Posts in category Family and Friends

Chris Is Leaving Florida

Sep28
2009 Rob Written by Rob

Well, my brother Chris is in the few final days before his big move to Oregon. Talked with him briefly yesterday. He’s having his car transported; they picked it up on Thursday. He’s finished packing all of his stuff into pods, and they’re ready to be picked up. Right now he’s making phone calls, getting utilities worked out, and spending time saying goodbye to everyone before his plane leaves Orlando on Wednesday for Eugene, Oregon.

When we talked the other day he took a moment to complain about the summer weather in Florida. I told him to “enjoy” these last few days, because after Wednesday, hyperhumid scorching tropical summers are a thing of the past. I know I certainly don’t miss them. Chris assures me that he won’t, either.

I’m looking forward to seeing Chris again. It’s been almost a year; last time we saw each other was when we flew back to Orlando briefly last November to get the last of my things. Kristi and I are planning to drive up to Oregon next week, stay in Eugene for a few days helping Chris unpack and generally welcoming him to the West Coast. Eugene is only about eight or nine hours by car from Modesto – slightly farther than the distance we drove to San Diego last year. And it’s only an hour flight; we’re hoping that he can come visit for Christmas. (Totally understand if he can’t, seeing that his computer technical support is generally a 24/7/365 business. But hope lives eternal.)

At the very, very least, having him in the same time zone again is going to make scheduling our GTA4 nights a LOT easier. 🙂

The trip to Oregon will do Kristi and I both some good. Get away from the town, the house, the animals, the clients. Just get away. Also, I’ve been doing the work-at-home thing for a long time now – I’m used to it – but I think being cooped up in the house full time is getting on Kristi’s nerves. We haven’t had a serious travel spell since Kristi came off night shifts, so the long haul up to Oregon is going to be a good one. I’ve never been up in the Northwest, either, so I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of Northern California and southern Oregon.

We’ll take pictures and report the story here.

Mornings

Aug30
2009 Rob Written by Rob

We’ve gotten some good news in recent days. My brother Chris got his job transfer locked down, and so is now in those final few frantic weeks of planning and executing a move to Eugene, Oregon. We’re told that his plane leaves Florida on 9/30 on a one-way ticket, and he’s still wrapping up the movers and getting his car from one coast to the other. The cool part is that he’ll be just an eight hour drive (or a one hour flight) from us; we’re hoping to visit him up there soon, as well as entice him down here possibly for Christmas.

The other bit of good news is that the cannery is starting to wind down the season. Latest word is that 9/12 could be the last day, and then all the seasonal people get sent home and the pack is done for the year. We’re both looking forward to wrapping up this seven-day-a-week night shift stuff, and we now can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

You adapt to circumstance. Work things out however you can. One of our adaptations is this ritual we do in the mornings: Kristi comes home about 6am, eats breakfast, changes clothes, comes to bed and wakes me up about 6:30. Then I slowly wake up while she tells me about her night. As I wake up, she winds down, until finally I’m awake enough to pick up a book and read her to sleep. Then I get up, usher the dog out of the bedroom, close up the room and get my own day started. We’ve been doing this every day now for months.

Anyway, this morning Kristi wakes me up and says, “Hey babe. I got an idea. Feel like taking your wife out for breakfast?”

And you know what? Indeed I did. So I jumped in the shower, dressed, and we hit up a local place called Huckleberrys. It used to be the local Perko’s chain; for you Florida readers, it’s very similar to Perkins. Only Perko’s had worse food and the new Huckleberrys has better (including fresh squeezed orange juice!).

So we had our first breakfast together in a really long time this morning. And it was beyond fine. This summer’s been hard, but I think it’s made us both appreciate the little things – the random foot rub, breakfast together, clean and warm towels, falling asleep together at night, weekends with someone fun to hit Barnes and Noble with. The things you miss most when they’re suddenly not there, and the things you might take for granted on a normal day. These days, those things are new and sparkling each time.

Glad summer’s almost over. Ready for the fall to start – and also ready for Kristi to resume R&K writing duties. 🙂

Posted in Everyday Life, Romance, Work

The August March

Aug22
2009 Rob Written by Rob

Not dead. Just have our hands full these days.

I hate August. When I was a kid, August meant that summer vacation is almost over and it’s time to drag ass back into a classroom. These days, August means that we’re at the height of the worst of the summer. Hot. Back in Florida, the peak of the hurricane season. The dead zone for the business: it seems that every client is either on vacation, going on vacation, coming back from vacation, or otherwise sitting on their thumbs until Labor Day.

Luckily, the business is still pretty consistently busy this month (albeit not as much so as in July), mostly due to ongoing projects. This August, though, is made harder with Kristi’s night shift job at Seneca and her absolute lack of any downtime whatsoever. The grind is getting bad now; knowing that the season ends in just a few weeks almost makes the grind worse. I’m ready to have my wife back, and she’s ready to hit the second week of September and just dropping like a rock.

Today I’m looking out the window and it’s overcast and cloudy this afternoon. And it just suddenly makes me ache for winter. Cold and wet, running the fire, eating cold night food and bundling up with my wife. We’re both ready for summer to be over. More than ready.

By the way – loving congratulations to Robin and Andrew from both of us. We’re seriously psyched for you guys. Have fun!

Posted in Everyday Life, Work

Anniversary In The City

Jul07
2009 Rob Written by Rob

Ed. – We’re still alive. June was just a busy, tiring month, and the last week or so we’ve either been busy with around-the-house stuff or we’ve been out of town. But we’re still here.

So after two weeks of graveyard, the plant finished apricot season and closed up for two weeks, waiting for peaches to finish ripening and be ready for canning. That means everyone gets laid off for two weeks, which meant Kristi got two weeks off in late June and early July, which meant we got an anniversary! For a long while we didn’t think we would get one. At first we thought the plant would work right through, that she’d be on the 7-days-a-week graveyard until September.

To give you an idea of what that’s like, we sleep in shifts, her waking me at 6am when she comes home from work; I get up, we have breakfast together and then she goes to sleep for the day. I work, tiptoeing around the house all day to keep the house quiet. She wakes at 5pm or so, we have dinner together, she goes to work at 9pm, I go to bed an hour later. Rinse and repeat.

We get, at best, four hours a day together. It’s tough. So when we realized that we would in fact have lots of time together during and around the Independence Day weekend (our wedding anniversary is on the 5th), we knew we would spend some money and get the hell out of town.

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Posted in Diversions, Romance, Travel, Wedding
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