The First Recorded IT Professional

Father-Son Time

My father and grandfather are both in town for a visit! This is their first trip to Oregon and we have had a slow paced visit. As I have gotten older, visits with my father (whether at his house or mine) have consisted of several trips to the toy stores. No, not "Toys R Us", the "grown-up toy stores" like Home Depot or Best Buy.

On our way home from picking them up at the airport, one of the first questions out of my dad's mouth was, "Do you guys have a Home Depot where you live? Or Lowe's? Or Best Buy? Or anything like them?" Clearly, already trying to plan our visit.

Along with providing hours of Father-Son bonding time, these places have also been a point of reference when giving directions...."go up the road until you see Home Depot then take a right....etc..." This long running joke comes from a couple of projects he helped me with at our house in Florida. The most memorable was building an office in our garage. This required sectioning off the garage into office space with, what ended up being, a "Hurricane" proof wall. This wall was just supposed to divide the garage in half, but due to a mathematical error, ended up being glued and screwed to the walls with studs every 14", with R30 insulation and blue board on the outside. I'm convinced, a Category 5 hurricane will come through and tear down the entire house, and that wall be the only thing in the area left standng. :)

Our first trip to the toy store (this visit) was just a short one to look at some difference ideas for projects around our house. No major purchases, only a moose that sings "Fly Me To The Moon" and light-up reindeer antlers for each of the kids, courtesy of Papa, of course. We did discuss possible projects and had a good time catching up! I have come to enjoy and look forward to these trips, as I learn a little more each time and enjoy the time to reconnect with my dad.

The Bike Ride

My dad decided he needed to run to the store to get some more "cancer sticks" but we were without a car at the time. So Jay suggested that he and Papa should take a quick ride down to the store on bikes. I fully expected my dad to pass on this idea but he decided to take Jay up on his suggestion. (Mistake #1). So off they went to the closest store which happens to be Walgreens, about a 1.5 mile bike ride. On the way back, Jay says "Hey Papa, I know a shortcut" to which my Dad trustingly says "Lead on, I will follow you." (Mistake #2)

So instead of coming back 198th, Jay decided to take him back up 209th to our house. This resulted in their return trip being being more like 2.2 miles with steeper hills. When they got back here, my dad reported that his legs felt like jelly, which does not surprise me as he was riding my bike, which needs a little work to say the least.

According to Jay, the trip was a success and he has since been on cloud nine! My dad (who is no Spring chicken) is still feeling it...especially on the stairs. Jay has offered to take several longer bike rides with my dad down to Tek (about 5 miles) and has even offered to race my dad, Jay on the bike and Dad in the car.

Despite Jay's enthusiasm, I don't think my dad will get on the bike again this trip :)

Still here

I know many have been worried that I have dropped of the face of the planet! I'm happy to report that I'm still here ...just need to make time to post :) I'm going for two post this month!