The Tao Of Paul

The Trip:
The trip to Arizona was a true learning experience. First, the airport is crowded on Saturday morning, 6 am. We had to sprint to the very last gate to catch our flight. Second, Continental counter personnel do not give a rat’s ass if you are late or not. They would rather stand back there bitching about a coworker than acknowledge your existence. The flights to Phoenix were uneventful, baggage claim and car rental were fine. The next lesson was in street numbering. the numbered street area in the southern end had lots of razor wire on top of the business fences, the numbered avenues where our hotel was did not have razor wire at all. A shitload of yard sales though. They also have an incredible number of churches, more than the diocese has on the East Side. We probably would have gotten to the hotel sooner if we had listened to our son in the back seat. but instead we tried to find it on the fly, fraying nerves in the process.
The School is amazing. A few mil in BMW, Audi, god knows what else. Even more in test equipment. The car manufacturers provide updated cars/equipment every 8 months or so.
Son and his friend went out found an apartment, and got lines on jobs as well. He amazes me.
Then back to Buffalo. After a delay in Phoenix due to a punctured main tire, and crappy weather in Chicago, which also delayed the Buffalo flight, we got home 2:30am Wednesday morning.
What I learned from my kids:
When I was 18, I joined the Air Force. Summer of 72, Vietnam still going on, but starting to wind down. It may have seemed like I was making a big step into the unknown world, but it is a tad deceptive. I was going into a situation where someone else besides my parents was going to feed, clothe, and provide me shelter. No chance, other than being busted out of the service, of me having to truly fend for myself or end up living on the streets.
My son is doing something that is giving me mild anxiety attacks. Moving away from any type of close support. Taking out loans. Just stepping out into the outside without any kind of safety net. He has always managed to survive, make enough to pay the bills. I used to call him “Anything for a Dollar Dan”. And he does this seemingly without any reservation. Makes me pretty proud. I don’t know if I could have done that at that stage in my life.
My daughter and her spouse watched the house, dog, and cats while we were away. I still think of her as my little girl. Dads are like that. We found out that she can act rational in somewhat stressful situations. Our dog is a Pomeranian. Dub in Law is 6′8, 325,335 or so. Dog was underfoot, Dub in law did not notice, and sort of stepped on my 14 year old, partially blind, pretty much deaf, arthritic dog. No problem. Calls us to say James squished the dog, but the vet says it looks like all it did was aggravate the arthritis.
We also learned that she has become a pretty good cook. we came home to two pans of lasagna, one veggie for the wife, one dead animal flesh laced for me.
Life is good.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 7:50 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.