I clearly need to blog more…

…but in my defense:
A) I am on vacation
B) I haven’t really done all that much writing as I had hoped this week, anyways, so why should this place be any different? :O

It’s hard to believe that it’s Friday already – I’ve been here for five days already and in only about three and a half more, it’ll be time to pack things up and head on back down to the balmy, no-rain-in-sight environment that is Tampa, Florida! It’s been a really good week, in fact – very relaxing – and although I didn’t get done half of the things that I’d brought with me to work on, I really don’t feel all that bad about just taking some time off to reassess and whatnot. I’ve done a little writing while I was here (emphasis on a little), but I’ll sort things out when I get back and everything will be just ducky.

So just what did I do over the past week??? A modest summary, at best…

Family Time
That’s really what this trip was all about, anyways – getting to spend a it of time with the family that I pretty much only get to see once a year. I spent a good deal of time chatting with Lori that didn’t require a cell phone, met her soon-to-be husband and officially gave my seal of approval, and even got to see their house that they’re trying to purchase right now … a somewhat scary endeavor, as I both tried and failed down that avenue last year! I spent Tuesday afternoon up visiting my Grandparents with my Dad, which was nice both on the generational level and simply because they’re pretty cool people whom I wish I got to see a little more often, but hopefully with any luck things will work out here in the near future and maybe something like that will actually happen. Of course, the bulk of my time was spent just sitting around Mom’s house and I know that she appreciated having her son around for a change. Note to self: I really need to work on getting her down to Florida for a vacation this fall…

Maintenance
Of course, one thing about being the son that returns home only once a year is that despite having a million things that I wanted to do over the course of the week, I also wanted to do anything and everything I could to help fix some things up around Mom’s house that I’d normally do on a regular basis … if I didn’t live some 1500-miles away, that is! And I’m not going to gush here with the details, as I actually wrote an entire article about it in my Travelogue for this trip (also, the phrase gush applies more than I’d like to admit when plumbing was concerned!), but let’s just say that after seven arduous hours of having the water to the entire house shut off, Mom’s finally got the new faucets that were long overdue. I was told late last night that a little work on the tub fixtures would be appreciated, too, but I make no promises at this point!

Missing Home, Etc…
This is a unique trip for me, primarily because it’s pretty much the polar opposite of the one that I endured last year when I came up for my sister’s graduation. I won’t really go into the grubby details, but let’s just say that I both loved and feared the idea of going back to Florida after my trip last year because of some personal things that were unfolding at the time. It was a rough year and I was down for an awful long time, but this time it’s a little different and I kinda like it. I’ve only been seeing Sara for a few weeks now, but I’ve really gotten attached to that girl over the time that we’ve spent together and being away from her for the past week has been really tough. And at the same time, there’s just something about having a caring soul waiting for me at home that makes so much easier for me to enjoy my time here with the family as well. I guess I don’t really know how to explain it, except that I’m really looking forward to walking through that gate at TIA Monday night. 🙂

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a bit of fudge to purchase for friends, neighbors, and maybe even a little for me…