Poker and Dominos... Vacation Continued II


Sorry was in the middle of boring you with stories about my kid with no internet acess to online casinos to ply my trade at poker. Did think about making a day trip to the Sarasota dog track to play in their poker room with Jess's cousin but that didn't happen. Course not having much of the Internet wasn't the worst thing in the world because besides poker I don't play too many online casino games. (BTW, this photo was taken by my wife's cousing Kyle LeBlanc at Venice Beach).

Anyway, where was I in my more boring recounting of the vacation and veiled bragging about my boy? Ah, how quickly time flies, the oft repeated phrase I hear every where I go...

I’ve certainly always been the type to stop and smell the roses and I am not afraid to savor a moment. Though I imagine, like other things, being a parent will change my perception. Probably it will feel like tomorrow when the boy is going off to college.

The other type to stop us would be recent parents whose children would be running amuck and they might see our sleeping baby and wish their kids never learned to walk or talk. They are funny. One guy, a Mexican man, leading a youth group, just smiled and giggled at the boy. He made sure all the kids in the group did as well.

And the empty nesters, who share that senior in high school’s sadness about the ephemeral nature of time. Suddenly, there is no noise in their house and they yearn to experience it all again. They tend to dote over the child and ignore us--which I actually pefer.

The trip was really peaceful until my wife's grandfather slipped and fell into the shower. He's 95-96. Looks like early 70s tops. Not kidding. At my wedding I'd enjoy walking around and asking my friends how old they thought he was. I could tell they were trying to be polite and didn’t want to offend him and say things like 70. When I’d inform them the guy slugging the beers and was spending time on the dancefloor was in his 90s their mouths would be agape (that’s a weird word agape suppose I could have just said wide open).

So, when this picture of health, who has never broken a bone, spent a night in the hospital, or had a surgery was in incredible pain, we knew it had to be more than that. A couple of days later we took him to the E.R. They sent him back to the beach house. Then we received a cryptic call from a nurse that helped him that recommended we take him to another hospital. Huh?

They re-reviewed the CT scans and X-rays and came up with an entirely different diagnosis. For one, he had broken one of his veterbrate, two his stomach was not functioning, and he needed some immediate attention. He stayed a couple of nights in the hospital with his broken back (both firsts) but turned out he didn’t need surgery (a first I’m sure he was glad to delay). He is a brace and headed back to Louisiana after extending his stay in Florida in the Sarasota hospital. We wish him a speedy and full recovery.

This annual beach trip has not been kind to Jess’s family. Last year her mother had a heart attack on the beach and had to be airlifted to Pensacola. One year her aunt broke a leg, and another year a cousin broke an arm. This year it was just going to be a small trip but at the last moment it grew. Not to the 30 or so that have gone down in the past but about a 1/3rd of that.

I’m starting to worry in advance of our next trip as I don’t want to be the next victim. Lots of injuries, plus, some other events including a passing hurricane that have discolored the vacations. Thought we were vacationing in Florida not summering in Baghdad. Speaking of Baghdad and Jess’s family I wanted to welcome back Damon Hebert. One of Jess’s cousin’s husband is back Stateside for a small reprieve before finishing his tour of duty at the end of the year. He and the other soldiers fighting for our security are in my thoughts but probably not as often as they should be.

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