going through his file of Dad mementos. A few news clippings, the dx from Mayo, a bunch of pictures, a couple difficult emails. I scanned pretty much all of it. He offered me a lot of it and I told him I specialize in losing things. I did arrange some of it on a table as a tableau for one picture. Also we looked at a lot of other way organized family pictures and I learned a lot about Grandparent history (Dad's story of how Saba got to Peru was wrong -- he went on some trips to See Places, not accidentally land in Lima and work his way back to Cuba. Or who knows? ) and I never knew there was a dog growing up, nor that there was a hotel Uncle and Dad worked summers at in Atlantc City. (Israeli Cousin says it eventually burned?)
It's bittersweet. So many things I somehow never got stories out of Dad or Mom. Like Mom and her month wandering Turkey.
And a fair while talking with Aunt and a fair while on a vidcall with Israeli Aunt.
So. A few days later.
Figuring safest to ask permission before posting on FB but honestly expecting a sure and kudos (a goodly deal of the fallout last time involved him at least saying I should have writtne a long treatise on how nice the visit was) I sent a pic of that table tableau I mentioned and said that I'd love to post it. And... the answer came that well, no. there's private family photos. So the thing is, everything on that table was a picture of dad or a clipping, with one picture where he's the only recognizable adult. I'm a toddler, Cousin S is a year older, and cousin J is in a baby carriage. So that would make Dad probably 41 or 42. And when Dad died there were a bunch of photos I posted already, some of which other folks had been kind enough to restore for me -- things Israeli Aunt had sent or Israeli Cousin. So it's covered in WTF, and I can't begin to explain how sad that reply made me.
And... he knew I was scanning all sorts of things. Which I was going to put on Dad's memorial Wordpress, but I guess /that/ is fine with him. Or he wasn't paying attention before? Like, I give up. Or I guess I don't give up but I'm still sad, partly because I'm right back at I don't understand my uncle
I'm currently figuring to go through Yellow Springs on the way home. I have to be back in time to take care of chickens on the 24th. It's mildly tempting to go back through Cleveland; I really did enjoy meeting Tylik's friends (though zomg the spare room was cold even with the heating register open) and it would have been nice to maybe try out the ropes course Dean was offering to take me to. But Dan's talking about leaving the country at some point in the not too distant future, and it's certainly way more directly on the way. I couldn't get to CLE in one day -- it's 12 hrs from here. But I can go here to Yellow Springs, and then a day later go on back to the chickens, and it's directly on my way.
Uncle would have liked more time, as would I. I'm a bit torn.
I'm rambling. I learned things about concrete today. Pat gave me a pretty necklace. I am not bothering to tell Therawhatsit I'm in a different state and I kinda don't consider her smart enough to figure that out, which is an entirely different problem.
It's kinda strange here with neither the mom nor the dog -- we can wander for as long as we want. I won't even be seeing her, b/c visiting hours and people are so limited at the nursing home.
I suppose I should stop typing. Somehow I seldom start of late.
Movies so far:
Demolition Man
Thomas Crowne Affair
Velocipastor
Never Surrender
We shall show the 14 year old Galaxy Quest tomorroow
*in this case, there was taco meat to use. bought peas and shredded carrots and some beef stock instead of the spiced mushroom stock in the original, and used a can of rotel instead of tomato paste, and the carrots and onions and rotel ended up in there all together instead of softening the carrots early. Instead of trad spices we added more taco seasoning, and threw in some mushrooms mostly b/c we had them, and the potatoes on top were already four cheese instant. Maybe not quite so much of the potatoes if repeat, but I am QUITE pleased and this was less fiddly than the GC version. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1790250.html. You can add to the
comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.
It was really really nice to see John from college and to meet his wife (Ft Wayne) and zomg was that an overwhelming farmer's market.
The visit with Uncle was also surprisingly good. In some ways right until a couple days later.
One thing we did on the Thursday was to first spend time going through his file of Dad mementos. A few news clippings, the dx from Mayo, a bunch of pictures, a couple difficult emails. I scanned pretty much all of it. He offered me a lot of it and I told him I specialize in losing things. I did arrange some of it on a table as a tableau for one picture. Also we looked at a lot of other way organized family pictures and I learned a lot about Grandparent history (Dad's story of how Saba got to Peru was wrong -- he went on some trips to See Places, not accidentally land in Lima and work his way back to Cuba. Or who knows? ) and I never knew there was a dog growing up, nor that there was a hotel Uncle and Dad worked summers at in Atlantc City. (Israeli Cousin says it eventually burned?)
It's bittersweet. So many things I somehow never got stories out of Dad or Mom. Like Mom and her month wandering Turkey.
And a fair while talking with Aunt and a fair while on a vidcall with Israeli Aunt.
So. A few days later.
Figuring safest to ask permission before posting on FB but honestly expecting a sure and kudos (a goodly deal of the fallout last time involved him at least saying I should have writtne a long treatise on how nice the visit was) I sent a pic of that table tableau I mentioned and said that I'd love to post it. And... the answer came that well, no. there's private family photos. So the thing is, everything on that table was a picture of dad or a clipping, with one picture where he's the only recognizable adult. I'm a toddler, Cousin S is a year older, and cousin J is in a baby carriage. So that would make Dad probably 41 or 42. And when Dad died there were a bunch of photos I posted already, some of which other folks had been kind enough to restore for me -- things Israeli Aunt had sent or Israeli Cousin. So it's covered in WTF, and I can't begin to explain how sad that reply made me.
And... he knew I was scanning all sorts of things. Which I was going to put on Dad's memorial Wordpress, but I guess /that/ is fine with him. Or he wasn't paying attention before? Like, I give up. Or I guess I don't give up but I'm still sad, partly because I'm right back at I don't understand my uncle
I'm currently figuring to go through Yellow Springs on the way home. I have to be back in time to take care of chickens on the 24th. It's mildly tempting to go back through Cleveland; I really did enjoy meeting Tylik's friends (though zomg the spare room was cold even with the heating register open) and it would have been nice to maybe try out the ropes course Dean was offering to take me to. But Dan's talking about leaving the country at some point in the not too distant future, and it's certainly way more directly on the way. I couldn't get to CLE in one day -- it's 12 hrs from here. But I can go here to Yellow Springs, and then a day later go on back to the chickens, and it's directly on my way.
Uncle would have liked more time, as would I. I'm a bit torn.
I'm rambling. I learned things about concrete today. Pat gave me a pretty necklace. I am not bothering to tell Therawhatsit I'm in a different state and I kinda don't consider her smart enough to figure that out, which is an entirely different problem.
It's kinda strange here with neither the mom nor the dog -- we can wander for as long as we want. I won't even be seeing her, b/c visiting hours and people are so limited at the nursing home.
I suppose I should stop typing. Somehow I seldom start of late.
Movies so far:
Demolition Man
Thomas Crowne Affair
Velocipastor
Never Surrender
We shall show the 14 year old Galaxy Quest tomorroow
*in this case, there was taco meat to use. bought peas and shredded carrots and some beef stock instead of the spiced mushroom stock in the original, and used a can of rotel instead of tomato paste, and the carrots and onions and rotel ended up in there all together instead of softening the carrots early. Instead of trad spices we added more taco seasoning, and threw in some mushrooms mostly b/c we had them, and the potatoes on top were already four cheese instant. Maybe not quite so much of the potatoes if repeat, but I am QUITE pleased and this was less fiddly than the GC version. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1790250.html. You can add to the
comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.