[remember, my Lenten tradition (despite not ever pledging allegiance to the Pope Dude) is to rave instead of ranting during the 40+ days of traditional sacrifice ...]
... as of this morning, our snowbirds have flown back north ...
[also remember, due to the magic of back dating on the blog, I'm actually posting this a few weeks late as I found a pocket of time to catch up on my backlog of entries ...]
Back in the day when we lived in adjacent states, we would visit with Walt and Dolly multiple times a year, particularly around the holidays -- but since the big move from Chitown to the FTL in 2014, we've bundled ALL of those visits into ONE two-three week period every year. The 5th such mega-visit just ended -- and, as per usual, we can already predict that it is one of the highlights of the year.
As everyone gets older, we tend to do less and less running around when we get together -- although we did get up to the Manatee rescue center this time, and we worked in a full day of thrift store shopping as an outing one long long day. We also tend to have fewer and fewer Walter-projects, but that doesn't mean that he didn't help with installing the dishwasher, and building a new shelf in the laundry room, and giving the dining room table a new look. But all that cutting back just meant that there was more time for hanging out (with the puppies AND the kitties this year), for playing a multi-night marathon of Michigan Rummy, and for listening to stories of what Walt watched recently on "the youtube".
Plus -- let's face it -- there's also a good bit of time that goes into choosing some quality eating establishments at which we share multiple family meals (including the annual steak house dinner that ties back to my birthday). We know we did well when Walter all but licks his plate clean ... after which he lets us know that the food was "good" (and, when we pick places where the waitresses flirt with him, that the service was "really good").
All in all, of course there's the Facebook and phone calls and such, but absolutely nothing beats face to face time with the ones you love and who love you in return. We're already counting down the days and starting a new list of activities for the 2019 visit.
[In lieu of the usual links-in-triplicate, here's a single link to a brand new Facebook photo album showcasing 10 years of WaltDolly pics like the one accompanying this post. And yes, we only realized afterwards that the manatee was getting a touch *too* friendly with Dolly as the pic was taken.]
TEN YEARS OF WALTDOLLY PHOTOS:
https://www.facebook.com/troy.neidermyer/media_set?set=a.10208918862089158.1073741864.1843633569&type=3
