… and now for something entirely different…

Wave the yellow flags.  The race to get my hardwood flooring installed is in a holding pattern while my dad flees Minnesota for fishing in Alaska for the summer.

We have changed gears from thinking about what I need to be able to live in my house for 3 months while the project is suspended, to thinking about what dad will be needing to be able to live in his RV for 3 months.

I have to admit that it’s hard to sum up your creature comforts in one brain storm… do we even know what things we really need with us to thrive?  I’m guessing that much of what we packed won’t be needed and the few things that we overlooked will make dad miserable for want.

Friends have thrown in their support and a box of Sham-Wow.  You’d be surprised by how much weight both things carry.

Currently we are racing around in a flurry of little errands and projects, which I’m sure will make the time after dad’s departure seem that much more quiet.  I am thrilled for his trip and excited for my own section of travel with him in July; however, there is still a little part of me that feels orphaned when he takes the road like this.

I am always grateful for the experiences I was afforded by being a part of this family.  Together we traveled, by car, by plane… by boat.  There was stuff to see and we went to go see it.  There’s lots more for us to see, and in this family we are all concerned that between global environmental issues, decreasing fossil fuels and a weakening economy, these opportunities will dwindle.

The pressure to do as much as we can fit in now is great while patience is limited.  My dad is young at 60; however, I’m sure there will be a day when his happy hour in his retirement life is enough to keep him thriving and he waves us off into our own adventures.  In the meantime, I’m loving his wanderlust and piggybacking on his adventurous streak… all the way to the base of the Grand Canyon and back… and now into the wild.

“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” – D. H. Lawrence

I’m a fan of Cool, unlying life.

Says me.

PS.  The rest of that quote is just too much.  I prefer it out of context.  *grin*