The Trip Home

I finally got to meet our newest family member over the past weekend. He's as cool as ever.

Although he was only four to five days old, he was surprisingly alert and active. He has already established a routine. Sleep for awhile, wake up and take a poo, be alert for about 30 minutes and eat, then go back to sleep. What is it with us humans and our adherence to routine? (All psychologists, psychiatrists, etc...please disregard that question)

I made the 450 mile drive home on Saturday and left there early Monday morning to make it back to work that night. Last night (Monday) was quite the marathon. On the way up there I very much enjoyed the iPod and the FM transmitter A bought me. The trick is finding a radio frequency that no channels are broadcast on and will stay that way for quite a distance so as to avoid frequently changing the station and the transmitter. At any rate, I found 89.5 and 89.9, which both worked well.

Home was wonderful. The air was much cooler and it actually resembled Spring, something we don't seem to get where I am now. The mountains were beautiful as always, and of course I spent some time with family and friends, whom I never get to see. Seeing my newest family member was the icing on the cake. My sister is as beautiful as ever, and my brother-in-law seems as happy as ever. Congrats to them both.

After visiting on Sunday with AT, my mother and I went to a bookstore. I have been wanting to try one of those audiobooks for some time and figured the 7+ hour drive home would present the perfect opportunity. I ended up listening to The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S. Wood the entire way. It is an absolutely wonderful tale and I recommend it to anyone interested in not only Franklin but in the political climate of the late 18th century. The book itself is a refreshing difference from the typical Franklin biography in that it delves deeply into the circumstances which Franklin was forced into that ultimately made him convert, yes convert, from a loyalist British subject into an ardent patriot almost overnight. (I'm a nerd and I'll stop talking now)

At any rate, with my audiobook the drive home went pretty quickly and the traffic was almost non-existent. The weekend was wonderful, I couldn't be more pleased with my new nephew. Things are going pretty well, and what's more, I'm getting ready to head down to Destin, FL on Thursday for a long Memorial Day weekend escape. I'll be sure to fill you in all about it.