Things I Do Not Understand
I know that most of you are thinking this is going to be an extraordinarily long story given the title, but I will try to keep it down to my usual size and declare right up front that this is not intended to be a comprehensive list of things I do not understand, but just the ones that are on my mind today. We are on our last day at Virginia Beach and I am sitting in my room sweltering and schvitzing after just having taken a nice shower. As you know from my last story post, it was intended to be quite hot and humid here in Virginia Beach today. I had estimated a comfort index of 105 and when I looked at it two hours ago it was up to 107. The heat is still up there at 95, but the humidity has come down into the moderate range of 45% so thank goodness for small favors. We have about an hour to chill down before we are scheduled to go out with the gang to do some shopping and “escape rooming” in Norfolk. I have never understood shopping or the attraction thereof, but I have always just attributed that to the fact that I am genetically wired to be a hunter rather than a gatherer. I know Kim has shopping up there in the top three of her activity list and apparently enough of the gang feels similarly, so that’s what we are doing before we seek out our last supper spot.
We are scheduled to eat at Tupelo Honey, which is billed as a Southern Homestyle restaurant known for its comfort food. I don’t know that Tupelo ever entered my consciousness before this year, but we went to Tupelo, Mississippi at Spring Break with the grandkids and here we are eating at Tupelo Honey. I suppose I’m intended to have a chicken-friend steak with gravy on it or something. There are lots of southern foods that I have to admit I don’t completely understand either. Besides the whole excess gravy program, there are biscuits, cornbread, hush puppies, ochre, and shrimp, shrimp, shrimp. Don’t get me wrong, I like shrimp once in a while and hush puppies are OK as a occasional treat, but these are all mainstays of the southern diet and they mostly elude me in that regard.
Having just spent four days on a beach vacation, that is another thing I do not completely understand. I guess there are beach people and there are those of us who don’t mind (even, like) a walk on the beach or a spell of sitting in the sun with a cool drink. This lack of understanding is the sort that comes from someone who liked it all more in his youth and likes it a whole lot less in his dotage. I see young families with Dad’s trying to put plastic Crocs on little feet as little Johnny pees down his leg onto Dad’s hand. I see Mom’s that have not fully lost all their baby-carrying weight squeezed into a bathing suit and showing the world parts of themselves that they would normally be mortified to have seen, but which are impossible to hide when chasing little Suzy So that she doesn’t drown herself in the deep end of the pool. I guess its a right of passage, but I still can’t understand why the beach is where they choose to “relax” under the circumstances of their new found parenthood.
We hung out at the pool for the morning. Roger tactically saved a group of chairs just below the infinity pool edge such that we could swim and still join in banter with one another whether we were swimming or on the sidelines. That was a great concept except that you would think that for $600 per room per night we might get reserved pool seating (not a chance!). Let’s face it, hotel pools are mostly for the kids anyway, so why am I having a hard time understanding the fact that the kids keep splashing me on the head on my nearby chaise lounge. All I have done so far today is get up for breakfast after eight hours of sleep and find a chaise lounge to go rest some more. And here’s what I really don’t understand…why am I so tired and looking forward to lunch even though I’m not really hungry? They say the sun takes a lot out of you, but I spent all sorts of time maneuvering the umbrellas to be sure than Kim and I were in the shade and not in the sun. So, I guess we like sitting in the sun, but not sitting in the sun and having the shade whip the energy out of us in time for an early lunch. Naturally, at lunch there are lots of shrimp and hush-puppies for all.
Tomorrow we will all head back to our respective homes. Roger and Valene will be hard at work in Delaware (they actually head back tonight). Thomas and Jenna fly to Denver to respectively do a big film shoot and rethink yoghurt on Tuesday. Carolyn, John, Charlotte and Evelyn will drive back to Brooklyn where they will wash their clothes and repack on Tuesday to fly out to us in San Diego on Wednesday to start their month-long vacation with us on the hilltop. We will fly back tomorrow so that we can prepare for their arrival and also prepare for our Welcome to San Diego Independence Day Bash on Thursday. That’s right, I do not understand why we are the party house, but we will have 30-35 joining us for grilled sausages and BBQ chicken on the patio. I will once again overheat myself grilling the sausages and look for every excuse to go into the air conditioning. Last time that cost me one final flight of sausages that barbecued to a charcoal black. Strangely enough, they may have been the tastiest sausages of the day…not sure I understand grilling so well.
Now let’s talk about my physical well-being. I came out here after going to a Physical Therapist for my left hip. I was diagnosed with a muscle strain in my Glutius Medius and given leg lift exercises which I have more or less dutifully done. Our first day here, besides driving a rental car that does not fit my body in the lest, and walking over 10,000 steps on Friday up and down the boardwalk, my aches and pains relocated to my lower right back….sort of where that Glutius Medius is on that side. Last night I walked up two flights of steps which would have been excruciating to my left hip a week ago. Now the left hip seems to be more or less cured and the muscle pain (slightly more acute to boot) has gravitated to my right side. I suppose it could be the rental car or the walking or the harder than normal hotel bed, but whatever it is, I simply don’t understand why body aches and pains want to travel like that and confuse the hell out of me. I’m trying to exercise more and its like the universe wants me not to do that. But if I don’t do that, I know it will only get worse, so I try to do it. There are just on many things I don’t understand anymore, so I’m Going back to my hilltop and soaking my head for a few days in hopes of gaining some understanding.