A Fun Day

Yesterday was an enjoyable day.

We went out for breakfast, the four of us - me, Luis, his father and his uncle, Iggy, who is here visiting from California. He's similar to Luis' father but he's normal (no schizophrenia) and funny and does not need to tell endlessly long, boring stories and be the only one talking. This is a refreshing change from Luis' father.

After breakfast we went to see the 3,000-year-old petroglyphic rocks, one of my favourite things to see in Parsippany. Most people have no idea that these are here, just off of Park Road, tucked in some small woods to one side of a house on a dead end road. I've known about them for maybe three years now and I love to go see them once each season. The rocks don't change but the woods do, the leaves turn colours, drop off and snow comes, then buds will adorn the trees in mid-Spring. And before you know it, we have come full circle to the green, leafy canopy over the boulders again.

Luis and Iggy climbed up the top of the rocks there to get a better view of things. I wasn't wearing the right shoes to get up there and I'm not sure I could've gotten up there anyway - or down. Luis' father probably couldn't manage it, either. That is not the easiest trip. But it was fun to see the two of them up there and we had a good time looking at the rocks and the leaves and the tree growing out of the rocks. It was a perfect day, too, maybe 82 degrees at that point. There was little to no humidity and perfect blue skies with no clouds at all. The weather was a delight.

After that, we took them to see the 300 stone steps on Watnong Mountain, on the other side of town. Up route 10, onto Powder Mill Road, over to the park and there are the steps on the Beacon Hill hiking trail. It's a beautiful hike and the steps are really neat. They were carved by George Washington's engineers to make getting up to the top of Watnong easier. They had the top of the mountain razed to see if the British were on the move and to light beacon fires (hence the name Beacon Hill - Watnong is what the locals of the time called it); now all that remains are the younger trees and the 300 steps. In the off-season when there are no leaves and no ground brush, the steps are obvious and visible from almost any angle. This time of year they are hidden until you are lined up with the bottom of the steps. The ground brush and canopy of leaves obscure the path and the steps so that they are not readily found.

We did not go up the whole 300 steps (and there are no longer 300 of them anyway), having been up them already and not wanting to subject the two older men to such a climb. We went up maybe 20 of the steps and they really came into focus. It's really neat. There are benefits to laving in the third state in the original thirteen colonies. The rampant history that is left from the original British who came here and lived here and the ones who came to enforce Britain's home rule... they left a great many things behind. Sometimes there is a benefit to having a short history. Everything the colonists left are fairly visible and obvious.

We came home after that and then went to visit Vicki and Mike and Stephen. He's growing into a little boy, although I was wrong about his age. He will be four in August - I think it is 22 August - but he was a very big boy at birth and he's still a very big boy. He looks five, but his vocabulary is that of a four-year-old boy. He is the opposite of Matthew, who is too small for his age.

I have mixed feelings about my visit there. Vicki is not happy to be pregnant with the second boy. But at this point, she is 19 weeks along, exactly half way through her pregnancy. (Yes, the normal gestational period for humans is ten months; 40 weeks.) I guess there is no getting out of it. To do something for another person that makes you unhappy is... well... just so wrong. And this is bringing a child into the world. Under these circumstances? It is the wrong thing to do.

But I love Vicki. I'll keep visiting her and spending time with her, if only so that she has some sanity in her life.

I came home to find the kitchen in a state that was unforgettable. Apparently Luis went shopping and really managed to damage the place! There was stuff everywhere. I was horrified. My parents were coming over in 45 minutes and the place looked as though it had been trashed. I cleaned up the kitchen as best as I could and got the food put away. I also managed to consolidate the huge box and various other bits that Luis' new $4,000 computer came in. He got it on Friday and was dying to set it up and play with it. I will admit his office is much cooler now.

It has 12 fans...

My parents came at 1800 and Luis began cooking. We had barbequed shrimp, beef and chicken and corn on the cob and barbequed veggies. It was a great meal and everyone loved it. The food was excellent. Luis does an amazing job with cooking.

It was a really good day!