PORCH PONDERINGS

Back Home Again

I am finally home after an adventure. It's always good to be back in your own bed again. I went to California to see my grandson graduate the Marine Corps basic training. It was in San Diego.

So what do you do if you are in San Francisco and the event is in San Diego? A plane flight would have made more sense, but no, we drove. My daughter, four sub-adult children, and myself. In a mini-van for 10 hours. Driving. Oh my goodness. I thought I was in a nightclub with the band right next to me. Music on loud, stopping every so often for food and gas, and then arguing about where to go and how to check into the on-base housing we reserved for two nights.

Yep - quite an adventure. The housing was intended for four, we squeezed in six. The heat didn't work, they hadn't turned it on yet. So it was 58° in these rooms.

But I traveled for two days by train to see my grandson, so I put up with a lot of nonsense for that privelege.

The graduation ceremony was all the pomp and circumstance I love, the marching, the music, the speechs. Just wonderful. And to see my grandson in his uniform, well, that was amazing.

After two days on base, we then headed back North. Now there are 7 people in the mini-van. Again, the music. My ears are still ringing.

But somehow we made it back to San Francisco. Now in my daughter's house there also lives a 100# Akita-Pit Bull mix dog. Seems this dog didn't take kindly to a stranger in its territory. After trying to bite me, I was relegated to a room he couldn't find a way to enter. I slept that night again in a cold room. Her heat isn't working. I worried about leaving the room for the bathroom.

What would you do? They state the dog isn't bad, he's never bitten anyone. I didn't want to take a chance. So the next day I asked to be taken to the train station early. 12 hours early. I'd rather wait in a train station for a day then be in a house with an uncontrollable dog.

Those twelve hours were amusing. I love to people watch. But twelve hours drug on to thirteen as the train was delayed.

Once on the train, I was given the cold shoulder by my seat mate, with no other seats available. Let's just say we had a difference of opinion on the Covid19 vaccinations. She/he called me an f'in bitch and told me I was endangering the world by my actions. Okay. That made for a long night, that person sitting beside me, covered in a fitted flannel sheet like a cocoon. No words were exchanged, no sharing stories.

Let me again say I am glad to be home. Glad to see my husband at the end of the line. Glad to be back in a place where people are not so worried about life.

I'm sure I'll tell more about my trip, but now I am simply exhausted. I need to catch up on the life I have here.