#035 Home for The Holidays Rewind - 12/22/18 – 1/3/19
Everyone loves a happy ending and I want to tell a story with a happy ending. Therefore, I will tell this story from end to the beginning, from the last day to the first day.
Everyone loves a happy ending and I want to tell a story with a happy ending. Therefore, I will tell this story from end to the beginning, from the last day to the first day.
On the thirteenth day of Christmas my road trip gave to me…..
So on and so on.
1/3/19 Day 13. I woke up in a hotel in Lebanon TN.
My wife and I agreed it was a bad idea for me to go to the breakfast room to make my own plate. The way I was feeling, however, was enough to convince me to sit still. I’m sure the other guests in the hotel might not appreciate me coughing all over the buffet. My wife came in with a plate of hot food and coffee for me. I ate what I could.
She left and came in with her own food and a story of a lady coughing all over the buffet as she was leaving with her own plate. It seems that other guests really do give the stink eye to people who cough all over the buffet.
After taking my breathing treatment and both meds we loaded the car. Taking turns behind the wheel, we finished our lonf drive to Fayetteville NC. We made it home around 6pm.
1/2/19 Day 12. We woke up in the guest area of our friends home in Henderson (The Hodge House).
I had rescheduled an appointment for my son to have his car worked on for the second time. He and I were planning to have breakfast while his car was in the shop. He was a no-show again. I give up.
I had been sick for a few days now and there was no end in sight. I decided to head to the urgent care. Diagnosis; Bronchitis. After picking up my meds and breathing treatment I went back to The Hodge House.
I told My wife that I wanted to head back to NC. We weren’t planning to leave for a day or two, but we had done about everything we were going to do and had seen everyone we were going to see. One of my thoughts: “This town has gotten too rough for me,” though I was born and raised there and had only lived away for six months. My other thought was, “I’m going back to where life is quiet”.
There were a few things happening in my life (with my son) that was causing a great deal of stress over the past few months. It was going to come to a head in the next month or so. No one knows the outcome yet.
Plus, my mom took a hard fall in early November that caused serious damage to her knee. The accident put her in a leg brace for the winter. I was now sick and unable to help my parents out in the second half of my visit home.
On our way home we arrived at a rainy and cold Lebanon TN around 5pm. I began my meds and breathing treatments only to find out that the breathing treatment medicine was still at the Walgreens in Henderson.
We found a Walgreens just down the road and went there to talk with them since reaching a human on the other end of the phone is near impossible these days. The line of people was about twenty deep. I talked to someone who got my prescription from the Henderson Walgreens.
Becky and I went back to the hotel to wait. We ordered some food from the restaurant by the hotel. We ate it in our room, watched tv as I drifted in and out.
Just before 10pm I braved the rain and cold to pick up my breathing treatment medicine. I finally was able to take my pills and breathing treatment after 10pm.
What a day.
1/1/19 Day 11.
I woke up in the home of friends (The Harmony House) after coughing my way through another night. They asked if we wanted to stay another night or two, but I thought I have had contaminated their house enough for one visit.
I was supposed to run in the Day 1 Run event with Princess. It’s something we’ve done the past few years. There is no way I could even walk the route that day. I gave my spot to a Beast.
We went back to The Hodge House.
Several times over the past several years I have participated in The Hodge’s Polar Bear Plunge held on the first of the year. This year I laid in bed drifting in and out of conciseness.
Becky was able to visit with some friends who Plunge every year and who we haven’t yet seen on this trip.
Becky brought down a plate of food. I hadn’t had much more than the occasional nibble in the past few days. There was a barn full of food. Once again I only had interest and energy for a couple of bites, then drifted off again.
12/31/18 Day 10. We woke up at The Harmony House where I spent another day in bed.
The day was a blur. The only things I remember from are several messages from friends asking how I was doing, the sound of Becky and our friends downstairs playing board games in the evening, swapping Christmas gifts with them at some point, and a text from my son at midnight wishing me a Happy New Year.
12/30/18 Day 9. Several friends and I woke up in the campground at the Lincoln Boyhood State Park.
We usually have our big annual winter campout around the middle of every January. We moved it to December this year. After our usual breakfast burritos, we broke camp, put out the fire, and went for a hike on the trails and up the fire tower.
Since Becky and I were planning on spending the next few nights at The Harmony House I rode home with McGruber.
My coughing continued to worsen on the way home and my energy level dropped dramatically. I blamed it on the camp fire smoke and a bad night’s sleep. I thought a shower and some good cooking would help matters. I slept for four hours at the Harmony House.
Fiends piled into the Harmony House night for our annual New Year’s Eve Eve Party, and I felt like crap. I held on as long as I could. I made sure I greeted everyone, played one game with Hurley, had one plate of food, walked my friend Snax to her car, then without uttering one word about it I disappeared upstairs for the night. With my shoes on and fully clothed I fell aslep in seconds.
Those who know me know that I must have felt extremely bad to walk out of a party filled with twenty of my closest friends. I’m glad many of them were at the campout the night before. I’m sorry I didn’t get to spend much time with the others.
12/29/18 Day 8. We woke up at The Hodge House in Henderson.
We met my wife’s mom and sister for breakfast. Afterward my wife dropped me off around the corner at D’s house where we loaded my backpack into his van for our campout. On the way to the campground I began to have small coughing fits. I figured it must be the change in weather or the cold air. Being outside for the rest of the cold and cloudy day didn’t help my coughing any.
D and I were the first to arrive. We put up the 10x10 canopy for the kitchen area and scoped out a water source.
The rest of the crew slowly arrived and began setting up their tents.
We all gathered around the fire and had chili and drinks after dark. We told stories of past trips as well as talk of future trips and who was planning what. The fire raged as conversation and music played filled the nigh.
One by one people disappeared into their tents and vehicle for the night.
My coughing increased as I lay in the tent. It had been slowly progressing all day.
I received pictures on my phone from My wife. She was with her brother and his wife at their mom’s place. They had ordered a pizza from the company my son delivers for and requested that he deliver to them. One picture was of my son in his uniform in the doorway delivering their pizza. The other picture showed him on the couch eating a slice with them.
12/28/18 Day 7. We woke up at the Hodge House.
This was a big day. This day had been a long time coming. This was the day we finalized the sale of our Henderson home. We were very relieved when all the paperwork was signed. We were more relieved when we deposited the check into our checking account. Check that box. It’s over. Done and done.
Later that night my wife and I had supper with a friend. Goober, my wife’s sister, had just made it to Henderson for a late Christmas visit after seven hours on the road. She and her mom came in to the restaurant and we walked over and sat with them for a while.
12/27/18 day 6. We woke up at the Hodge House.
Becky went on an early morning walk with a friend. When she came home, I met my son at the clinic. He had gotten sick and missed a day of work. He needed medicine and a doctor’s note because it looked like he was going to miss work that evening as well. I told him I would meet him to cover his expenses.
Note: This is most likely where I got sick. Helping others usually comes at a cost to you.
Later that evening we met up with my wife’s family and my son for supper at a pizza place. We then went back to her mom’s place for board games.
12/26/18 day 5. We woke up in a hotel in Henderson.
I went to the mechanic where I was supposed to meet my son. His car needed an oil change and to be looked over for some front-end problems. I sat in the parking lot for a while. My son, a friend, and myself were going to have breakfast together while the car was being looked at. My friend sent a message telling me he was going to have to bail. He was very sick. My son was a no-show. He was also sick and slept through his alarm. Understandable.
I went back to the hotel for breakfast and coffee. We loaded the car and headed to The Hodge House for a few days.
Mt brother-in -law and his wife made it to town, and we all met to put together a tv stand for my wife’s mom.
12/25/18 Day 4. I woke up at my parent’s house in the room that used to be my brother’s room when we were younger.
I helped my mom with some last-minute Christmas stuff around the house. She is confined to a walker and wheelchair for the time being.
I left the house around 10am to pick my wife up from the airport. She led a Christmas Eve service the night before in Fayetteville. She boarded an airplane around 6am. All nine of the Durhams plus each of the teen-age Durham Boys’ girlfriends were there by noon for a Christmas meal and present exchange.
It was relaxing. The sky was blue, and the sun and air were warm. Some of us ended up hanging out on the back deck in lawn chairs. Everyone was happy.
We all later went around the corner to my aunt’s house for Christmas supper.
My wife and I loaded the car that evening to stay in a hotel. We didn’t want to impose on any of our friends on Christmas night. We watched the Grinch cartoon on tv. By the time it was over Becky was asleep. She had had an eventful twenty-four hours. When the cartoon went off Jim Carry’s Grinch movie came on. I laid in the bed and watched it and crashed as soon as it was over.
12/24/18 Day 3 I woke up at my parent’s house.
I left the house to do some last-minute shopping and to take the car through the car wash. While I was in sitting in the car at the carwash my dad called and asked if I could pick up some potato salad that he ordered for the Christmas Eve family gathering.
Also, while in the car wash a friend called me to wish me a Merry Christmas and check in with me. After the car was washed, he and I were still on the phone. I drove through Audubon Park before going to the restaurant to pick up the food order. I told him that I was driving through there, we reminisced over how we used to wash our cars then head to Audubon Park to wax them. There would be several friends lined up doing the same thing. We’d all hang out and work on each other’s cars and truck. We wondered why teenagers don’t seem to do things like that anymore.
Christmas Eve party was, well, very extended family-full. The usual suspects and the usual antics. That’s all I’m going to say about that, as every family has that one person.
Becky was still in NC due to the Christmas Eve service.
My son had to work so he wasn’t there.
It was ok, I knew they would both be there the next morning.
12/23/18 Day 2 I woke up at my parent’s house.
Despite the lower back injury that I received a few days ago while loading the car for this trip, I spent several hours leaning over the kitchen table wrapping dozens of Christmas gifts for my mom. She could wrap the small gifts. The wheelchair made it impossible to wrap the bigger ones.
Shhh, don’t tell her how much pain I was in.
We were quite a pair. The crippled leading the crippled.
She had a certain way she wanted it all done. Everyone had their own designated paper. Then I put each person’s set of gifts into their own box. This was like working in a factory; very methodical, very precise.
We got them all wrapped and put away befor the Christmas festivities.
12/22/18 Day 1 I woke up in my own bed in Fayetteville NC.
After breakfast I loaded the last of the gifts, luggage, and camping gear into My wife’s car, kissed her goodbye for now, and began the drive to Henderson KY.
I put several items into the car the day before. In doing so I pulled something in my lower back. I was now experiencing extreme lower back spasms. It happens from time to time. I didn’t know how an eleven hours road trip would play out.
She wasn’t unable to leave town until Christmas morning. I drove to Henderson a few days early so we wouldn’t have to (1) both fly (2) rent a car when arriving on the other side (3) pay for transport of all the gifts and luggage.
I was Santa for a day; unshaven and a little chunky, just like jolly olé St. Nick himself, traveling across the country a little red vehicle with a back full of gifts for everyone. Full of anticipation of what joy the visit might bring.
A happy ending in the beginning of the journey.
Merry Christmas.
Story from 1/16/19
You should have told me your back was hurting, I would have sent you to your room!! Anyway, can't wait till you all get back home this weekend. As usual it will be chaotic but with lots of Christmas joy and lots of family love ❤. See you all soon