Bumpy Road Take me Home

As you probably know, Patti and I are going through many changes this month, in each and every aspect of our life. This roller coaster ride is not always so smooth, and there are bumps on the way. With a lot of love and energies we just past yet another such bump. Hopefully the last.

Thursday, June 9th, 2011 – I just realized: Today is the first day of the rest of my life. That didn’t make any difference to life though… The familiar alarm sound put an end to my sweet dream at 5:30am. No time to roll in bed, or even debate if I should start welcoming the day – I have 45 minutes to be ready and out the door. Half asleep, still congested, I woke up and started my daily routine – Pop Tarts and Orange Juice for breakfast, Lunch meat and cheese sandwich and a snack for lunch, and a cup of coffee for me. Quick glance at the computer – maybe some email is coming with a new project – but nope. Nothing. Time to go.

Drove down and came back to feed Diva, got a load of laundry going, cleaned sinks shower and bathroom, and sat down at my computer, trying to start a development of a new Android Application as an alternative source of income, just in case projects will not come through.

Before I knew it – it was time to go again, drive my son back home. Wasn’t sure what to cook for dinner, so I called the master Chef: “Hey Patti, any idea what I can make for dinner?”,  “What do you got out there?”, she asked. “Hmm some yams, potatoes, squash, and shrimp”. Step by step we arranged for a pressure cooker Squash medley and shrimp and mushroom in butter wine and garlic sauce. Remote team work! In between the peeling, the honey and the soy sauce, we talked about the new job and challenges Patti has now. She is actually doing great and appreciated for her experience in system analysis and design skills, and the software development lifecycle management ability. I am so happy for Patti, I think this is exactly what she wanted, and what she needed – a place that will utilize and appreciate her talent, experience and skills.

Dinner was great, and we were both tired and ready to go to bed early tonight. A goodnight call to Patti and I was in my dream world.

Black Friday

Friday, June 10th, 2011 – Not the best day today. When I woke up I thought – wow already Friday, and I don’t even know what I am going to cook for tonight’s dinner. After I dropped my son at school I drove to a grocery store that carried Challah bread for Shabbat, got some mixed vegetables bag and drove back home. I decided to make a mixture of small vegetables – miniature Potatoes, miniature Onions, Brussels Sprouts,  some Broccoli, Cauliflower, and some chicken drumsticks in the oven. That was the plan at least.

At 2:00pm I drove to school to pick up my son. He spotted me in the parking lot and ran to the car – “Hey Aba”, he said. “I am glad you are here,I need five bucks”. “Where is your backpack?” I asked. “Oh, in class I will get it later tonight”. he said, “you have five bucks?” “For what?” I asked. “You forgot? today is the dance, and I am staying here till the evening”. I just realized – I completely spaced it out. Not only that – I also forgot my wallet at home, and did not have anything on me. “Well – I will drive and get you some money, I will call you when I get back….”. “But I don’t have my phone, I forgot it at home”, he said… “I will look every so often outside to see if you came”.

The drive home is over 30 minutes each way, and with my big truck it is not a cheap ride. I drove it twice this morning, another round trip to get my son (but I didn’t), and another one to get him some money, and finally – I will have to drive another one to pick him after the dance. if you counted correctly – this is 8 times that route! about 5 hours on the road back and forth. On top of that – the Friday dinner – this is gone too! I am not going to eat by myself…

Into this chaos, on the way home Patti calls. My mind is completely spaced out today, and I completely forgot – she had an important meeting at work. After telling her what happened today, I forgot to ask about that meeting… I think that the stress build up on both of us and just not being together for so long, just started the inevitable. a stupid argument on the phone.

That just shadowed this Friday completely, and ended the day in a Scratchy chord.

Just wait – no so fast! Almost… Just before I went to bed I called Patti again. “We can’t be doing that!” I said. She agreed. We just laughed and realized what we did. Since we don’t have each other all the time, as we are so used to, we can’t unload our stress little bit at the time, and it builds up and explodes. So now that the steam is released – all is good again. Time to move on. Hey – just to make it clear – I love you Patti, more than anything. We will always be together!

Saturday, June 11th, 2011 – Not too much is planned for the day. I woke up in a better mood this morning and prepared a nice breakfast for us. Challah bread with cheese (the Shavuot leftovers), vegetables, yogurt, cereal and berries. My son in an attempt to find activities other than computer games, wanted to visit a friend and get his hair cut. I thought both were great ideas! The long hair he wears is too hot for the summer, and hides his face. I like him in shorter hair.

We drove down to the city, and found a nice ‘Old Fashion’ style barber shop. The huge mane just piled on the floor bit by bit, and before long I could actually see that there was a face underneath that hair. Next – we drove to his friends’ house but he could not come over. Had some family commitments. Next week, his dad said.

Drove back home, and thought what could I do for the rest of the day. On the way in, I noticed some activity around the candy store (a famous store just at the entrance of the RV Park) and decided to take a look. We went there and walked around the different booths of local artist – an air spray painter, a local singer, a wood carver, and of course the home made chocolate fudge of the candy store.

The Hike

On the way out, I glanced and saw a trail head I never noticed before. It was on the same side of the park, across from the other trails we took before. That is a good idea, I thought – a hike.

My son didn’t ‘feel like it’, as teenagers say. I kinda figure that. A good time to catch up with games, but that was fine with me. I could take the time and walk in my own pace, stop and take a picture whenever I want, and clean my head. Since I am by myself, it was an opportunity to take a little longer hike.

We walked back to our site, and I put my hiking shoes, vest, hat, walking stick, grabbed the old camera (yes the new one is still in repair) and water belt. I was ready to go.

My android phone is now on the stock battery (The original battery that cam with it) since the bigger battery failed. That means that the phone will not last long if I will use it as a GPS or navigation device. Back to my old GPS, I turned it on, acquired position and started my hike.

At the trail head I stopped at the topo map, planning my route. I chose a round trip about 5 miles long, going through some stream and returning to the park via a gravel road from the east.

It was a hot day and the hotter I got the more flies turned around my head and drove me crazy. I just decided I am trying to ignore them and every few seconds just killed another one. Not that it helped, but it kept my mind off of the irritating buzz. Flowers are blooming all around in yellow, pink, red and white. I could smell them even through my congested nose. The trail went uphill about 600 feet along 4 miles or so, until it reached the gravel road. From there the path was wide and clear and constantly downhill, back toward the campground. At one point, a car came from around the corner, spinning its wheels and almost hit me. I jumped to the said scared – crazy drivers… I thought. Few minutes later that same car came back down. The car stopped by me and a young guy opened the window and  said – “Sorry about earlier, the tires are not the best and sometimes spins, I did not mean to scare you”. “That’s OK”, I said – “don’t worry about it, and thanks for stopping and apologizing – that’s nice of you”. “Want cold beer?” he asked. “No, thanks I am good”. I replied. “Well – it is for my mom, and its not so good for her – take one and save it from her”, he tried to convince me. “Is it cold?” I asked. “Very…” he handed me an ice cold can of beer. I grabbed the beer, thanked the guy and he disappeared down the road.

I don’t think it was a great quality beer, but a very cold beer in a very hot day was a perfect combination. I could feel the cold beer going down my throat cooling off my warm body. Later downhill, I saw the guy sitting on the porch in a farm house with his mom. I could not believe that in SoCal there are places like that – a small village with little farms, simple houses, gravel roads. Chickens cows and horses in the yards – a country style small town in crowded SoCal.

I talked to Patti again on the way as I was crossing this village, approaching the RV park. When I arrived I took a nice shower, loaded my GPS trail and photos into the computer, ate a light frozen dinner and was ready to go to bed. Not before I talked to Patti, of course – got to keep the flame . She took the day easy, she told me, cooked herself some fancy meal, and wine, and enjoyed the evening.

BTW – most of the picture in this post are from this hike.

Sunday, June 12th, 2011 – Got some work to finish for a customer, an old task I promised to get done. After a small breakfast I sat down to finish this task and write this post. Later today I would like to clean the RV, prepare a nice dinner (after two days without cooking) and maybe watch a movie tonight. that’s for today.

The rest of the week – I hope to get some progress and hopefully finalize an agreement with my ex regarding my son, although it is hard to believe it would happen. Try to finish as much food as I can from what we have here, and get ready to move. in a week and a half – on Wednesday, I will be driving the RV for the last time before it is parked unoccupied in my back yard. Will have to learn how to winterize it for the first time, but that is not in a long time.

Beyond that – I might be travelling to MN and PA to pick up all our belongings from the storage units around the country and gather all in one place. That’s all I have planned for now, anything else will deal as it comes.