I'm starting this one the 25th of August. It's going to be long, so I don't know when I'll actually publish it. I may break it down into topics and do a different post for each topic.
Today's topic: family
My dad wanted to come see me and asked that I check the Amtrak site to see if it's possible to take a train for the trip. I found out there are two trains that stop in my hometown and in the large town near him, The Carolinian and The Piedmont. The stops are part of longer routes and they go both ways. So he could take the train to see me and then take it back and with his discounts, it was $18 round trip.
I took the day off (yay accrued vacation), got him at the train station (on a day when both bathrooms were out, alas). I got there early, because 'how long will this take, will I get lost, etc.' And his train was late. By that point, I was pretty desperate to use the bathroom.
We headed for the local museum, where they have a butterfly house, which dad wanted to visit. However, the main parking lot was full so we drove to breakfast, to give the early arrivals time to finish their visit and leave.
We had a lovely tour of the butterfly house and looked at the insect exhibits. I wish I'd gotten more butterfly pictures but they move. And when they are still, they're often far enough back, I'd have to shove into the greenery to reach them.
After that, we headed for lunch. Which we both needed, except it took us off my route so I got lost looking for the Woodcraft store. Finally found it, with enough time for Dad to have a look around, although not a leisurely one. He found some things he wanted and the clerk showed him an attachment (blade?) for his lathe that's really good for turning acrylics.
Back to the train station, in plenty of time for Dad to catch the train home.
Some good news, Mom's not in Hospice any more. However, that means the hospital bed they provided is removed. Mom's old bed was broken (and we thought she'd never need it again) so it was thrown away. The facility was loaning her a bed (about a step up from a cot) and I contacted a furniture company to deliver a new bed (and mattress, and box spring). Except, they'd had trouble with fraudulent purchases and needed for me to come into the store to make the payment.
Since I wanted Mom to have a good bed ASAP, I got the time off from my boss and accepted my Dad's offer of being my chauffeur if I took the train to see him or Mom. He was available and I bought a round trip train ticket. I ended up taking a later train because the earlier one was already reserved (possibly by people going to the Beyonce concert, my train was half full of such attendees, lucky people).
side note: that turned out to have a silver lining. As I was taking a later train, I worked remotely for a couple hours and one of my co-workers had a time sensitive task.
Train ride was nice, Dad was there to greet me, and off to the furniture store. Paid for the whole shebang and the guy promised it would be delivered the next day (it was, and they put it together).
Dad and I had lunch and he drove me to see Mom. He kindly offered to go to the grocery store and get me a 6-pack of 16oz Cheerwine Zero while I visited. I gave Mom her birthday present (a colorful scarf) as it was only a few days until her birthday.
Dad drove me back to the train station and home I came.
Much easier than the 2 and a half hours or so of fighting traffic.
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