Relaxing

I slept in yesterday morning, if sleeping in is allowed, and got up shortly after 6:15am to join Carol for coffee. She left shortly thereafter to drive to Columbus to pick up Ulli, my nephew (my sister's son) who's a freshman at Ohio State U. Cousin Matt would arrive later. Ulli, Matt and my son Eric are all about the same ages, 20-21. They have spent many a boyhood adventure together with my father as the host of weekend get-aways across the Midwest.

I just wanted to lay on the couch and listen to the dog breathe. I didn't want to get into the van, I didn't want to go anywhere, and I didn't want to struggle with this Midwestern humidity. I was fine letting time pass me by for a change, as I downloaded trip photographs (all 864 of them), cropped and edited the better ones, and selected a few of those for my blog here.

Erin came by shortly after noon and I got to see my grandchild, Ethan Alexander. I am glad that Erin decided not to give her son the father's last name because as a single mom it will be less stigmatizing for her if both mother and child have the same last name. Little Ethan is such a small boy for being a month old, and he sat quietly in his carrier most of the time. I fed him his 1pm meal before I treated us all to a Chicago-style meal at Beggar's Pizza in Crown Point, purposely ordering a large pie to feed the other guests arriving later.

I love Chicago-style deep dish cheesy pizza more than that cardboard stuff made back East in New York. Chicago-style has flavor, cheese and umpf!

It's odd seeing my daughter now as a mom herself, with her own fears of never losing her "baby fat" (she did gain more during childbirth than I did with her; I weighed 167 pounds the day Erin was born, she weighed 205 pounds). Power walking is the best long-term method to lose the weight. I hope she doesn't lose patience with herself if it takes her most of the year to pounce back into her size 5 jeans.

But what if, like her father's mom, she never loses the extra weight? I hope she doesn't obsess over her new body.

"You should see Eric's hair now" warned Erin, "He hasn't had it cut in ages and never washes it," which I took for the truth as Erin seldom exaggerates Eric's attire.

I gassed up her car when Eric called me, and after departing with Erin drove off to Chesterton, 15 miles away, to pick Eric from his employment.

Erin was correct: Eric's hair HAD gotten long and he reminded me of Ozzy Ozborne with the tall frame, long dark hair and shaded glasses.

"Don't call me Ozzy" he scoffed, "I speak coherently!"

By the time Eric and I arrived back at CP, Carol and Ulli were already back from Columbus. Matt arrived later and together those three boys were up until 2am playing video games in the computer room while I settled down to read "The Indifferent Stars Above" by Daniel James Brown, a true event of the Donner Party that started in, ironically, northern Indiana and Illinois with one of the brides, Sarrah Graves.

The boys would have played their games all night if an electrical power dump hadn't turned off the electricity at 2am.

Today was more of the same, with late morning dragging on over coffee and left-over pizza, a quick walk to downtown Crown Point with Sadie (a four-mile walk r/t through the scenic Sunnyside Historic District) and a stop at the Feed Store and grocery store for holiday beer.

Sadie has been a big hit with everyone, and she now is allowed inside. The bigger culprit is Carol's rat terrier, Peanuts, whom I've dubbed "Penis" because she can be a real dick at times. Twice now Peanuts has attacked Sadie for being in her turf. Sadie stays close to me wherever I am in the house. Even Carol admits that Peanuts was never socialized to other dogs.

Unfortunately, I think Sadie's picked up either fleas or ticks since arriving in the Midwest. For the first time that I can remember, the poor dog has been itching and scratching herself around her head and joints. A dose of Advantage around her neck last night didn't seem to do the trick.