Cider Press Hill

He's home

The lad is back and it was a wonderful homecoming. He came bursting through the door and dropped all of his stuff right there and swept me right off the floor. Big hugs and and he kept saying, “It’s so good to be home!” I’ll second that!

The first thing that he wanted to do was run over to the photo store and drop his film off. I reminded him that it was 8:00 PM on a Sunday—no photo stores are open at that hour. So today we’ll drop the rolls of film off at Ritz Camera for one hour developing. The last time he came home from vacation, his cruise, we decided to have the film developed at Walgreens. Never again. They claimed that one entire roll of film was blank, which I’m sure it wasn’t. Don’t know what happened, but there was mighty unhappy kid over it. So Ritz Camera it will be.

We sat around the living room talking for a couple of hours. He had a zillion stories to tell, including ones that would have curled my hair had I known what he was doing while he was doing it. He loves telling those stories of high up places with sheer drops into deep chasms. And I think he has now officially seen more wildlife than I have. He even got to watch some wolves chase and drop an antelope. Unvarnished nature.

He brought back a pile of souvenirs and gifts for the various people in his life. By the time he was finished shopping for everyone else, he only had enough money left to buy himself a shot glass for his collection. Really pretty earrings for his stepmom and girlfriend and stuff for his dad and step bros. He brought me a really cool screen saver program with all the sights and scenes that he saw and, this cracked me up—he brought me a small handful of pretty rocks from one of the mountain tops. That’s tradition—over the years I’ve accumulated an interesting collection of rocks and shells and coral from his various trips. I can still tell you where each piece came from. These were pretty pink rocks from roughly 14,000 feet in the air.

Finally, he announced that he was going upstairs to partake of indoor plumbing. One of the wonders of the modern world, he said. It was, perhaps, the longest shower on record.

He is, as I write, sound asleep. Kind of jet lagged and still on mountain time. Meanwhile, all his stuff still sits in the middle of the living room floor. I kind of missed that.

Posted on 07/11/05 at 09:07 AM
 




N in Seattle

Oooops, reminds me that I never sent you the stuff I talked about some time ago ... including a shotglass for the lad’s collection. 

Don’t know if I’ll get to it this week—I’m in crisis-cleaning mode, as our friends in Keene are coming to visit this weekend—but it’ll be on its way soon, I promise.

United States   Posted by N in Seattle on 07/11/05  at  02:49 PM





Kate

I’ve always thought that the best way to do a thorough housecleaning is to have guests arriving in a couple of days. Then, all of a sudden, every speck of dust and every item out of place is magnified x 100. Unfortunately, you may end up being totally exhausted by the time they get there, but the place is spotless. Hope you guys have great weather and lots of fun!

Whenever you get around to sending the stuff out is fine. The shot glass collection will definitely reach a new plane with the addition of that one. It’ll be a conversation starter!

United States   Posted by Kate on 07/11/05  at  11:05 PM





pablo

Good to hear the Lad survived his adventure. He needs to spread his wings like this and build confidence and experiences because the real world, as we know, is a tough place. But also good that he is happy to be home and that he loves his momma. As much as they need to flee, they also need to have an anchor. (Speaking as a father of four, some of whom have flown far away, and two of whom haven’t gotten the message yet.)

United States   Posted by pablo on 07/12/05  at  09:03 AM





Kate

I think he’ll turn out to be a pretty good citizen of the world. He’s had some fantastic experiences already in his young life, in places where I’m not even likely to get to. This was the third or fourth time he’s gone on a long-ish vacation without family, though the people he went with are almost like family. But it’s still different. He had a great time and they enthusiastically asked if he could go with them again. So I guess two weeks together was a positive experience for all of them. That’s excellent!

In a few weeks, he’ll be off again on a two week stint at running camp up in Vermont. That’s the second time for him. He had a blast last time, I expect this time will be the same. This time he goes as the captain of his team and that entails a few extra responsibilities. He’s looking forward to it.

United States   Posted by Kate on 07/13/05  at  06:16 AM





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