Jeff Blogs

When we left Idaho last week I had hoped to stop by the Harley-Davidson dealership in Salt Lake City Utah and also the dealership in Sandy Utah. My goal was two-fold. First I love to see the various dealerships and how they are displaying their bikes and accessories. Second, and more importantly, I was hoping to pick up a dealer pin from each of these dealerships. I am going to attempt to collect the various dealer pins from around the country. When we got to Utah I realized that I didn’t have a chance to look up the addresses or get directions to either of these dealerships before leaving Idaho. I attempted to get the information via my iPhone while on the road but driving while surfing seemed like a really bad idea especially during Salt Lake City rush hour traffic. For a second I thought about asking Trina to surf for me while I drove but knowing her technology limitations I figured that was probably well beyond her expertise. I therefore skipped the two Harley dealerships instead making a note to stop there during the next trip I might make.

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We returned from our trip to Utah-Idaho on Friday but today is officially the last day of vacation. All of the bags have been unpacked and tomorrow we return to the daily grind. As I woke this morning I just laid in bed staring at the ceiling. Well actually I laid there staring at the ceiling fan that was spinning attempting to keep the house a few degrees cooler sparing his friend the air conditioning unit. Sometimes I feel kind of pathetic to think about what amuses me. I laid there looking up forcing my eyes first to focus on a single ceiling fan blade to see if I could follow it all the way through a single rotation. Then I reached for the remote and changed the speed of the ceiling fan to see if I could still keep track of the ceiling fan blade. Before long Trina woke up and snatched the remote from my hand and switched it back to the slowest speed. As she rolled over to go back to sleep she made some comment about how I needed to get up and quit playing with stuff so she could get some rest. I wasn’t quite ready though. I laid there sans-remote wondering if it would be possible for me to somehow automate the ceiling fan and control its speed via the computer. I have no idea why I would do that since I could not think of any possible benefit to being able to control the upstairs ceiling fan from the computer that is located downstairs. Still it would be an interesting experiment. I briefly considered discussing the possibility with Trina but based upon her breathing patterns and the snoring going on she probably was not laying there contemplating the same things I was. Come to think of it, there is probably no one on the planet who is right now lying in bed contemplating the same things I am. Maybe Trina is right, maybe I am one of a kind and not in a good way.

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Vacations are great. They give you an opportunity to get away from the daily activities that seem to just drain the life out of you. They replace the mundane with exciting new opportunities to live life differently. No matter what you do on vacation, it is just different from the daily grind and different is always good in my book. In most cases people will take vacation away from home. That is not always the case and this year with the skyrocketing prices of gasoline some people are spending their vacations at home. Even so, your routine is disrupted as you are not getting up and going to work so hence different. In our case we were gone for nearly two weeks and arrived home yesterday afternoon.

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My parents have always been an extremely important part of my life. They have been role models that I have looked up to and tried to emulate. They have successfully raised three children and considering our personalities that in itself was a herculean feat. And while they have been devoted to their children and subsequent grand children, they have been even more devoted to each other. Throughout my life I have had people talk to me about my parents and it is always a consistent theme. They obviously love each other deeply and no one has ever seen two people more devoted to each other than they are.
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It seems like only yesterday that we had arrived to begin our vacation and yet today marks the beginning of the end. We are to leave Idaho today to begin our trip back to Arizona. It is with mixed feelings that I am leaving. On the one hand it is always difficult to say good-bye to those that you love. My parents and grandmother are not getting any younger (they love when I say that) and I always regret having to leave them not knowing exactly when I may be seeing them again. Likewise Mallorie will be remaining up here for a little while longer as she is not quite done with school. We are leaving our daughter Tiffany as well. She will be staying with Mallorie until school is out then the two of them will be travelling back to Arizona together. Trina’s mother and sister also live here and we’ll be saying good-by to them as well. The hardest part though is that this is also the final resting place for our daughter Lindsay. She would have been 23 this year but she will always be my baby. I’ve never quite gotten over losing her even though it happened so long ago. Trina and I don’t talk much about it but it is always on my mind. The emotional baggage I bring with me on this trip at times seems larger than the luggage we have with us.

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