Archives for 2008

Couple days ago I got a phone call from Megan, she was upset, yelling and talking so fast I just could not understand her. She’s driving home ranting and raving (I have told her before about driving while upset) and it took a little while to get her calmed down enough to get the picture of what happened.

Megan had gone to visit with her aunt. She called ahead to make sure it was okay and was told so-in-so was there. Megan didn’t know who this person was and had assumed it was a friend of her aunt. During dinner she got hit smack dab in the face, so to speak, as to who she was. Her father, still lacking in social graces, never bothered to introduce his new girlfriend to Megan.

I had told Jeff what had happened and he called to check on her. She had at least calmed down. Later on she told me to go read her blog, that she had used it to vent. I wasn’t sure what to expect before getting there, I was afraid she might have lashed out at her father, which could have had dire financial consequences for her. What I read was venomously angry post, lashing out at her sisters. It took very little time for me to understand why she was so angry with them, she loves them so much but hasn’t been talking to either one of them. She feels like she has lost them and now was afraid that she was going to lose her father to another woman.

I think a few other light bulbs came on for her. I have previously mentioned Megan’s behavior while she was living with us. She knew which buttons to push to make us mad, she tried her darnest to break us up on a number of occasions. She didn’t understand that not only did she have a father who loves her, she also has a step-father that loves her too. But she did everything she could to try and push him away because she was afraid her father wouldn’t love her any more. Later that evening she called to ask if she had been a “pain” (I’ve changed the actual words used) while living with us. I think it may have finally dawned on her.

So she took down the angry post and rewrote it. This time it wasn’t littered with profanity. This time it was much more on target with how she feels. You have to read through it, but there near bottom of the post, just before she mentions gardening and cooking, she finally said it ” I guess deep down I’m afraid that with a new girlfriend, he’ll forget about me.”

All of her fear came rolling out as anger. The pain she feels with the strained relationships she has with her sister’s came out as anger. She has tried on a number of occasions to patch those relationships, I think she has finally had to take the same position I have, the ball is in their court to mend the fences. I still hurt for her, she loves them just as much as I do. And she knows we love her too.

I just hope her father gets it too.

Sometimes no words are needed.

We been enjoying a little away time. Over the summer I bowled on a “Florida” league. The prize at the end of the season is a hotel room at the Sugar Sand Inns and Suites in Panama City Beach. I opted to pay a little extra to add on a day and upgrade the room a little bit. We’ve got a nice third floor room with a great view of the Gulf of Mexico.

We drove down Wednesday afternoon, ran into a little band of rain, remnants of Hurricane Gustav. Found out that our suitcase could survive a driving rain pretty well. It has been a number of years since we last stayed at PCB and it has been 10 years since we were here will Jeff was still working on the road. The biggest thing I noticed was most of the run down little seaside motel are gone and huge towering condos have replaced them.

Yesterday was Jeff’s birthday, it was his pick to do what he wanted to do. He had wanted to be able to bring his motorcycle down here but the bed of the truck is a bit too short for it. This being PCB, they rent all kinds of motorcycles and scooters, so we started looking for places that rented the cruiser type bikes. The first place we stopped at was quite a ways down from our hotel, the daily rental wasn’t too bad, but the guy wanted $1000 deposit. The 2 choices of bikes were just a rough looking as he was. So we headed back to a couple of other places we had seen before. Turns out the next place we stopped at sent us to a place we had found the night before. Jeff rented a Harley (the only cruiser type bikes they had). I drive the truck back to the hotel to park it and Jeff meets me there with the Harley. He warns me the oil cooler is a little hot, so I might want to wear long pants. We both get ready and head out. Florida doesn’t have a helmet law and it was nice to be able to enjoy the ride along the beach front without one. Don’t get me wrong, I would not ride without a helmet pretty much any other place. The road we have been on are all marked at 35MPH.

We spent a couple hours here and there throughout the day riding along the beach front road. I don’t know if it’s just the passenger seat or my back acting up, but unfortunately I’m not very good in the long haul. It’s really frustrating because I’m having such a great time. On our ride we stopped for Dippin Dots, I have a weakness for them. Later on we stopped at a place that makes fresh handmade donuts. We didn’t need to find any place for lunch because of all the road stops.

I have to warn you, the internet connection I’m using is very restrictive. It doesn’t seem to want to let me do or use all the features that I normally use on the road. So if my thoughts seem a little more disconnected than usual it’s because of this. I’ll post a link to the crappy service later on, so hopefully no one else will have to suffer through it. I wish Verizon or someone had an pay as you go plan that I could connect to my laptop, that would be perfect.

I probably won’t be able to post any of the pictures we have been taking until I get back home. That kinda of ruins the flow of things but maybe I get get one or two uploaded,

More later on, including renting a Harley for a second day!