You really can't go home again

Here's me, oh and that's Chris, and we're in Reno - my new haircut for your viewing pleasure. We were heading for Boca and I had said to Chris I want to get my hair cut...he did the paper thing and showed me how much time effort and money I'd save if I'd cut off that 2 feet of hair that I wash and braid and put up in clips. So - I did it. Last time I cut my hair was about 4 years ago, but this is THE shortest I've ever cut it.

I was wafting nostalgic when I was going on about getting to go HOME to Reno for a few days: stomp my old stomping grounds, be a kid again for a while, re-live those bye gone days of way back when.

Then I got there, and it's all so darn different, I don't know anyone, don't recognize old places I was when I was young, didn't see anyone I knew!! When I lived there and grew up there I couldn't walk down any street or go in a business without seeing someone I knew. Where is everybody anyway??


Taking my dad's ashes up to Boca was quite an experience. I was alone for this. I talked to this bag of ashes. I said that I have fulfilled the promise that I made, and it's finished now. I threw several handfulls of ashes into the air, and left the rest on the shore of Boca reservoir, with the wind and the water carrying them away up the river. The shoreline and fishing areas of my childhood are gone now. I think I picked the right place and my dad is happy knowing the earthly part of him is where he was happiest on this earth. I did meet finally with a classmate of my mom's...it was great to meet Marilyn in person. She shared her home, and we visited for a couple hours, then Chris and I went to the Peppermill for dinner and of course had to gamble a bit.
Used to be different, you'd buy change, put money into the machine, pull a handle, and winnings would come plunking out into a tray at the bottom of the machine. Now you put in cash, the machine keeps track of your "credits", you push a bet button, having no handles to pull or buttons to push. The machine tells you what is a win, and you get to sit and stare blindly at the screen - sort of like TV or computers, a placid existence. You print out a voucher for your winnings, feed it into a cash machine, and walk away (hopefully) with more than you put into the other machine. We didn't drink, Chris did have a beer with pizza one night. He almost bought a bottle of Tequila he said, but I thanked him for not, because I don't like the person I become when I drink - and Tequila is the worst of all when inside me.


Anyway...back to the trip. We went out to the middle (literally) of nowhere in Moab Utah and spent a day wandering in the beautiful excellent country that abounds there - you can look up the site if you care to see some amazing stuff. This trip was spent in canyon lands - we hiked out to the very tip of a peninsula called the Island in the Sky - about a 2 1/2 mile walk and we could see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles...........BUT... the freaking wind was blowing from the second we left our driveway last Friday until we pulled into our driveway this Friday night. It was cold, blowy, miserable. There was no camping because it was too cold blowy and miserable. The motels we stayed in were NOT home. The food we ate was NOT our normal food, and I was HOPPING happy to get home and eat my own food in my own house cooked with my own hands.

We left Salt Lake City on Friday morning and drove home - it took 13 hours, but we made it. Chris said lets go home, I said OKEY DOKE lets go home, so we did. We got home about midnight, Chris went to bed, I stayed up till about 3:30, too much coffee. I called the family members this morning that care that we made it home, and so here we are .... Home.


However...Chris and I reconnected, we had a very good time together, companionship and amicable co-existence. We communicated, cooperated, didn't fight for an entire week!!! Not one snarly comment, no rude responses, no judgement or bickering at all. WOW it was such a great trip! Today we worked in the yard, I offered to help work in the yard and work on the garden, so we did. We actually worked together quite well, accomplishing nearly everything that needed to get done, but there is tomorrow to work out there too, and we'll get some planting done then. The bed is tilled, fertilized, steer manured and peet mossed. Oh - and I told him about the speeding ticket I got in February, and about the waiver I paid for so I didn't lose points on my license or lose my preferred insurance. He wondered aloud if there's anything else that was put on the need-to-know basis.... well.........there is ONE thing... =-).

Oh - and Buddy the cat-man's ashes are scattered under the lilac bushes finally. He'd be happy to know his earthly remains are in the place where he was happiest on this earth.