I didn’t get old by being stupid!

That could be a series of topics that I may develop into my blog but for now my thoughts reflect the time spent with our elders and other seniors compared to our own days on Earth.

I had a pleasant surprise this past weekend when I received a phone call by one of my distant family members who was in Alaska for the start of a two week vacation consisting of a week by railroad glass domed ‘Wilderness Explorer” cruise cars and the second week on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailing south from Whittier to Vancouver along the inside passage with stops in several cities.

I had just returned from the lake when I received the phone call from my ‘uncle’ Aubrey.  He and his wife were traveling with a church group of friends from Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee.  They had just arrived in Alaska after an all day trek across country.  They had left Florida in the early morning with stops/plane changes in Atlanta and Salt Lake City before arriving in Anchorage in late afternoon.  The four hour time difference had made for a long day and everyone was hungry so I directed them to a local restaurant about two blocks from their hotel. 

I told them to head over and get a table with an extra place so I could meet them for a quick visit before they headed off to bed and much needed sleep.  I was told that they would walk on over and get the table and that they would have several friends traveling with them going for dinner since their ‘body clock’ was telling them it was almost 10 pm.

I asked them to call me once they had arrived and I would let them know how much longer I would be until I arrived to join them.  I needed to take a shower since I had just come home from several days at the cabin and that would give everyone plenty of time to start their dinner.

Earlier I had started a bath for my granddaughter filling the tub and then on to my chores of putting away all of the food & drinks from the weekend’s getaway.  I was absorbed in putting everything in the refrigerator and dumping the extra ice while putting things away in the garage.  I came back upstairs to hear my granddaughter screaming that the water needed to be turned off.  Normally she will do that but with the amount of water filling the tub and the length of time I was in the basement the water had grown cold and she did not know which knob was the hot water and did not want to be scalded so she let it run cold.  It was cute but all of the water was now icy cold and I needed to take a shower after my time at the lake.

I bit the bullet and jumped in the freezing water quickly getting myself washed and rinsed off so I could get toweled off and dry.  I dressed and headed out the door to take my granddaughter to her dad’s house while I met them at the restaurant.  It had been almost an hour since my phone call and I received the call saying they had arrived at Orso’s and were just sitting down to order.  That shocked me that they had not arrived earlier and should have been almost finished. 

I had no clue what was happening . . .

I walked in and saw Aubrey and it was great to see him again since it had been over 15 years since our last meeting.  When I lived in Atlanta I would go to the family reunions every year which were normally held in South Georgia.  Depending on who hosted that particular year the family would gather in the VFW post or another location which could hold the 80 to 100 people that might show up.  At one point there were 5 living generations within several different family’s which was really cool to see.

We sat down together with their friends who were part of the church group traveling together and the chit chat started between everyone but as most were talking amongst themselves I had a chance to talk with Aubrey.  It was funny as I found out after all these years that he is my cousin and not my ‘uncle’.  I had thought since I was a little boy that he was my daddy’s youngest brother when in fact he was my dad’s oldest brother’s son.  There were many kids in my daddy’s family so as a youngster it never registered in my mind that he was not a brother. 

Aubrey is now 77 and it was wonderful hearing a few stories about my daddy that I never knew and reinforcing his generosity and humor to me.  He died when I was a young boy so it has been many years since he was gone and I had missed that time in adulthood to learn more and ask those questions that a young boy has.  I spent most of my life figuring out those things on my own knowing he gave me the right value system to make the right choices about most things.

We finished at Orso’s and I wanted to walk them the two blocks back to their hotel so they could get to bed.  As we walked out the front door it finally dawned on me what had happened.

In my own mind it really did not register that this group was a geriatric crowd and we were now ‘walking’ back to the hotel.  One lady from Florida in her late eighties was doing the 8 inch shuffle with her feet.  No step was wider than 8 inches making her the noise maker going down the sidewalk.  One of the husbands had two walking canes so he was no
speed demon either.

As we came to the light for us to cross 5^th Avenue I knew it was going to take us two light cycles to get everyone one across the street.  I played traffic cop to keep the vehicles stopped while the herd made their way across street.  It looked like a herd of turtles inching ever so slowly back to the hotel.  It must have been hilarious to watch this motley crew ambling along “hurrying” to get back to the hotel so they could all get some sleep.

It took us about 45 minutes to walk the two blocks but it was great seeing my family even if only for an hour or so.  Hopefully I will get another chance tomorrow to have a cup of coffee when they return from Fairbanks to catch the motorcoach for the drive to Seward and the Royal Caribbean ship.  I hope the weather holds for their trip south as it has been raining in the pan handle the last few days.

Enjoy the trip and I hope you see more wonderful sights aboard ship.

Ice