bunrab | travel and travel

Travel, part 1. Last weekend, we drove to Shepherdstown, WV, which is about 75 miles from here. We went to the Harvest Festival/Open House at PIGS, a potbellied pig rescue/sanctuary that I've supported for years. Now that we're 75 miles from them, instead of 1500, we can do that! We got to pet about 75 pigs, and lots of other critters that seem to be taking advantage of those good folks. Some foliage along the way, but not that much. It may be peak peek week in New England, but it comes a little later here; our peak foliage will probably be right at the end of this month. On the way home, we passed a roadside stand, or rather, we stopped at a roadside stand. They were making popcorn in huge kettles - the kind you see in cartoons of cannibals roasting missionaries - right there. We bought a large, LARGE jug of cherry cider, a couple jars of preserves, some roasted unsalted pumpkin seeds (finding unsalted munchies is always a challenge) and, bad for us but there we were, a bag of freshly made caramel corn. Well, we finished nearly the whole bag before we arrived home. Bad BunRab!! Yummy.

Travel, part 2. My dad had a heart attack last week, and they did surgery today - turned out to be a QUINTUPLE bypass. I am flying up there (hospital in Portland, ME) Saturday. My dad will be in the hospital at least a week, and their home is 100 miles away and my stepmom has been driving back and forth! My youngest brother Gene is up there right now, keeping dad and my stepmom company, but he has to fly home again, because he has a wife and stepson (he's the one who got married in July, just a few days after we got to the northeast), and he also travels a lot in his career, and has to fly somewhere else on Monday. And my youngest sister is 8 months pregnant and already has 4 kids - she can NOT drop everything to go up there. So, my turn. I get to fly, whee, hand patdown for security because of the pacemaker. Turns out to be waaaaay cheaper to take Southwest into Manchester NH, rent a car for several days, and drive the 95 miles to Portland, than to try to fly directly into Portland. Anyway, I'm going to try to get a hotel room with internet access, but no guarantees. I will be bringing a whole stack of science fiction magazines for my dad to read, and a bunch of yarn and wood/plastic crochet hooks and knitting needles, and the computer. Since I'll be renting a car, I'll even be able to find a craft shop if I run out of yarn! Anyway, if I don't get a room with internet access, I'll be offline for a few days. I'm hoping to return on Wednesday, in time to go to band rehearsal. (I'll miss Monday night, but I'm not the only tenor sax there; Wednesday night I am the only bari sax plus the tenors need help desperately so I'm playing some tenor cues as well. I have discovered I can't actually switch between the two horns in the same hour - there are too many individual quirks to each instrument, and I can't make the adjustments mentally fast enough.)

As y'all know, I'm a rabid atheist, so clearly I'm not asking anyone to pray for my dad, but I won't stop you if you try to anyway, and he's a Catholic, so he won't mind. If you want to do something more practical, use this as a wake-up call to get your cholesterol and blood pressure checked, get some exercise, and donate money to medical research funds; that would be the atheist equivalent of prayer.

Damn, wish the weather forecast didn't include rain and wish I already had put 1000 miles on the new bike so that I was used to it, so I could use this as an excuse for a major road trip. Riding the bike through New England during foliage season? Yes!!! But 515 miles right now would be a bit much, especially alone. (S's bike isn't running yet, plus SOMEONE has to stay home to feed the critters!)

Wish I knew where my recorders and music were in all these boxes. Sally wants me to learn more jig tunes to play on the recorder accompanying her on the fiddle - the recorders being a pretty good stand-in for penny whistles. And I own O'Niell's - somewhere in the 200+ as yet not unpacked boxes. I could bring them along and practice... maybe I will spend tomorrow doing some serious digging into boxes, along with getting a flu shot.