Yesterday had long been planned as the day we all went home from our Fourth Biannual Family Vacation, and the second one in Tokeland, Washington—but, as I already
wrote about, this year the whole thing basically imploded, with a good half of the people initially committed having bailed out by the time Shobhit and I were in the middle of our trip to Europe. And it was while we were in Amsterdam the second time, the day after we got back from Brussels, that I learned via text from Gina that Dad and Sherri were also not making it, because Dad was having back surgery. When there was first some discussion on the Facebook Family Vacation group that maybe we should call it (this was something Gina, frustratingly, started asking very early on), Sherri had said she and Dad still planned to go, which to me sealed the deal that we'd still go, regardless of whoever else did. But, the back surgery scheduled for August 20 pretty necessarily got in the way of that commitment, and before long even Angel, the last holdout before me, was saying she couldn't afford it.
Shobhit and I had bought a box of 50 Belgian chocolates from a place called Passion Chocolat, specifically to bring and share with the family at the Family Vacation. Well, what else was there to do with that, but simply bring it to Dad and Sherri? I called Dad the evening after his surgery on Thursday last week, and asked if he thought they'd be up for us coming to visit on Saturday this weekend. He said it would depend on how he was feeling, and I said of course. I was thinking about calling him to follow up on this on either Thursday or Friday this week, but Dad texted me himself on Thursday:
Are you guys still coming to visit this weekend?So, I just called him back, and it became clear during that call that, not only were they up for us coming to visit, they seemed genuinely to look forward to the idea. I'm sure they're happy to have us specifically visit, which probably goes without saying—but it sounds like they haven't had a lot of visits since Dad's surgery. Some family have come by to help out with odd jobs here and there, but it sounds like that's it. Shobhit and I were actually there yesterday for a good six hours or so. I did help Sherri, who got the cast off her wrist but still has a brace on it, with putting the sheets on their bed. When we were leaving in the early evening, because they had mentioned earlier that Dad had given Jaycee $8 for helping them with something, Sherri asked me, "Do you want eight dollars?" I cracked up and asked her if she has Venmo.
As for Dad's recovery, I'd say there's some minor bad news and some major good news. The minor bad news is that he's definitely still in pain from surgery recovery. Sherri even told us that he was saying before being taken in for the procedure that he was still going to want to go to Tokeland, but the rest of us knew that it was extremely unlikely he'd be recovered enough within a week for that to be possible. And Dad himself said yesterday, "There's no way I would have been able to go." He still can't sit or lay in one position for too long, and he's using a cane to walk around around with—actually
Sherri's walking stick, apparently. He's not even allowed to drive a car for three weeks. He wouldn't have been able to withstand a 90-minute drive from Olympia to Tokeland, not even as a passenger. He even asked me to put a sock on one of his feet for him, a new experience for me, helping one of my parents with a simple task like that.
The major good news, though, is that Dad is certain the pain he's currently experience is exclusive and specific to surgery recovery—and that the back pain he underwent the surgery to eliminate is indeed completely gone. In other words, it seems this surgery was very much a success, and all he needs to get past now is healing up from the surgery. I was thrilled to hear that. When talking about all the time they spent just hanging around the house over the past week, Sherri noted that Dad took advantage of the time to plan out their next big trip, apparently a road trip to Colorado that they're aiming to do in September of next year.
Anyway, it took us a good ninety minutes to drive down there, mostly because we stopped at two Costcos (in Federal Way to get the cheapest gas and in Lacey to pick up a pizza), and because there was construction southbound I-5 just north of Nisqually that closed down two freeway lanes of traffic. Shobhit did pull off on an on-ramp and then get right back on the on-ramp just south of it, and in so doing bypassed so much thick traffic that we cut ten or fifteen minutes off our drive time. I was amazed not more cars were doing the same.
At Shobhit's suggestion, I asked Dad if they'd like us to pick up anything for them from Costco, whether pizza or anything else, and Dad said, "Pizza would be fine." So I called to pre-order a cheese pizza to pick up from the Costco in Lacey.
And it really was a lovely visit yesterday, so much so that we hung out there a fair amount longer than I expected—I kind of expected maybe four hours, and it stretched to six. I thought about contacting Gina and Angel to see if they wanted to come by too, but I decided to let it just be a visit with us. As much as both Dad and Sherri are recovering (Sherri's black eye from her fall was pretty much gone), they both still
are recovering, and I didn't want to kick off any snowball effect of visitors that might overwhelm them. Dad did ask if I was interested in coming back October 23 to see a Bee Gees tribute band show with them in Olympia, and I very much am; I should find out who else may be going along to that.
I did get
a photo album out of yesterday, which I titled
In Lieu of Fourth Biannual Family Vacation: Olympia 2026, and added to my "
Biannual Family Vacations, 2020-present" collection. I've noted to others already that the cancellation of this year's Family Vacation bummed me out for a multitude of reasons, maybe the last of which, but that doesn't make me think about it any less, is that I love patterns and consistency, and I hated that it broke the pattern of these trips happening every two years. Well! Now I have this album in lieu of an actual Family Vacation album, and at least on Flickr, it keeps the pattern consistent! So that makes me feel a little bit better. It's only 18 shots from the one day, of course—the trip from two years ago yielded 146 photos—but hey, it still works. And it's still on one of the originally scheduled dates, albeit on the day we all would have been headed home. But again, it still works!
But this is a big part of my life philosophy: making the most of what I have to work with. I've been missing hanging out with Laney, so at my suggestion the other day, later this morning (while I'm on the Bainbridge Island ferry headed to meet up with Tracy), we're going to get on a video chat to spend a little time catching up. Laney's back issues are also improving, but at a lot slower pace—she hasn't needed surgery, but I hear she is getting physical therapy. And she's now looking at an apartment in Federal Way, an indicator that she's not likely to get back on the road with her new van as planned, but also still won't be living in Seattle proper anymore. We've already discussed ways to meet in the middle on Light Rail maybe once a month, and sometimes I'll come all the way to Federal Way to meet her, and probably around once a month she'll come to Seattle. The apartment is only a couple of blocks from Federal Way Downtown Station, which is a game changer; she said she wouldn't even consider living in Federal Way if not for that.
As for yesterday, I asked for a group selfie just as we were leaving, and it's a great picture—Sherri asked me to send it to their digital slideshow picture frame, and I did it from the car shortly after we drove away. We were still in front of the house, but in the car, when Dad called after me from the porch to ask if I'd be interested in that Bee Gee's tribute band show, and I definitely was but said I'd get back to him. I looked up the tickets this morning and they're a little spendy, but oh well. I can make it work. Because I have enough to work with!
[posted 7:51am]
