The things in my head go 'round and 'round

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am on vacation. Let’s let that sink in for a minute.

This is what a North Carolina vacation looks like.

We have been coming to the same area of North Carolina for the past 7-8 years. A small island called Oak Island, just south of Wilmington. You can find a reasonably priced beach house pretty much any time you need. And if you want to live a little frugally, you can get a house off the ocean pretty cheap.

This is Toki Doki on the North Carolina Shore.

The area is beautiful. Of course, any place that you are on or near the ocean is beautiful. In my opinion, of course.

Tourist areas are pretty interesting to me, being that I work in retail. Being on the opposite side of the counter can be amusing. There are some folks who just do not want to be doing what they are doing down here, but they are kind of stuck. Like the guy who runs, and I assume owns, the convenience store on the island. He is there early in the morning, and up until 6 at night every day. If you ask him how he is doing he says the same thing every time. “Living the dream”.

At least he says that every time that I see him, and ask how he is doing. If you look real close when he says it, though, you will see that his eyes are dead. He is just saying the words. And I can understand that. What I can’t understand is why he just doesn’t sell the business and get the hell out. The store is worth a good bit of money. A cool couple of million at least. He could retire on that, as he is pretty near retirement age. But he keeps coming in day after day. The store closes for the winter, so maybe he just works the few months of the summer and puts up with us tourists so that he can do what he wants over the winter.

Vacations. Vacationing. Being the opposite side of the counter. We are going to keep visiting this theme this week.

Stay tuned.

All summer long we, MLW and I, talked about how The Princess was going non-stop. That there was no down time for either her, or us with all of her sleep-overs, trips to the shore, trips to Hershey Park, etc., etc.

The reality of it all is is that child is busy ALL FREAKING YEAR LONG. She never stops. And now we are back to the reality of combining school with her busy social calendar.

Last night she was at a sleep-over/birthday party. I picked her up this morning, she is currently snoring in her bedroom so that she will be sufficiently rested for the football game that she won’t be cheering at. She has to sit out because of being absent for another game and practice due to being in Hawaii.

Maybe days of our lives. Unless you work nights, then your days would actually be nights. And your nights would be your days. Or something like that.

I did overnights for about a year many moons ago, and I did not like it. Toss a kid with pnuemonia into the mix and you get the picture.

But that isn’t what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the freaking weather!! It has gone from hot and dry to cold and dry. At night. During the day it is still in the 80′s, but cool. But at night it is freaking COLD!! And the moon has been full the last few nights. I am loving this time of year.

The Girls start school on Monday. And get this, next week Thursday they are flying to Maui. For the Labor Day weekend. While I work. Somehow that doesn’t seem right. On a couple of levels, but they are going with The Princess’ Paternal Grandmother and Uncles. And when you look at it that way, I will be just as happy being here. Thank you.

What are you doing this weekend?

Namaste.

I am not having a fun time with the “being back at home” stuff. I like being back at home, but along with the part of being back at home comes the part of going back to that soul sucking, waste of brain cells that is called a job.

We left North Carolina yesterday early for a couple of reasons. One was to get The Princess back for a television show she wanted to watch, and the other was to make sure that we could get through the madness that is I-95 heading into the Washington, DC area.

For those of you who have made that trek, you know that it is usually smooth sailing up until you get on the North side of Richmond, Virginia. At the point 295, which is the bypass around Richmond, dumps into I-95 and makes one hell of a mess. Traffic becomes stop and go,with people jockeying for position. Zipping from one lane to another. Doing the Motor Car Mambo. The Truck Tango. And it can be pretty amusing to watch. Or it can just send you right over the edge. It all depends on how well adjusted you are.

Me? It makes me crazy watching people mess up traffic by trying to leap frog their way through. MLW, and The Princess got to sleep through the mess. And it really was not that bad this year. I don’t know if there weren’t the same amount of people on the road because of gas prices, or what. But we made it home in record time. Safe and sound.

Now all I have to do is go back to that soul sucking, brain cell wasting job.

Crap.

I make the bestest crabby patties that there are out there. Just ask me, and I will tell you.
Really. Phillips crab meat, and crab mix, then broil them for 5 minutes each side. Serve either by themselves, or put them on an onion roll and enjoy.

MMMMMMM.

Sounds good just reading about it, doesn’t it? You can be jealous, it is ok.

I also make some mean tacos.

We had a bunch of food this week. A bunch of food. I will be rolling home next to the van on Saturday. And then the cut back on intake will begin yet again.

As we start our planning for next years vacation to the beach. We didn’t think that we would be coming back next year, but I got talking to a friend who mentioned that he and his wife would like to come down. I suggested we go in on a house, he thought that that was a good idea. Now we just have to get our wives on the same page, we are all set.

And I will do whatever I need to do to be able to come to the shore for vacation. And to The Flying Pig. Can’t forget The Flying Pig. Especially since they will be having to expand due to my promotion, and due to you, fair readers, as you journey down to the North Carolina coast for vacation.

Namaste.

98 degrees, partly sunny. Wind coming at you like a tornado. Water temp at about 80.

Tell that you aren’t jealous.

So there we were. Slathered sun screen on all of our exposed extremities. Gathered all of our various chairs, towels, boogie boards, drinks and headed to the shore. Like an itinerant band of gypsies. Joining with the rest of Mom’s, and Dad’s dragging their various kiddos kicking and screaming so that they COULD HAVE SOME FUN, DAMMIT.

Gotta love being a parent on a hot, muggy day. The kids would have been happy to hang in the house/motel room in the air conditioner, watching Sponge Bob. Mom, and Dad though were having none of this. They had spent GOOD MONEY to bring their kiddos to the ocean so that they could HAVE SOME FUN, DAMMIT.

Watching people on the beach is finally fun. I have gotten to the age where I know that any girl on the beach is not going to be looking at me unless I just happen to be in her line of vision. I am a bald, 50 year old man. Anyone on the beach is going to be either the age of MLW, or of one of my kids. Sometimes being/getting old is liberating. With that being said, I then get to zoom in on the kiddos. I love kids. Just can’t eat a whole one. Watching the way boys and girls are the same up until they hit around 8 or 9. When they are in that 0-6 stage they all want to get out and chase waves. And that has got to be the cutest thing in the world. Listening to their laughter mixing with the sound of the waves.

That is music to my ears.

Time to get back into the air conditioning so that I don’t spontaneously explode into flames.

Namaste.

Go away on vacation, and you immediately stop reading what is going on here. I told you that I would be away until I found a reliable WiFi on Oak Island.

Sheesh.

Anyway, here is what has been going on:

There are a couple of things that you should just not do to make your life that much easier. Well, actually, there are a lot of things that you just shouldn’t do, but lets talk about a couple of simple things that, on a first glance, look like they are no big deal.

You should never talk smack to a Police Officer who just pulled you over. And you should definitely not talk smack to a Police Officer when you are being stopped at a Sobriety Check Point.

Not that I have done either. I am more of the “Yes, Sir.”, “No, Sir.” Variety when it comes to talking to an Officer. Always hoping for the no ticket situation. But a couple of weeks ago I did get the opportunity to participate in a Sobriety Check Point and did see 2 cars in front of me, and one car in back pulled to the side so that they could do the “Just How Drunk Are You” two-step.

I have been calling things the “Whatever” two-step lately. That and the “Dosey-Do”. I don’t know why, but I have and it is making The Princess crazy. With her being 13 now, EVERYTHING that I do makes her crazy. Makes life simple for me. I don’t have to worry about what I do, because no matter what I do it is wrong.

Cool.

Next item. Don’t plan on a major house renovations prior to leaving on vacation. This would seem like a no brainer, but my brain wasn’t thinking when I got talked into gutting our kitchen, and putting new flooring in our living room while we are out of town.

See? On a first read through that looks like a good idea. We will be out of the way of the contractors, they will get the work done, and when we come home it will be wonderful.

But I still had to work, and that left MLW to do a lot of the prep work. Like cleaning everything out of the cupboards. Because the cupboards are being ripped out and replaced. And cleaning out everything from under the sink. Because the sink is being ripped out and replaced. And cleaning out the refrigerator, because the frig and the stove need to be moved so that the new floor can be put down. And the old carpet had to be ripped up, I did that, along with all of the tack track and the staples.

And those are just a few of the issues that should help you decide NOT TO EVER, EVER, EVER decide to have someone work in your house while you are on vacation.

So, I lost my train of thought. Hmmmm.

The ocean is calling, the water is wild. There was a tropical storm that came through last night and the waves are really high today. Gotta go.

Namaste.

Some of the things going ’round in my head today:

Two more days until I go on vacation. Actually a day and a half until we get on the road and head for North Carolina.

20 hours of spending time with people that I don’t want to be around, so that I can have a week with the people that I love the most. Not all of the the people that I love the most, but this year there are too many things going on with the rest of the kids.

Sunshine, sand, and alcohol. Those are the top 3 items on my to do list for the next 7 days.

Don’t be a hater.

Namaste.

For Tuesday.

The things in my head:

I need to get a digital camera for myself. MLW has hers. The Princess has hers. I need one of my own. There. I said it, and I mean it.

Now if only I had the money to buy it.

Sigh.

We are leaving for North Carolina this coming Saturday. We should be leaving early Saturday morning, but due to circumstances beyond my understanding, I have have to work for part of the day on Saturday. That being said, MLW and The Princess along with her sidekick will be picking my up from work and we will be jetting down the freeway at warp speed.

If you are heading south on 95 this weekend, just get out of the way. It will be fine.

Which leads me to “The things that WILL NOT be in my head”. Namely music. I have been rhapsodizing about Ipods and the such lately, but in truth I have none. Again, MLW has hers, and The Princess has hers, but me? Nada. Zilch.

To be upfront, MLW did offer to purchase one for me not long ago and I demurred. I have my CD player for my truck, I figured that I didn’t need something to pour sweet music directly into my head.

I was wrong. I need something for this drive as I won’t be able to play the vehicles CD player without keeping everyone awake and bitching at me to TURN IT DOWN!!

I tend to listen to my music loudly.

So I have a couple of things to work on the next few days. Along with:

Tearing out the rest of the carpet in the living room.

Cleaning out all of the cupboards, and under the sink in the kitchen.

Cleaning out and moving the refrigerator from the kitchen.

Moving as much of the furniture out of the living room as possible.

Because while we are down in NC, gnomes are coming into our house and demo’ing our kitchen, and putting down wood flooring in our living room.

This is going to be interesting.

Namaste.

I was looking for vacation posts from last year and came across this one that was written just before we went.

What the hell is it with me, anyway?

“I have these weird patches of poison ivy on both of my legs.

And on my left arm.

The patch that was on my head seems to be gone. Thankfully.

I have been taking benedryl the last couple of nights to keep from scratching. It is not working that well. And the real pisser is that the patches on my calves not only itch, but they hurt like a bitch also when I scratch them. And heat makes them scream at me, “SCRATCH ME, SCRATCH ME.”

And then they hurt like hell when I do.

I am not getting this. And I am not happy about it.

Luckily, vacation is coming up in 10 days. I can’t wait.

Which is a stupid statement, because unless I hit the lotto this week, all I will be doing is counting down the days. But, I over explain.

Come August 18, my Wife, The Princess, and Pierce will be getting in the van and heading south to North Carolina. And the ocean. And sand. And alcohol for me. We will be carting along 2 cases of Dodd Legacy Red Ale for my imbibing pleasure. Haven’t figured out what we will be eating that first night, but think that either pizza might be the ticket.

Will let you know.

Namaste.”

At some point in my 50 years on this planet, you would think that I would learn.

Sheesh