I kicked off a process and started to leave. I was a little concerned about leaving early but had purchased a flight and wouldn’t miss it. I found my friend on the BART train to SFO. After security we sat and reorganized. Then I went for drinks and washed my cup before boarding. I noted that I didn’t like Virgin America.
A the Vegas airport we got off and sat down at the first restaurant we saw. I walked away and made funny comments on Vox. My friend was amused. We had a pastrami and I had a drink. We grabbed the train to the next terminal then, where I had a whiskey and we waited for the my friend’s sister and brother-in-law.
When they arrived we went to the shuttle and found the rental. I played navigator as the five of us rode over the mountain. The little boy was not falling asleep so the girls sang to him. An hour later we were checking in at our hotel. We switched rooms because of the fans out back. They had to move the crib.
In the morning we heard the boy crying across the hall and knew it was time to go. We got up and headed to a restaurant called Moms. I had the usual breakfast fair. I met the owner- Mom- and my friend and I took a picture out front with an old truck and we also looked at a thrift store.
Everyone needed a couple things so we went to Walmart. I found a hat and a shirt. Then we went to Albertson's and got Starbucks before driving past the ice cream place on the way to grandmas house. They met us at the door. I initially thought grandpa needed help – he was really small – but he insisted on doing everything on his own
We sat down at first my friend’s brother-in-law was across from grandpa and I was on the couch with the others but the boy was particularly active so I eventually ended up across from grandpa instead. He had asked about my background and that's where he started talking to me about his past. He said he had been a surveyor in Santa Rosa. That was something that resonated with me
He had a standard story that he told where his father had said he wouldn't be able to pull weeds at the farm next door until he knew how to ride a horse. He had a pretty strong work ethic so he got a hay bale and put it next to a 55 gallon drum and got on the family horse. He also opened a bank account to keep his money and insisted that it was his own account and not a joint account with his father.
He went on to say that he had started in Santa Rosa looking for a job when he moved from the Dakotas. He had asked to be a survey her but had no license. He told the foreman that he should fire all of his soup surveyors because he was super good. He then showed the crew how to use a K and E candy transit. The forman was so impressed that received got a letter to go to SF and get a license then. He said he surveyed many tracks of land and every time he doubled an angle it was perfect.
He said that they were building the Santa Rosa freeways at the time. In the middle of all that he pointed up and said “the plane…” and I was caught off guard by this because I thought that the surveying was being supplemented by overflights. However he started talking about gunners and shrapnel.
Apparently had been shipped out at the end of World War II to fight in the battle of the bulge in Belgium. He went on to retell many stories then about the war. Some seemed too personal to recount. He described several others that were particularly heroic. However, I noted that most of his stories involved people doubting his assertions but in the end they realize that he's better than they thought. The essential of that whole digression was to tell me that he had learned some very useful skills in Europe and it proved to be what got him a job later in life: how to use a K and EE transit.
My friend had been speaking to her grandmother through all of this and I noted that grandpa had a tendency to repeat many of his stories. My friend had even related a the story about the haybale to me.
The boy had gone to take a nap at this point and I had gotten weary of listening any longer. At some point the conversation had switched to more general conversation. I had made several trips to the kitchen drinking water from the fridge. We did a few things after this when the boy had awoken. He had a train from Walmart.
Grandpa took us out to look at the yard. He had a bunch toys in the garage- air compressor, drills- and some tallish trees in the front. I noted that he had clearly spent years planting and maintaining the property. He also had spent a bunch of time interacting with neighbors. He showed me a shed that it customized. It also grown a bunch of evergreens. He had a Sequoia that was stunted and he pulled up all of the rest that he had grown.
I took a nap and later we all sat for casserole and coleslaw. There had been a pretty regular commentary regarding the family up to then and I told my friend’s mom her family was wonderful. We started cleaning dishes after we were done eating. Later several of us went to the hotel.
Much later we met up at the pool. My friend had found the experience fulfilling. The baby was asleep and his parents were lounging. I spent time conversing with the moms drinking beer.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.
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