Day 1 of October Vacation

Well, my vacation has gotten off to a good start!

The trip down was both great and bad. I picked the worst weather (short of snow) to come down in - I left work at 1107, and under lowering grey skies headed down the Garden State Parkway. Around mile marker 67 it began to pour - I'm not exaggerating, it was horrifying. After that 12 mile squall, I ran through four more: one in Delaware, three in Maryland. Delaware is a "blink and you've missed it state". I loved going over the Delaware bridge (and the toll - what abject greed -was $4!) but other than the bridge, there was nothing much to say about that state.

When it wasn't pouring and the visibility was good, it was a fine trip. The weather certainly was odd. I would be driving through a squall with thick heavy ominously dark clouds and suddenly the clouds got much lighter in colour only and it would still be raining and then the steam coming off the roads combined with suddenly bright light and mixed rain and steam made visibility treacherous. Maryland clearly does not require its citizenry to put on their headlights when driving, so often I had trouble seeing the car in front of me. It was not an enjoyable ride, nor the leisurely trip I'd wanted to make.

I certainly made good time - I got here at 1445.

My cousin has this monstrous house with three levels. I need to take pictures of it. It has a ballroom instead of a garage, which was why they wanted it. The colours are amazing. Everything has a very European feel to it, with dark colours and such. It really is very nice. It does need a little TLC, though. They don't take good care of it. And it is in a strange area. The other streets are remeniscent of Newark and then suddenly it is a very expensive area... The traffic in this area is far worse than anything we put up with in Joisey, and we put up with a lot. I would not live this close to Washington, DC. I maybe as close as 15 minutes away. I also would not live in this general area. It looks very crappy and run down except for this and the street before.

I love Renee and Alex, however, they are both into watching a lot of stuff on the telly - far more than I do. They also love to watch movies and have an absolutely staggering collection of DVDs. I have maybe 40 DVDs. They have... I don't know... two or three hundred DVDs! [10/22/07 - Turns out the true number is closer over 500. We estimated them today to be approximately 480, not counting all the telly serious/seasons and that wasily brings the number to 500 if not well over.] None-the-less, it is nice to see them. Renee and I had a good time catching up and I like Alex, although we don't see each other enough to really be completely at ease with each other. He's very intelligent and witty and sees the satirical humour in things much as I do. I find him very likeable. Of course in our family, we do not gravitate to less than intelligent people. We are all of a piece that way.

They think they might like to have kids. I don't see it happening, to be honest. I hope not. I don't think Renee would be happy having to raise kids. That is just a guess, but I suspect I'm right.

Yesterday I had to stop in a rest stop to get something to eat. I got a box of Honey teddy grahams, sort of graham crackers for kids. They had the highest amount of fiber, the lowest sugar and I ate them very slowly, so that I'd not eat myself silly. It worked out well. I had about one serving. I stopped at Applebees when I got here and was really pissed off with the service, so much so that I left a dollar tip. The server should be greatful I did not talk to the manager. There I had a griled chicken salad and lemonade. We did have pizza last night, but I had two very small slices.

That was it! Not bad!

I am happy that my cousin Renee has two cats, and they both spent last night with me! In fact at one point Tiger was on my chest! That is like being home. I really enjoy her cats, although she might be disappointed that they did not sleep with her and Alex. I loved it, though. The hardest part of traveling is being away from Ariel and Chelsea!

We did not go to bed until close to 2300, which was hard. I am unaccustomed to staying up after travelling, which is not always easy for me. We did have a good time, though. The bed was fine, and I did get a good night's sleep.