Driving back to New York… seems like I have done it a million times. Always fairly uneventful for the most part. 12 hours across ohio and western New York is never especially interesting, but it was sunny and a blue sky with a scattering of clouds. A great day for driving.
Coming back to Amsterdam is always kinda weird for me. Most of the people I went to school with aren’t around here anymore, so basically I come here to see family. The town itself hasn’t changed much… if anything, things just look older, more run down. But I guess that is just the way of things in rural New York.
Mom and Dad are about the same… Mom is deeply immersed in the field of social work as she will be soon finishing her degree and moving on to a Master’s degree. Dad, on the other hand, is flexing his creative muscle and has become quite the consummate furniture crafter, specializing in rustic Adirondack style pieces. Sara is also [creatively] working with her boyfriend Peter Winter, an artist of some recognition in the field of rustic furniture. Ryan is getting so big, talking a mile a minute about wild concepts and ideas that come to his little mind (which he claims he can turn backwards inside of his head). Matt and Trish and their little zoo are enjoying life in a new home on Market Street. I saw the ultrasound today and it looks like Trish is about 15 weeks pregnant. They are all hoping for a boy. Gram and Papa are still about the same – going to auctions, keeping the house looking as nice as ever. I am not quite sure how they keep that place looking like it always has. Kind of a strange timelessness about it in some ways. They are a little more hyper about stuff than they used to be, but I guess that comes with the territory. Lisa ate lunch with us today and she looks really happy. It was good to see her. She cracks me up because she is so “to the point” on speaking how she feels.
Last night I helped dad with the truck. He was putting a new bumper on it, so we were just out there talking while we worked. It is almost a kind of a ritual. [Whenever I come home, inevitably I find myself out in the garage having a discussion with dad about some sort of spiritual topic. It is always a time that I cherish and look forward to.] Later on, I decided to get a fire going, which, living in Winona, I have not had the opportunity to do in quite some time. I had forgotten how cool it is to just sit by the fire in the quiet darkness with a canopy of stars above and relax. Dad and I stayed out there until1:30 or so.
Took a walk down the creek [pronounced crick] today. Can’t say that I have done that for years and years. It was amazing how many things came back to me that we used to do when we were kids. The islands that we used to play on, catching crayfish, the massive slabs of stone that cover the entire bottom of one section of the creek… wow. Of course I had to catch some crayfish to prove that I still had the knack for it. I was gonna try the little guys, but I wanted the challenge of getting the big daddy. He did not like it too much, since i chased him for a while, but in the end I won and even snapped a quick pic of him.
Tomorrow we have plans to go to the rustic furniture show in Blue Mountain Lake, which is about a 2 hour drive. That is where Dad will be selling and I believe that Sara and Peter will be up there too.