This month began with a trip to Florida to visit my daughter Mary, her husband Pat, and my grand-
daughter Holly, who just completed her freshman year of college. During the week, some note-worthy events took place. Mary and Pat accepted an offer on their house, which had been up for sale for a few months. Off-setting this good news were two distressing events which made the front page of The Gainesville Sun.
Mary had recently acquired a fresh set of chalk pastels and art pens in preparation for another of our famous bouts of arts-and-crafting.* The convergence of events and art supplies led me to draw a set of "F is for Florida" postcards to commemorate my trip.
On Friday, we planned to go deep-sea fishing, but as Pat readied the boat and trailer, he discovered a series of repairs that were difficult to make at the last minute. Our various reactions presaged events to come.
Failure to Launch
Saturday, we awoke to news about a crazed Floridian who attacked another man and chewed his face off.
Man Bites Man
Monday brought a visit from the family who had just purchased the house. They stopped by to examine some furniture that Mary and Pat were selling along with the house. This family was from South Africa and had charming accents, but they were so tall and thin that, compared to us, they may as well have been from another planet.
*See http://myturntodayyourstomorrow-cheryl.blogspot.com/2010/01/chicken-project-part-iii-nametags_16.html for another example.
daughter Holly, who just completed her freshman year of college. During the week, some note-worthy events took place. Mary and Pat accepted an offer on their house, which had been up for sale for a few months. Off-setting this good news were two distressing events which made the front page of The Gainesville Sun.
Mary had recently acquired a fresh set of chalk pastels and art pens in preparation for another of our famous bouts of arts-and-crafting.* The convergence of events and art supplies led me to draw a set of "F is for Florida" postcards to commemorate my trip.
On Friday, we planned to go deep-sea fishing, but as Pat readied the boat and trailer, he discovered a series of repairs that were difficult to make at the last minute. Our various reactions presaged events to come.
Failure to Launch
Saturday, we awoke to news about a crazed Floridian who attacked another man and chewed his face off.
Man Bites Man
Finally, on Tuesday, we opened The Gainesville Sun to a bizarre report of an apparent suicide attempt, wherein a man filled his bathtub with 10 gallons of gasoline, got in, and lit a candle. The resulting fireball blew out the wall of the apartment house. The man remains in critical condition in the burn unit.
Fwoop!
At this point, I began to think it best to leave Florida before more oddities and catastrophes occurred. The trip home was uneventful, except for the presence on the airplane of an unidentified person who, we were informed by the flight attendant, had such a severe peanut allergy that no food items were served during the 4-hour flight and no passengers were allowed to consume food they had brought on board. Result: a full plane-load of hungry, cranky travelers. Delightful.
All in all, my visit was fun and relaxing, but perhaps next time, Mary and family will consider coming to my state, where life is (usually) a little less "interesting."
*See http://myturntodayyourstomorrow-cheryl.blogspot.com/2010/01/chicken-project-part-iii-nametags_16.html for another example.
No comments:
Post a Comment