Home from the holidays
Dec. 28th, 2014 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntiemeeshAh, there's nothing quite like walking in your own front door after a trip. This particular trip ended up being a bit longer than I planned but luckily ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lyda_pearl was able to refill the cats' food bowls yesterday evening, so no harm done to anything other than Mal's continuously expanding waistline.
Let's start with the good, of which there was plenty:
*Seeing Little Bro for the first time in maybe ten years or so. He works nights and holidays and rarely makes it to the family gatherings on the same day as me.
*Traditional Christmas Eve red reindeers (cranberry juice with gingerale, over a scoop of ice cream).
*Wine and madlibs withani_no_mouse and wbkbb late on Christmas Eve, back in our hotel room.
*Jumping on the bed in the hotel room Christmas morning (this is something of a tradition with ANM and LP when staying in hotels).
wbkbb:
anm:
me:
*Seeing a good chunk of the family on Christmas, including a rare sighting of Nephew the Elder (not pictured).
*Seeing my brother M, his wife and Nephew the Younger on Boxing Day.
*Reading Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett, in down moments. I finished it this afternoon and wish I had another Disc World book lined up.
The Bad:
*I barely slept Wednesday and Thursday nights and by Friday I was a wreck, which was unfortunate because...
*I got volunteered to keep Mom company on the drive from Hershey to Wilkes-Barre to take Little Bro home, before driving to Reading to see M, A, and Nephew the Younger. I was happy to spend time with Mom, but kinda hate being in the car, and a leeeetle bit resented having time taken away from seeing M, A, and Nephew the Younger, which leads to...
*Nephew the Younger had some sort of unhappy stomach bug while we were there, and on into the night. Poor little fellow was a total trooper and tried to carry on with a smile, in between puking his guts up.
*Dad was in the hospital for the better part of a week right before Christmas, with pneumonia and the flu, and went right back in again on the 26th. Luckily the illness hadn't got worse, but he was feeling terrible, and he'd broken some ribs from coughing so hard.
*Getting ready for bed last night (we were crashing at my Mom's after being forced to stay in Hershey a day longer than planned) we pulled out the sofa bed only to discover it was now home to a terrified little mouse. After staring at it a while, ANM and I decided to sleep on Mom's recliner and rocker, respectively.
*Mom's recliner and rocker are neither of them suitable for sleeping on. I ended up on the sofa (in sofa form) and ANM on the floor. Another night of very poor sleep for both of us.
And the Ugly:
*Getting ready to drive home yesterday, we stopped at Dad's place to pick up a change of clothes for him so he'd have something to wear when getting sent home later in the day. Then, on the way to the hospital to drop his clothes off, ANM's car broke down, leaving us standed on the side of the road. Luckily, this is the era of cell phones, and we were still in Hershey. So we were able to get a tow truck and our mom out to our location within an hour, and in that time several people stopped to offer help, including a kindly police officer who pulled over behind ANM's car in order to protect it from being driven into by any passing Car Dicks. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good for the car, which has a broken timing belt.
ANM is still in Hershey, awaiting news of her car, but I was able to get a ride to the train station in Harrisburg and so am home, sweet home! I love seeing my family, but now I'm ready for a few days of quiet and peace in my own little apartment. I don't go back to work until the 5th, so I get a whole week to rest and recover. Yay!
There is new Doctor Who waiting for me on my computer! And I'm looking forward to watching it, just as soon as I get a decent night's sleep.
lyda_pearl was able to refill the cats' food bowls yesterday evening, so no harm done to anything other than Mal's continuously expanding waistline.Let's start with the good, of which there was plenty:
*Seeing Little Bro for the first time in maybe ten years or so. He works nights and holidays and rarely makes it to the family gatherings on the same day as me.
*Traditional Christmas Eve red reindeers (cranberry juice with gingerale, over a scoop of ice cream).
*Wine and madlibs with
ani_no_mouse and wbkbb late on Christmas Eve, back in our hotel room.*Jumping on the bed in the hotel room Christmas morning (this is something of a tradition with ANM and LP when staying in hotels).
wbkbb:
anm:
me:
*Seeing a good chunk of the family on Christmas, including a rare sighting of Nephew the Elder (not pictured).
*Seeing my brother M, his wife and Nephew the Younger on Boxing Day.
*Reading Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett, in down moments. I finished it this afternoon and wish I had another Disc World book lined up.
The Bad:
*I barely slept Wednesday and Thursday nights and by Friday I was a wreck, which was unfortunate because...
*I got volunteered to keep Mom company on the drive from Hershey to Wilkes-Barre to take Little Bro home, before driving to Reading to see M, A, and Nephew the Younger. I was happy to spend time with Mom, but kinda hate being in the car, and a leeeetle bit resented having time taken away from seeing M, A, and Nephew the Younger, which leads to...
*Nephew the Younger had some sort of unhappy stomach bug while we were there, and on into the night. Poor little fellow was a total trooper and tried to carry on with a smile, in between puking his guts up.
*Dad was in the hospital for the better part of a week right before Christmas, with pneumonia and the flu, and went right back in again on the 26th. Luckily the illness hadn't got worse, but he was feeling terrible, and he'd broken some ribs from coughing so hard.
*Getting ready for bed last night (we were crashing at my Mom's after being forced to stay in Hershey a day longer than planned) we pulled out the sofa bed only to discover it was now home to a terrified little mouse. After staring at it a while, ANM and I decided to sleep on Mom's recliner and rocker, respectively.
*Mom's recliner and rocker are neither of them suitable for sleeping on. I ended up on the sofa (in sofa form) and ANM on the floor. Another night of very poor sleep for both of us.
And the Ugly:
*Getting ready to drive home yesterday, we stopped at Dad's place to pick up a change of clothes for him so he'd have something to wear when getting sent home later in the day. Then, on the way to the hospital to drop his clothes off, ANM's car broke down, leaving us standed on the side of the road. Luckily, this is the era of cell phones, and we were still in Hershey. So we were able to get a tow truck and our mom out to our location within an hour, and in that time several people stopped to offer help, including a kindly police officer who pulled over behind ANM's car in order to protect it from being driven into by any passing Car Dicks. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good for the car, which has a broken timing belt.
ANM is still in Hershey, awaiting news of her car, but I was able to get a ride to the train station in Harrisburg and so am home, sweet home! I love seeing my family, but now I'm ready for a few days of quiet and peace in my own little apartment. I don't go back to work until the 5th, so I get a whole week to rest and recover. Yay!
There is new Doctor Who waiting for me on my computer! And I'm looking forward to watching it, just as soon as I get a decent night's sleep.
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no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 03:46 pm (UTC)cranberry juice with gingerale, over a scoop of ice cream
Those sound wonderful! Glad you're safely home.
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Date: 2014-12-29 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-30 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 04:11 am (UTC)This was about the fourth time ANM and I have broken down on a trip and we've managed to get good laughs out of most of them, at some point.
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Date: 2015-01-06 08:49 pm (UTC)Now that the car is repaired the ABS light no longer stays on after the first seconds of starting the car. If I ever see that again, I am driving immediately to a garage, no matter what the owner's manual says!