Home, Sweet Home...

So I've been here in Florida for two weeks exactly... how nice it is to be home, enjoy some of Mom's cooking... (which seems to taste better lately for some reason... :D ), talk to and see old friends, and just get back into the groove of being back in the States.  One thing that I've noticed really is how CONVENIENT everything is here... I mean... a giant retail store open 24 hours a day??  A Gas station open 24 hours a day?  A Starbucks on every corner?  With my new GPS from Garmin, my iPhone from Apple... it's just too easy... Anyway- I've had a nice time the last couple of weeks- started off with a canoe trip down the Suwanee river on 7/7/7 that was a great trip... of course, I burned the top of my legs with probably 2nd degree burns... I mean, it was bad... but they are now recovering, finally... after having lost about 3 years of growth on my epidermis... I managed to peel sheets of skin off of my legs above my kneecaps... all because the convenience store I stopped at was out of sunscreen... well, so much for conveniences... anyway- after that I stayed with Jenny and William for a couple of days- checked out their church- really enjoyed the service- I mean, a great message.  It was so refreshing to be able to hear a solid message again.  Anyway- then I spent 3 days with Mom and Dad- then went to Jenny's house and spent the night before we drove down to see my Nana and Papa to celebrate their 60th anniversary... We watched a Yankees/DevilRays game on Friday night, Dad and I played a game of golf on Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon we celebrated the 60th with my Nana and Papa.  It was so good to see them, especially to celebrate this huge milestone... they are both 83 or so, but Papa is doing really well, and still loves to fish and go to his lake place.  Nana is looking really good, but unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's...  I spent a few minutes just sitting by her side, and I was really saddened to watch the disease in action.  Unless you've ever really spent some time with an Alzheimer's patient, it's really difficult to describe... but I'll explain it like this- it's like talking in an infinite loop... the conversation seems to be repeating itself over and over... but it happens so smoothly, it's like there is literally no interruption, and the transitions seem as natural as any other reasonably well spoken individual... except you realize 10 minutes or so into the conversation that you are hearing the exact same thing you heard 10 minutes before... it's kind of unnerving, because it sounds so natural, yet... she has no idea she just told you the exact same story just minutes before...  I was trying to get her to talk about some of her travels that she's taken over the years... I asked her where her favorite destination had been... just because I wanted to get her thinking and exercising her memory... and she told me Jerusalem had been her favorite place.  Specifically the streets where Jesus had walked she told me.  Because she visited in the mid-eighties, at a time when there was a relative peace between the Jews and Palestinians, she was able to travel all over Israel as well as Palestine.  She also travelled south and saw the Pyramids of Egypt... because I was just a child in those days, I'd never really considered the significance of where she had gone... but she was happy to tell me a few tidbits of her trip this last weekend as I sat by her side and just spent some time talking with her... some very specific memories that she had managed to hold onto after 20 years... stories of her at the wailing wall, how she informed the guide that told her that prayers that where written on a piece of paper and placed in the wall would never be removed, and being the precocious woman she was, and always has been, told him, well, that was really impossible, because the wind or rain could blow or wash them away... surely he couldn't be that naive... well, she didn't exactly say that, but that's how my Nana can come across sometimes... and of course, how she managed to talk her guide into letting her go to the bathroom there, even though there was no public restroom... and how he told her not to pick anything up on her way to the restroom, but she picked up some rocks and put them in her pocket anyway... it was good to hear the mischievous side of my Nana... she's always had that little side to her, and she seems to relish in it these days... she also told me how she went into some rooms in the Great pyramid that were off limits after she flirted with the guide a little bit... probably a small embellishment, but it was good to let her relive the moment... until suddenly the story of the wailing wall resurfaced... I diverted the conversation once I realized she was repeating herself... it was painful.  Most of all though, it was good to just be with her, and give her frail little body a hug and remind her how much her Grandson loves her.

From there I drove up to see my Aunt and Uncle outside of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  Wow- I forgot how nice that place is.  He is one of my favorite Uncles, and has recently added a very nice pool to his backyard.  It's almost like sitting at a 5 star resort on his back porch... he has a nice porch, a pool with a fountain flowing into it- I nice patio off to the side with a gas grill and a charcoal grill (separate from each other...) three nice gardens- a beautiful green lawn... and of course, the salty, fresh air flowing from the ocean less than a mile away... it was almost heaven.  I stayed with them three nights, and every night, I was out there relaxing and enjoying the evening... 

Anyway- I came back to Jacksonville yesterday, and am spending the weekend with Mom and Dad... of course, tonight, Mom is at her monthly scrapbooking party... and Dad is working, so I'm home by myself... it seems I've been so busy with visiting everyone, I haven't had much time to myself... so I had to get one post in... just tried Billy Blanks Boot Camp for the first time... I've been promising myself I'm going to be getting in shape soon... so I got the DVD and resistance bands today, after looking at them for a week or so, and went at it tonight.  We'll see how it works out for me.  I want to get down to 180 lbs... I was at 197.2 tonight.  I can't wait to get to Hawaii.

Cheers-