Homeward Bound!
While we have adored our stay in Alabama these past two weeks…. all of the rain, tropical storms, hurricanes and everything…. we are getting packed up and ready to skeeeedatttle our butts back home!
We have learned a few things while we were here…
1.) Catching two 14-inch bass is a hell of a lot more fun than cleaning them and eating them! - 2 of ‘em really don’t provide much of a meal once you take the head and tale off and fillet those suckers!
2.) Don’t walk around the muddy banks of Alabama without shoes on!! What are those bugs called…jiggers? I have tiny little red bit marks all over my feet - - looks like my feet have chicken pox!
3.) Prepare for rain. It rains every single day around 3pm (this is aside from the tropical storms and hurricanes). The afternoon thunderstorms are actually very pleasant…soft, warm….like a cleansing of the air and the stress of the high temperatures every day.
4.) In the woods - - there are more stray animals than you can possibly plan to take home with you, if you are a stray animal adopter like I am! We’re going home with one kitten… but could easily have gone home with 3 dogs, 4 kittens and 2 full grown cats!
5.) Spiders abound! If you have arachnophobia - -stay out of the woods in Alabama! I mean, we have spiders in Wisconsin…but NOTHING like the HUGE crawly things that they have down here. Ugh!!
6.) Bring stuff to do on rainy days! Two teenagers in the house on a lake during tropical storms and hurricanes doesn’t mix well unless you have things for them to do. And it’s not easy entertaining teenagers! My daughter was easy… she loves to bake - - so I had her baking things all day long. My son was harder… thankfully, we packed the XBox just in case of a bored teenager emergency! Whatever happened to coloring books and crossword puzzles???
7.) 2 weeks in the middle of Nowhere, Alabama, where the nearest grocery is 1/2 hour away - - you can lose up to 10lbs without fast food, convenience food and LOTS of lake activity…water skiing, swimming, jet skiing, etc. It’s pretty cool!
8.) Chitlin’s are just wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
9.) The men down here in the south are unusually pleasant. They say things like.. “Excuse me Ma’am”.. then step to the side to let you by… then “How are you today?” Me, being a city girl not used to nice people…look at them like they are crazy outta their minds…I’m immediately suspect and have to bite my tongue from replying with, “What the hell are YOU lookin’ at, ya creep!”
10.) Finally, and this has nothing to do with the south.. but I really need to learn to RELAX on vacation! Although, this was considered to be a working vacation… I worked a lot. More than I should have, I think. There are some things that HAVE to be dealt with…but many, many other things that can just wait. In September, we have a cruise planned. We’re flying to Florida on 9/1 - hopping on a cruise ship until 9/11 and visiting all places tropical, sexy and exotic. I will NOT be bringing a computer with me. It stays home. I will NOT be tempted by the on-board Internet cafe. I will leave the 24/7 monitoring of the servers and technical support in the very capable hands of some of our very capable techs and assistants. I will check in, by phone, every once in awhile to see how things are going. I will NOT obsess… I will RELAX and I will have a damned vacation. Umm…at least, that’s my plan, Stan.
We’re headed out tomorrow. Should be back home Sunday evening… and I won’t be re-connected via computer until at LEAST mid-morning on Monday. We’ve had a really nice family vacation… aside from the bugs and teen aged boredom. When we get back home, I’ll weed through my pictures and post some fun stuff.