The Long Goodbye

So I just got back from a two day stay in Longview, my first trip back there in a few months. There are two things that stick out in my mind, and both require a little explanation first. First off, I got back Halloween night. For work I dressed up as what could most easily be described as a redneck. I did this mostly as an excuse to not wear my uniform. However since I left for Longview straight from work, I didn't bother to change out of the costume. It dawned on me that the problem with that is that where I was going, no one (except my family) would realize that I was in a costume at all.

Now the second thing. One of my more random skills is that I'm a pretty good dart thrower. Normally when I go back home, at least some time is spent at the Eagles lodge across the river in Rainier. If you don't know what an Eagles lodge is, look it up, I'm not getting into an explanation. Anyway I was throwing darts with my Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa. This was practice for them since they are all in a dart league. However my Grandma is new to it, and is still trying to learn the terminology and such. By pure coincidence, right as I'm about to throw my third dart one round, she asks one of the other people in the league for clarification on a phrase she heard....what I hear next is, "So a happy meal is when you score a 69, right." I froze then, unable to laugh nearly hard as would have been either necessary or appropriate.

And something that is happening down there that I didn't have the chance to face this trip is something that will in time become quite difficult. There is a reasonable chance that one of my Grandfathers has Alzheimer's, or at the very least one of any number of other afflictions of the mind. I know a few of you have experienced this, and this will be my 2nd time through, so there isn't much that need be said in explantion. At this point it is early and I can still be optimistic...

On a whole different topic, I had an interesting day at work recently. It is very common, as some of you reading this will know, for people to talk to me about anything and everything, even if they hardly know me. It is common for me to know a great deal about someone, yet they know little to nothing about me. However due to the nature of the activities we had at work (to those I work with, yes, I mean the LTS stuff), the roles we're reversed. I found it very interesting to see just how someone would react when going from knowing almost nothing about me, to learning about my life in a fairly good amount of detail. I suppose this stems from the fact that I will almost always answer any question asked about me, regardless of how personal it may be.