Monday, October 23, 2006

Dad approves

My father flew down to take a look at my new apartment and to have me show him around my new life. We spent a nice day driving in the sunshine. I took him through the town I do laundry and banking and library internetting, to my home town where the only restaurant was closed but a 6 year old girl in a baker's apron waved hello from behind the glass door. So we ate at the Chevron station Subway instead. We drove over roads that wound between prosperous farms with shiny silos to 'highways' that had only one or two cars on them. He was thrilled to buy gas for $1.99 a gallon, and impressed with the State park complete with bridle trails and covered bridge only a few miles from my place.

I gave him a tour of my apartment and when he saw the lump under the covers on my bed, I said, "That's my cat." He was astounded that a cat would get under the covers and sleep there all day. "Isn't she breathing her own carbon dioxide?" he asked. Yes, and for the life of me I don't know why Abby doesn't asphyxiate.

So, dad approves! Tonight we're going out to eat at a nice Italian restaurant in the city with a couple of friends. Best of all, late in the day we finally figured out how the car's GPS works. 'Approaching exit, turn right' the well modulated female voice says. We both laughed at the amazing-ness of how the car knew where we were, and a little unnerved when it stopped letting me program it once the car was underway ("Driver may not program while car is in motion, press enter to have passenger continue...") Scary. I programmed the GPS for the airport so he should be all set for tomorrow's early morning departure for the big airport.

Onward, spaghetti with carbonara sauce awaits!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Big Big Big, Major Big Deal.

I am very happy. Glad dad is smiling.

-Chuck

Anonymous said...

Recommendation for a fun site:
www.myheritage.com

If you have a digital photo of yourself or a friend, you can plug it in and it will do quasi-facial recognition features and show you who you may be related to.

Try it first in private ... it gives both genders and crosses racial lines.

Really cool site. You do have to register but it's free.

(And yeah, I really DO like like Christie Brinkley lol)

Elizabeth Prata said...

Hi Chuck,

Thanks! It was nice of him to fly down and share a slice of my new life. I'm glad he can now envision where I am and what my haunts are like.

Elizabeth Prata said...

I'll try myheritage.com, thanks for the tip. I hope it shows my heritage as Italian, if not Catherine of Siena, who was no Christie Brinkley, then at least Dante? I'd take that. As long as my heritage avoids showing me looking like the Duke of Urbino!

Anonymous said...

We are going to need someone like you here in Gray soon! They are about to arise...again.

Elizabeth Prata said...

Oh for heaven's sakes..."they" are nothing but a bunch of misguided angry power hungry people who do not have a clue about how to work respectfully within the system toward positive change nor how to engage in constructive dialog toward persuasion of their position. C'mon, their last blog was reduced to making fun of people's hair. Stop being afraid.

Anonymous said...

If you do not like the actions of these people then do not ignore them.

Make a point to learn about the issue and be vocal to other people. In a positive way, have a few points to share.

In this case:

Sharing resources regionally makes sense. It saves money. In the case of a major emergency it makes sense to have a regional headquarters. This will not affect the response times and attitudes of dedicated fire rescue volunteers. Technology has improved to the point where this is the most efficient method of call dispatching. Perhaps dispatch personnel will be offered more training and earn a better wage and benefits at the county level - less of them, more trained, better paid?

any other positive points here?