South East Again

For whatever reason beyond my control, my job requires that I choose my vacation days each December for the coming year. This is sometimes a challenge because, as you all know, plans change frequently. It is hard to plan days off for the entire year.

So, (Provide your own noise that indicates you rewinding to last December), there I was last December, getting ready to pick my vacation days with the rest of the firefighters. Rebecca and I had planned a trip to Tampa. We coordinated with some friends of ours, the Robinson's, to get away from the kids and responsibilities. I mention all of this vacation preplanning stuff just to point out that as it turns out, I have pretty much spent my entire summer in the South East United States. Fortunately this past week was sweet, relaxing, unmolested vacation. The four of us flew to Tampa, and spent a week without kids. Clearwater, Florida to be more specific. I won't bore you with the details, but we laid on the beach, went to an amusement park, snuck in a baseball game to get another one off my list done, and hung out with dolphins. If anyone is a fan of the old sitcom "Wings," you may remember Lowell (More commonly known as Thomas Haden Church) We took a boat ride to go snorkeling and see dolphins and our tour guide was a near cut out of Lowell. I loved it.

The kids had a blast while we were gone, staying two days with my parents and two days with Rebecca's mom. They really don't care if we are gone as long as we bring them back some surprise. Five dollars goes a long way in providing surprises too. I typically get them in the airport gift stores.

So now we are back, and summer is as good as over, and I don't currently have my next baseball trip specifically planned. For the last 5 years or so I have had the next trip planned. I guess technically we have a vacation set, but it is 15 months away. (We are saving up for a Disney World Exodus and Extravaganza. Yes. I said Extravaganza.)

The other day I was watching an old Family Ties episode and realized that there just isn't programming like that on TV anymore. Remember all the shows we came home from school to watch? ALF, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Night Court, Saved By The Bell, Perfect Strangers, Small Wonder, Wings, The Wonder Years, Mork and Mindy, Baywatch (was that just me?). Will there ever be a day when I watch DVD episodes of The Bachelor Pad? TV just isn't what it used to be...which reminds me: I am calling out all available Hexes on Netflix. For so many years Netflix has been awesome. I have caught up on many of the above mentioned TV shows. Now they have jacked up their prices and make you choose between streaming and renting, or pay huge prices for both. I am so disappointed. We cancelled ours. We were faithful customers for so long, and what do they do? They spit in our faces. That's what they do.

To end on a good note: Dolphins...hopefully. (this is my first attempt at video uploads)