I Want To Catch Something That I Might Be Ashamed Of

I know its been a while since I've written anything here, so while I'm sitting here at the Fox Sports Bar in the Orlando International Airport I figured I'd start getting caught up.

On New Years Day when we were out for a short hike in South Valley Park, Rachel looked up from her carrier strapped to my chest and quite clearly said "Hi Da Da". The next day she said it again and a couple of days after that as well. At first I thought it was just a fluke, but after a while it became clear that Rachel was indeed identifying me as 'Da Da'. I'll admit that this made me feel a great deal of pride. I knew she recognized me a long time ago, but verbalization was something new, and at only 5 months old. Since then, she has made all sorts of other remarkable strides. Just yesterday she got up on her knees in her crib and held onto the railing. She also has learned how to clap along with me when I sing 'When You're Happy and You Know It". It's great to finally have an appreciative audiance for my singing.

With the exception of going skiing a few times on the weekends and watching my daughter grow and change every day, and of course seeing Louis get drunk enough to be violently ill after the Super Bowl, the last couple of months haven't been especially interesting. I've fallen into the dark and depressing drudgery of going to work every day while having very little to look forward to on the weekend or the future in general. Bree has been working most weekends so I'm home with Rachel. During the week, I'm working and have been taking Spanish Classes on Wednesday nights. One of these days or years, I hope to get down to Latin America again, although it's hard to say exactly when that will be.

Bree's grandmother, Peggy, has been undergoing chemo for a while now. Early last week Bree flew to Florida to see her parents and spend some time with her grandparents. I flew down to join them on Thursday after work. I pulled into her parents driveway in The Villages sometime after one in the morning. The Villages has to be the nations largest retirement community. I believe the population now stands at around 70,000 full and part year residents, all 55 and over. I'm not sure if this is true, but I've heard from more than one source that The Villages had one of the nations highest rates of newly diagnosed STD's a couple years ago. http://www.clickorlando.com/news/9283707/detail.html After spending a little time there, I would not be surprised if that weren't true. The Villages are laid out over an area that, right now, spans about 33 square miles. There are two town squares that feature nightly live entertainment and dancing. Throughout the complex there are several other clubs where people get together to listen to music, swim, eat, play golf, bicycle, play tennis and apparently, have a lot of sex. The atmosphere at these places in some ways resembles Spring Break for seniors. My in-laws belong to two separate motorcycle clubs in The Villages, but folks there can get into a club that mirrors just about any interest you could possibly have.

My first morning I went for a run. After living in Denver, with it's thin, dry air, running at sea level is a treat. I felt strong and went much further than I had expected to, while listening to on old Chili Peppers record on the I Pod. It also felt great to be out of the office and stretching my legs in the sunshine surrounded by golf courses, palm trees, and all manner of geezers tearing around on their golf carts.

Bree's sister Tamara was there with her daughter Norah. Norah is only 18 days younger than Rachel, so when they get older we hope that they will be able to be good friends. They already really seem to like one another, even if their interaction is limited to passing the occasional toy back and forth. When I got back from running we all took a nice walk together and later that afternoon went to one of the many swimming pools. This particular pool admits people 30 and younger, which includes infants. All the other pools you must be at least 30 with a valid ID to enter. We took the babies in the water with us and they had a great time. These babies had no fear of the pool and seemed to naturally move their legs in a swimming, or frog-like, motion. We, of course, had to support their bodies, especially Rachel who has been suffering from a double ear infection.

That night we went out for a fish fry at one of the country clubs in The Villages. We went there the last time I was there for a visit and as before, I was totally impressed. They have just about the best fish fry that I've ever had outside of Wisconsin. In fact, the first time I was there, I talked to a couple of people who were from Wisconsin and were in some sort of Villages Wisconson Choir. Since there are so many folks from WI that now live in The Villages, it shouldn't be surprising that they demand a good fish fry. The best part of the dinner, however, was that we sat by the windows and outside the dining room, by the pool, a group of older folks in their swim suits were doing the Electric Slide to the music of a dj by the poolside.

Bree's grandparents, Charlie and Peggy, joined us for dinner. I sat next to Charlie, but he has some trouble talking these days so I had a difficult time carrying on a conversation with him. I found this disappointing because I think Charlie is an interesting guy who has a lot of stories to tell. He was born in 1922 and lived in Miami until he was 17. I'm sure Miami was a very different place when he was a kid. Those were the days before air conditioning and the city was only a tiny fraction of its current size. so I was curious to hear some of his stories. stories. He said that dengue fever was still common in the area when he was growing up. He went on to tell a story about how his father got malaria and almost died. However, his father was serving in the British Army in India when he contracted the disease.

The next morning Bree and I took off for the Ocala National Forest to have a look around and take a short hike. On the map the national forest looks very close to The Villages. Unfortunately driving anywhere in central Florida seems to take a very long time if you aren't on the Interstate so it took longer than we expected to get there. We took a short hike to Lake Eaton and another to the Eaton Sinkhole. We covered only about 3 miles on foot, but it was good to get out and see the country from outside of the car out of sight of all the everpresent Florida big box stores and strip malls. The country itself which we were walking through wasn't terribly interesting. It was mostly scrub and pine forest and was very dry. We saw only a few birds and even surprisingly few insects, but we still had a very nice time.

We hurried back to the Villages so that I could meet my father in law Tim to go golfing. I have almost never golfed in my life and only one other time on a course other than the pitch and put at Lake Park in Milwaukee. He took me to the Caroline Course to play nine holes. This was easily the nicest course I've ever played. Several of the holes were over 500 yards and the course is riddled with all sorts of interesting hazzards including waterways where alligators are known to reside.

Golfing looks much easier than it actually is. After a couple of pretty solid opening shots, my game deteriorated badly. No less than four of my shots wound up hitting houses bordering the course. As far as I know, I didn't break any windows, but I did get a very fortuitous richochet off of a roof at one time. Tim made a great approach shot on a green by skimming a ball off of the surface of a pond and up the hillside on the opposite shore. We managed to get our game in before dinner and had a fantastic time. I don't know if I'll ever be much of a golfer but its something I'll definetely do again if I get the chance.

Before leaving the next day we went to visit Bree's grandparents at the small house they bought in the neighboring village. Tamara had to leave for the airport around noon but Bree and I stuck around a little longer to visit. Afterwards we packed Rachel into the golf cart and unfurled the plastic sides and took a run over to the Village Polo Grounds to watch a little bit of the horse pulls. The wind was furious and threatened to rip the plastic sides off of our cart as we made our way along the 40 min. ride, but we eventually made it, albeit a little late for the horse pulls.

Rachel is just about pulling herself up into a standing position, so I figure it is only going to be a little while until she is walking. I don't even know where to start child proofing our house, but we'll figure out a way to make it safe. I hope the dogs have an easy time adjusting to her being more mobile.