6/14- Teaching Shelly The Art Of Doing Nothing

Little hints of drips pattering through the mesh of my bivy lulled me out of a dead sleep. My head swam with the heaviness sleep brings to the brain which seems to accompany really good dreams that are hard to wake from. Nevertheless, once the realization hits that its morning and you're about to get rained on, deciding to get up and pack up while everything is still dry becomes much easier. Get up and pack we did, and no sooner did I get everything packed away that the sky began unpacking its water load. Along with this increase in volume Bob invoked his powers of good fortune for us and turned into our dirt patch arriving in the nick of time to spare us a watery fate. I don't know how he timed that so well, but I also stand by that things tend to work out quite well for us when there's no lesson to be learned by it not working out well. We were once again returned to our gas station for more coffee.

Bob dumped us there before moving on with his day. We grabbed our coffees and crossed the street to return to Todd's mom. She welcomed us home not only with open arms but pancakes and bacon too.

Our stay wasn't too long with her, however, as Shelly came by to pick us up for a return to Ohio for the weekend. Shelly had also grown up knowing Todd's mom, though she hadn't seen her since she was a little girl. Todd and I decided to go grab some more coffee before leaving so they could visit on their own for a bit. Once we returned, though, we had a few parking lot group pictures then we three left for another memory lane tour.

This time, with Shelly, we hit new landmarks I hadn't seen yet, nor Todd, like the house she grew up in and grandparents homes. As well as those we had toured last week, but with renewed vigor to places like Mosherville where we wondered the village. The afternoon was grey and rainy off and on, but that was perfect weather for me to roll around the countryside in and hear their stories of family history in physical form.

Early evening brought us to Shelly's mom's house where Todd's last unmet sister, Lynn's, children were staying. Obviously since Todd has never met Lynn this was his first meeting with his nephews, Ben and Brad. At 16 and 14 they were noticeably well behaved. As Todd noted later, they stood up to us coming into the room to greet us, unprompted by adults even. We hung out for a bit there then picked up a subway dinner on our way into Indiana to meet another of Todd's nephews, Travis, as well as an ex-step niece, Kirsten, who really should simply be described as a niece but I like complicated formalities. These latter two are through Shelly, and are much older being in their 20s.

It was an interesting evening joining them all for this unofficial reunion. Its not every day you witness someone meeting their full family. It seems to be every other day for me this month, but not every day. When we were leaving they did their family picture thing and surprised me by inviting me to stand amid this new arrangement of cousins.

It was a late night driving home that night, but the introductions had gone quite well. After all the driving and meeting we were all ready to sack out once we got back to Shelly's. As it would turn out that laziness would persist.

Shelly had taken that weekend, and the next, off back when we were in Mass in anticipation of meeting Todd then. Its a strong reminder of how quickly we got here by Stacey's willingness to road trip to see what all we've done between arriving on the 1st and now. Shelly, however, normally works seven days a week and all three of us were in dire need of some serious down time for our own reasons. For that reason none of us had any qualms about doing anything but watch TV, lay out in the sun, and go for occasional strolls over the next three days. I think the one we all did it for the most was Shelly just to show her how beneficial relaxation is.

Friday morning Ben, Brad, and their grandmother showed up for an hour to see the cats. After that it was nothing but eating, sleeping, and chatting until Monday... and nothing could have been better.

Click here for Todd's perspective.