8/28/2012 We Finally Met!

(Bethany Beach & Fenwick Island)

I have a friend that I’ve been emailing with, talking on the phone with, she follows my blog, I helped her set up hers and gave her lots of hints on traveling in an RV but we had never met. Her husband Tom and I were in the same National Guard unit for a short while and Bob had met him several times through the Guard.

Bob and I met up with Tom and Tracy D., Francis (Zabby) and Dee Z., Mickey and Cindy M. at the National Guard’s Bethany Beach Training Camp in the FamCamp at Tom & Tracy’s site. After three years of corresponding we finally got to meet. Hugs and handshakes all around we all settled in for a little gabfest before going out to dinner.

Smitty McGee’s was their restaurant of choice.

I knew what I was having before we even got out of the truck.

Drink orders placed it was time to start reading through the extensive menu. (Tom, Mickey and Bob)

Dee and Zabby

,,,,,and finally my friend Tracy.

I have everyone pictured here except Cindy. I took her picture but it wasn’t a flattering picture and I try very hard not publish unflattering pics of my friends. After all, I want them to stay my friends.

Well, we ate and talked and ate and talked and laughed and ate and talked some more. When we were just the last ones in the place practically we moved our little party back to Tom & Tracy’s place.

We talked until the mosquitos just got too bad to stay out anymore.

We thoroughly enjoyed our evening with these friends.

8/14/2012 Boscov’s… Again

(Wilmington, DE)

My great niece, Cassidy, spent the morning with us this morning.

Isn’t she a cutie?

She doesn’t like me. Every time I try to pick her up she cries. Every time I try to play with her she cries. Every time I look at her, yep, she cries. I understand that I’m new to her and she’s leery of me but I can’t even look at her! I caught her off guard to get this picture.

It was back to Boscov’s today with Cindy. I really should have gone yesterday with my parent’s because when they got home and I saw what they bought I wanted one!

Yep, a Dirt Devil Steam Mop. These things normally sell for around $60 and they were on sale for half price plus the discount. For $23 and change I couldn’t go wrong.

Cindy and I shopped the departments we didn’t get to yesterday and made a trip to Joann’s Fabrics too.

The afternoon and evening brought game after game of Hand and Foot with mom and a nice long talk with my dad about this and that.

I love this one on one time with my parents. I cherish every minute.

8/13/2012 Darn Those Cops in Their Unmarked Cars

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

I WANT TO GIVE FAIR WARNING THAT THERE IS SOME ADULT LANGUAGE IN THIS POST. IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED THEN PLEASE SKIP THIS POST.

I was up before the alarm went off this morning going through a mental checklist of what I had to take to Wilmington with me in addition to my overnight bag. I had to pack the truck in hopes that in doing so that I wouldn’t wake Bob. I knew that was next to impossible but I at least wanted to try.

I’m making the trip to Wilmington solo and Bob is going to stay at the beach. He decided this last night. There are several reasons for this, the first and foremost is that the fish are biting! Secondary to that is that there really isn’t much for him to do at my parent’s house. There is no remote control for him to hold because my dad has it firmly clasped in his own hand which means you watch what Dad wants to watch.

I have plans with my BFF Cindy and of course my mom and I will spend hours playing Hand and Foot and talking the hours away and getting some shopping in.

The plan was for me to drop our truck off to have some preventative maintenance done on Monday, spend time with the parents and get some visiting done and then return to the beach on Wednesday.

So I get everything I need to take north and I hit the road just minutes after 6:30 a.m..

Now let me give you some background here. Heading north, I go through three beach towns. Dewey, Rehoboth and Lewes. For people who have beach houses here, or live here year round, it would not be unheard of for people who are still employed to be on the road at this time of the morning and heading north, like to Dover which is about an hour north or to Smyrna which would add another half hour…or even further north.

I make it through Dewey and Rehoboth Beaches with no problem. Just north of Lewes, where the area is more rural, I take notice that radar is set up and saw one woman pulled over getting a ticket. I took notice that she was standing outside of her car and that she was dressed in a pretty blue dress and pumps. Yep, going to work. I keep a watchful eye on the speedometer.

Fifteen minutes later I see a fellow pulled over and take notice that he had a dress shirt on so I will assume that he too was heading to work. I watch the speedometer really close now.

At one point the cars in the right hand lane seem to be driving at a snail’s pace. A constant 51 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone. I put my left blinker on and change lanes. I take the truck up to 59 mph and hang there. I’ve always heard that four is the magic number and if clocked at going just four miles over the speed limit you won’t be stopped but if you hit that magic number five over, you’ll get nailed for sure. There’s no one behind me so I stay put. In the meantime, the first vehicle in the line of slow cars in the right hand lane catches up to me and stays about one half car length behind me in the right lane.

When I was being taught to drive it was stressed that you should look frequently at your mirrors which I have always made a habit of doing. Everything was going fine and when I checked my rearview mirror I was extremely surprised to see a car that is so close to my back bumper that I seriously doubt that a piece of paper could have been slipped between mine and his. Close enough that I couldn’t see his lights. That close! Where did he and two cars behind him come from? They had to be driving like bats outta hell to catch up to me and they came quickly because not too much time had passed since the last time I looked at my mirrors.

I put my blinker on to change lanes back to the right lane and the maroon SUV was still a half car length behind me. I couldn’t see his two front headlights in my mirror which would insure a safe lane change. I kept looking in my side view mirror in hopes that he would either speed up or drop back so that I could move over. I pressed the accelerator a bit more taking me up to 62 and the SUV was still too close for me to change lanes. I was ever conscious in knowing that radar cars were set up in various locations. Was it National Radar Day or what?

Finally, the SUV takes notice of my blinker and drops back. I was finally able to see his headlights in the side view mirror so I changed lanes.

I could not believe that car followed me so closely because he certainly couldn’t see around me or over me because the truck is so big. I was so mad that he put us in that unsafe position. How mad was I??? Mad enough to quickly roll down my window and flip him off as he passed by me. To give him the Hawaiian peace sign. To let him know with that ever popular hand gesture that he was # 1! As he got even with my truck I also yelled…Asshole! Yeah, I told him!

With that he got in front of my truck and went all the way to the shoulder. After I passed him he got back in the lane behind me and turned those damn lights on! Oh no! An unmarked police car!

I’m going to tell you our conversation verbatim. The police officer’s part will be in red print. Mine in black and my thoughts in blue. Capital letters will indicate YELLING and you will see lots of CAPS!

I pulled over and was determined to give him a piece of my mind. He came up to the truck and yelled at me. Yes, you read that right, he YELLED at me so I YELLED right back. Our conversation went like this.

Him: I’M DETECTIVE _______ I SAW THAT YOU FLIPPED ME OFF AND I ALSO KNOW WHAT YOU CALLED ME!

Me: WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON MY BUTT LIKE THAT? (Is he trying to intimidate me by yelling? If so, this dog is barking up the wrong tree!)

Him: DON’T YOU YELL AT ME!

Me: WHY WERE YOU TAILGAITING ME LIKE THAT?

Him: WHY DID’T YOU CHANGE LANES?

Me: I COULDN’T CHANGE LANES, DIDN’T YOU SEE THAT MAROON SUV IN THE OTHER LANE?

Him: I TOLD YOU DON’T YELL AT ME! WHY DIDN’T YOU CHANGE LANES?

Me: I COULDN’T GET OVER! WHY WERE YOU ON MY ASS LIKE THAT?

Him: DON’T YOU YELL AT ME! (Pal, you are lucky I don’t just smack you at this point!)

Him: THIS IS GOING TO COST YOU $500.00 IN FINES! (Hmmm,,,not buying that, you said you were a detective when you gave me your name, detectives don’t carry traffic ticket books. Nice try chump but your lame attempt to scare me isn’t going to work)

Me: FOR WHAT? (He was trying his darnedest to intimidate me and I wasn’t falling for that!)

Him: FOR CALLING ME THAT NAME AND FLIPPING ME OFF!

Me: I HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND I CAN CALL YOU ANYTHING I LIKE AND YOU DRIVE LIKE SUCH A JERK YOU DESERVE THE FINGER! (I think it made him mad that I was standing my ground)

(He stopped yelling at this point)

Him: Let me see your driver’s license and registration.

I handed him my driver’s license and he says, You live in Texas? I told him no, that I didn’t live in Texas. He asked how I can have a Texas driver’s license if I didn’t live there. I had to explain full time RV’ing to him but it took him a few minutes to grasp the concept that we live wherever we happen to be parked.

Of course the first insurance card I handed him was expired. (Note to Bob: please clean that envelope out)

By this time we have both calmed down a bit.

Him: I’m not going to give you a ticket,but you can’t call people asshole’s anymore or flip anybody off. Look, if you do that again somebody may just shoot you. It’s road rage. Besides, you are just a few years older than me and isn’t the behavior of a teenager?” I knew there wasn’t going to be a ticket as soon as he said Detective. Yes, perhaps it was the behavior of a teenager, however, I have no control over my middle finger. It just seems to jump up all by itself and asking me not to call stupid driver’s assholes, well the chance of that happening is as good as me actually weighing what my driver’s license says I do.

Me: “But do you understand why I couldn’t change lanes? Radar is out, the SUV wasn’t moving and I was pretty much stuck there. That I wouldn’t take the chance of a speeding ticket by radar?

He agreed that he saw the SUV and understands where I’m coming from.

We were finally talking civilly to each other and I offered my hand to shake his and he accepted it. He told me to be safe and I him to quit tailgating. He laughed.

Whew.

I made it the rest of way without incident and Cindy met me at the service center and I dropped the truck off. We’re getting an oil change, having the brakes checked and having the transmission serviced. In a few hours we’ll be several hundred dollars poorer.

From there we went to Boscov’s. I saw the sales ad and thought it would be good to check it out. It was very good! I got a hundred dollar ($99.00) bathing suit for 75% off and then took 15% more off that because Boscov’s gives military discount. I ended up paying twenty two and small change for it. I also got a $42 summer top for 50% off and then the 15% off that again. I ended getting that for about $18.

Once at my parent’s they asked me if I wanted to go to Boscov’s, of all places, with them. I explained I had already gone. So off they went and I made some phone calls and read some.

Dad made shrimp for dinner. He makes the best shrimp! I stood next to him to watch how much of everything he puts in and I think I can do it. He always cooks celery and onion first in the water with beer, vinegar, kosher salt, pepper and Old Bay seasoning. When they are done they are spooned out and we eat that while the shrimp are cooking. Hmmm, Hmmm, good!

Mom and I spent the evening playing cards of course.

What a day this has been!

6/5/2012 ……and My Heart Melted

Talia. I haven’t seen Talia since she was four months old. She’s a big girl now and also a big sister. She turned two this past March and is just as cute as can be.

My mom babysits for Talia every other Tuesday and then has her baby sister, Cassidy, on the other weeks.

When my nephew, Dusty, brings Talia over in the morning the day starts with a game of Hide and Seek. Mom sees them drive up and she hides somewhere in the house and Talia looks for her and a big fuss is made when she finds her. Well, it seems that Mom has hidden in the same place for several weeks now, in the kitchen on the far side of the stand alone refrigerator. Dusty even told her that she’s going to have to find a new place because Talia automatically runs to the kitchen now.

Today we changed that up a little. Mom stood on the back porch with door cracked so she could see in and I stood on the far side of the fridge. We heard the front door open and Dusty saying to Talia, “Go find Nana!” We listened as those little feet ran across the living room, through the dining room and hit the linoleum of the kitchen. She ran past the fridge, arms outstretched for the hug she was sure she was getting and STOPPED SHORT when she saw me instead. The look on her face was priceless! It took less than a second for it to register that she was looking at a stranger. She looked up at me and said, “Wrong Nana.” We three adults just lost it. She ran back to Dusty and hugged his leg.

The formal introductions then took place but she seemed a little leery of me. It took her a little while before she would stand near me and of course getting her say Snookie was a feat in itself. As best I could tell I am now officially Aunt Noot-knee.

After about a half hour of talking with my nephew he was ready to leave. I was standing in the kitchen ready to give him a hug when Talia came over and knelt on the floor in front of me. I didn’t pay any attention until she put her hands on both sides of my leg. I looked down to see what she was doing and darn if she didn’t kiss my leg where I had a skinned up knee from where I took a tumble a week before. My heart melted. This little girl kissed my boo-boo! At that moment I just fell in love with little brown eyed toddler.

She took an immediate liking to Uncle Bob and pulled out a book and just climbed up into his lap to have a story read to her while he sat on the front porch.

Uncle Bob read book after book. Not whole books mind you, he’d get through a few pages and she’d lose interest.

She started getting antsy so we took her to the playground across the street. It didn’t take long to figure out that she isn’t afraid of anything.

Our little Talia is so fearless that she has already gone off the diving board at her grandparent’s pool.

Our friend Cindy joined us for awhile and before we knew it our niece Brittany was there to pick Talia up to take her home.

I got to meet my new great niece, Cassidy, who is now six months old. I took pictures of her but don’t have a clue what happened to them. I have a feeling I deleted them by mistake. I’m sure I’ll see her again before summer is over.

Cindy and I went shopping for a little while but it was no shopping spree like last time.

Mom and I spent the rest of the day playing cards, cooking dinner and playing more cards. I think I created a monster in teaching her that game. No matter what we’re doing I am so thankful for this time with her and my dad.

5/13/2012 Happy Mother’s Day

Up early again, the cards already dealt, we were able to play two games before mom left for church.

We didn’t do much today, sat on the porch and watched the world go by as we talked about days gone by and the summer we’re just beginning.

Cindy joined us when we out to our favorite Italian restaurant for a Mother’s Day dinner. We all ate too much and got home just in time for us to sit down and watch the Survivor finale.

After that was over? Cindy headed home and mom and I headed for the kitchen table where the cards were waiting. Once again, we played until the wee hours of the morning.