Reliving the past and giant dust bunnies
Reliving the past and giant dust bunnies is part 2 in a 3 part series titled Holiday Adventures about my recent holiday trip to Ohio.
After a pretty uneventful, yet late (and long) drive to Ohio, and after going to my clients office and planning a full network move, we finally make it back to Jon’s (hereinafter referred to as “the house”) and settle in for the night. Chloe sleeps all night, as does Hunter, so we all slept fairly well. And then the sun came out and Chloe woke up. Stupid biological clocks. Up at dawn with nothing to do but wait for my client to call — he is notorious for waking up extremely (like after noon) late, we head over to a local Perkins for breakfast. Naturally, half way through the meal, my client calls — surprisingly early, I know. We agree to meet within the hour and hang up.
An hour or so later, I am dropped of at my client’s new office and begin getting the new spaces set up for the move. This was the easy part, as I would later find out. Finishing up the preliminary tasks, we head to the old office where the demolition of the current network is scheduled to begin. I start the process of determining what is attached to what, and begin to disconnect the computers. Crawling under the table to unplug wires, I had to disturb what can only be described as a small family of dust bunnies to reach my goal.
A few hours later, all the PC’s are disconnected and packed, ready to be moved. and I finish the day on a high note. I send a message to Liz to come and pick me up and I go over the next day’s business with the client and soon depart. Evidently Liz had been shopping because the car was full of shopping bags and barely enough room to put my bag and myself. We head to Dad’s and spend the rest of the evening there before we head back to the house and call it a night.
The next day is relatively uneventful, with not so much as a hiccup in the daily routine — breakfast, work, Dad’s, the house, sleep. It isn’t until Friday that the fun truly begins. The idea was to finish up with the client, then hang out with Dad most of the day. However, due to some scheduling conflicts that didn’t materialize as planned. My brother was in town visiting and I got done at the clients at close to the same time he got finished shopping at the Outlet Mall in Cincinnati. We meet up at Dad’s house and spend the evening catching up.
Saturday was spent hanging out and generally taking it easy. We had planned on taking Hunter to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, but after loading the car up and heading to the museum, we discovered it was closed. Hunter, of course, wasn’t too happy, but understood. We decided to make the most of it and go to one of my childhood favorites — Graeters Ice Cream. Having our fill, we headed back to Dad’s to plan the evening. My sister, in town from Arkansas as well, had a creative idea to take a photo that was taken of the family back in 1992 and retake the photo in 2011 since everyone was in town — a rarity in our family. The plan was put in motion and we all met up at the Front Street Lofts at 7 and find the elevator lift and take a few shots.
Of course, nothing works as planned, as Jon was late getting off work and didn’t show up until around 8pm. All of us were taking practice shots and getting ready for the final cut — all of us except Liz who stayed in the car with Chloe. Luckily, she had no objection to this, as I thought before I went out for a smoke. After Jon arrived and everyone was ready, we took the final shot and disbanded. Unfortunately, that was the last (and only) time I saw Nik on the entire trip. Oh well. We all left and went to my Aunt and Uncle’s for a new years party — or what was supposed to be. By the time we arrived, the crowd had already dwindled to people we didn’t know and a few of the other aunts and uncles. No cousins.
Bummed, we decided to head back to the house and ring in the new year with Jon, Emily, Seth, Nicole, Liz, Hunter, Chloe and myself indulging in New Years Eve revelry. The ball drops and everyone soon leaves as they are tired, and we were as well. The next day is shopping — finally. The only hitch – I still had to get paid for my work. And of course, my client didn’t want to wake up until around 11 — 2 hours after we had planned on heading to Ikea and the Outlet Malls. We head down to the client’s new office and I go over things one last time and receive compensation and say my goodbyes. We meet up with Seth and head south to Ikea.
Find out what happens during our shopping excursion and the trials and tribulations of driving in January in the next installment of the Holiday Adventures series.
