A week of tryptophan
Why so quiet, the past few days? Lots of reasons, but mainly, I still feel like I’m moving at the comparatively relaxed pace of Western Pennsylvania and struggling to get by at Boston time.
But there is much to report. After last year’s plane-missing fiasco, we actually intentionally decided to do the Sleep-Park-Fly deal at the T. F. Green Comfort Inn, since that worked out well last year. We drove down Wednesday after tarrying somewhat too long at Christopher’s with Amy & Doug, arrived after midnight, woke up on Thanksgiving morning at 4:11am, and flew out in the snow at 6:10am after a de-icing. It was even snowier in Pennsylvania, and in the car on the way to the farm from the airport, we saw a couple of accidents and a minivan that had slid off the road. The snow kept most of my cousins and my aunt away for actual Thanksgiving (but we did see them on Saturday for Grandma’s 75th birthday party). But my uncle had already covered most of the distance from Eastern PA, so he showed up. And we brought the Quorn roast, which came out fine (though I mostly had turkey myself).
The water situation on the farm was still pretty dire, so I helped dad set up a pump from a spring that’s about a quarter of a mile from the house and hooked up a bunch of hoses to the main cistern. Of course, since I left, they haven’t had to use it, since the snow melted and there’s finally been enough rain that their normal source is filling the cistern. Gar.
I only made it through one of the three books I bought for the trip, Thumbsucker, which was good, meeting expectations, but nothing to get too hot and bothered about.
We got back on Monday, and Suki & Edie were as happy as we’ve ever seen them after a trip, thanks to the excellent catsitting from Amy & Doug and Ed & Juliet. I flushed the toilet five times just for fun, and took a 45-minute shower.
And the big news happened after we got home: Frances, my brother’s wife, gave birth to a girl, Eva Simone Ball, so I am now an uncle for the second time! Eva was a couple of weeks early, but is a pretty normal size and is doing fine. I am still waiting for more pictures, dangit!