Writing, along with exercise, diet, reduced alcoholic intake, and budgets - has fallen by the wayside over the past couple of months. It gets harder to write when I go into one of those status quo modes - you know the place, where you are happy with the long work weeks and the short weekends, and are distracted by other things like taxes and anything that is brightly colored or smells really pretty. The routine sets in, and much like anything, it gets harder to sit down or get up and force yourself to get back in the habits that you know make you a little better in the space between your ears.
It is a quiet Easter morning - not that Easter holds much for me by way of holidays, but for the kids, it does, and right now they are at church with their grandparents, and are probably wondering why the Easter Bunny forgot to put baskets out last night - well, that's easy, the Easter Bunny slept in, and the super soaker squirt guns and other assorted easter stuff is sitting in the trunk of the car. This weekend is the first holiday that is a "repeat" as a single dad - first one that I have done twice, and honestly, I cannot remember where the kids were last year, or what we did, or if the Easter Bunny actually dropped off anything, you know, the first repeat. I have to admit, I miss certain things - but in general, I have gotten to a point where I don't really miss anything about those holidays - it has taken a little while, but redeveloping relationships with my family, spending more time with them, well, we have new traditions and new places to visit, and for the most part, the kids have the best of both sides of the fence - so no, not really missing dragging the kids to Amelia Island for an afternoon of excessive wine intake, pointed questions, and condescending remarks.
Driving over to Gulf Breeze this week, the car broke down - and I realized how draining a divorce can be - you see all of these commercials about folks who get the "Bankruptcy, Divorce, Bad Credit, No Credit" - and I did not fully understand that concept until I was stuck on the side of the road in Lee, Florida, wondering how in the hell I was planning on replacing the clutch, and trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to hide that fact from my kids. During the entire process, as it gathers steam, someone has to lose. In most cases, both folks lose - financially or emotionally, at the beginning - but the emotional part quickly gets on a level playing field - but financially - well that's a different story - you have to go back to court to get all of that taken care of, and for an additional $364 dollars and lawyer fees - seems like a mountain to climb to potentially get anything changed -
None the less, we made it, the car got repaired at Jim's Auto Repair right off Highway 129 (I am sure all of you have visited it - it is right near the American Legion close to Roberts Auto Repair) - and the kids and I have figured out a way to enjoy a week of Spring Break without Carnival Cruise Lines or Mickey Mouse hawking us goods and services...and they have enjoyed it - days in the pool, or the beach, or visiting the Gulf Breeze Zoo (which, for $36.00 for a family of three) is an expensive undertaking - it is right across the street from the flea market, and minor recommendation, the people watching there is free, go buy yourself a hot dog, and watch folks stream in and out of there - Gabe somehow gravitated directly to a hatchet - and aside from the pellet gun he got for easter, I figured sending him home with a hatchet and a pellet gun could only be topped by sending him home with those two unapproved items, and a pit bull puppy. (Although the temptation was there - I skipped both the hatchet and the puppy) -
We did, however, make the front page of the Pensacola News Journal - one of the days that I actually turned off my computer, phones, and avoided working during the vacation - we actually received accolades for our sand castle building skills - of course, online, our picture was snuck in between the photo of three bikini clad twenty somethings, but in the hard copy, we were right there on the front page - with the caption - Where ever you are - wouldnt you rather be here? - and I would have to agree, the three or four hour sand castle building was therapeutic, if not a good way to entertain the kids with dirt and water (your basic mud pie parenting strategy - the only thing missing were sticks). That's the photo above - the three of us, in a hole, surrounded by our towers and ramps and assigned quarters in each of one of the three segments of our make believe world - this year, we did not name the castle - but we each made wishes out loud about each place, and what our place would look like and what would be the coolest part of it, and if MTV Cribs would come visit it. (I personally think that would be a pain in the ass - because then you have to stage everything, and I don't like staged anything).
So for now, that's it - pretty boring post, there is another coming, but I wanted to get a normal, plain Jane post out there - just to prove to myself, that much like the elliptical in the gym, that I could do it for about thirty to forty five minutes, and that it was not quite as painful as I thought it would be - Happy Easter everyone, and don't forget to drop a line every once in a while just to let me know that you are okay.
George
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