Livin' high on the hog....

Those of you I've actually talked to recently probably figured out that while I took two "vacations" within the past week, I've just now found any time to, well, breathe. After a few days up in Washington and one day back at work, I drove down to Ventura with my mom. This was the second time we'd shared driving duties on this trip...only this time, we weren't racing the clock or quite so sad. So, obviously, much better. Just really, really, ridiculously hot in parts. Which is bad in a car without air conditioning...think: little tin can. Opening the windows can only help so much.
Either way, the main purpose of the trip was to see my grandpa, who is in as good of health as can be expected and even better spirits. I swear, sometimes I think grandpa has the mindset of a teenager...or at least college student. Sitting with two of his daughters and one of his grand-daughters (yeah, that'd be me) at dinner, mom offered to take him over to say happy birthday to a friend so he could have a pretty girl on his arm. Grandpa grinned and said "oh, then I'll take her" and points to me. Mom couldn't even try to be mad, we were laughing so hard. He did admit that it was mean, but mom still told him how funny it was. Then mom remarked that there didn't seem to be too many other men living in the Townehouses (as you can tell just by looking around the dining room). Someone mentioned the ratio being 4:1, at which point grandpa remarked that he's "livin' hiiiiigh on the hog". Seriously. 90-year-old man here. And his grip is still stonger than men a third his age. Sometimes, you just have to wonder how old they believe they are.
Anyways, all that worrying I was doing earlier about how grandpa would adjust? Yeah, that's gone. He still helps set up the Wednesday morning mass (we went and the priest started his homily with "on the Notre Dame campus..."-I took it as a sign...of something...) and helps some of other residents "park their horses" (walkers) when they come into a room. Mom leaned over and said "you ever wonder where they got the idea for 'Little Old Lady Land'? (it's in "The Producers", people-culture yourselves!) So true. So true. Only complaint I've heard is that the Townehouses, despite having cable, don't have any of the sports channels, so he still can't see his Dodgers unless they're on network TV. Why he wants to watch THEM so badly, I don't know, but he's had about 70 more years to get attached to his team. He still wears his Nebraska hat out, so I'm thinking his allegiances go pretty deep.
The other big activity in the 30 hours we were there was a surprise party for my aunt Mary, the youngest of the Sullivans. (yeah-you can't tell by lookin!) It was there that I came to a very sad conclusion. I am now shorter than one of my "little" cousins. Martin is now playing football and a solid 6 feet (when he stands up straight). He got a kick outta that one. And Benedict is about eye level-not too much longer till he's taller too. Looks like Anita's the only one of that clan that won't be taller than me, but it's funny. Just like Tom wondering what happened to his chips when they were in front of Ivan for 10 minutes. Yeah. Oops. Like you have to ask. Boy are our family outings fun! And then we left straight from there to drive the 5 plus hours back (the party was about a half hour in home's direction already) so I could be at work by 11:45 the next morning. And people wonder why I say I need vacations from my vacations...