Damn, it has been 18 days since my last entry. It has been a whirlwind of emotions, laughter, tears, growth, loss and craziness. Other than the excessive heatwave we've had here in Idaho, around the time of my birthday, it became a time where I couldn't think about me and my celebration, it was a time of mourning and a time to be with people I truly cared about. My wife lost her stepdad to cancer and other things that went wrong with him that I'm going to keep to myself and our family. Very hard to see this man go that I knew for 8 years and those moments that we shared talking about music, comics and movies.
I did the best I could to be there not just for my girl but her brother, their mom and our niece because all I wanted to do was to comfort them and be present. Life is way too damn short to bicker and be divided, when something like this happens, it's about family, togetherness and protecting one another. It wasn't as hard on me than it was for them because that's the man they knew for many, many years, close to 20 if I recall but it hit me a little differently because a little over 20 years earlier, my own stepdad passed that just tore me up and happened just before I finished high school. I never got to say my peace with him. Now, with theirs, I got a second chance in my own way. I got the opportunity and permission from their mom to use the music for his walk out before taking him to the funeral home, it was one of his favorite bands that did a cover of Lynyrd Skynard's Simple Man.
We laughed, we cried and just did what was best to make the best of things, regardless of how hard it was. Now, the twisted thing about all this is the time he died. I don't know if this was the man's last joke or some kind of cosmic way of making us laugh a little but the man died at 4:20am and he was an advocate on weed LOL. Some things that'll never leave your mind and puts in perspective why this life is so precious when it comes down to it. From there, we went from tragedy to being prepared for seeing my dad's side of the family for the first in roughly 4 years, going to Lake Tahoe.
The last time my wife saw my family was our wedding and the last time I did was in Nov of that year for my dad's 70th birthday so this was a major thing for both of us. Traveling for 12 hours in planes and cars, it could've been John Candy's & Steve Martin's Planes, Trains & Automobiles but with without the train. When I saw my dad, I just broke down and held him for what seemed like forever even though it was maybe 30 seconds. Did the same to my sisters, my stepmom and other relatives. It was like a huge wave of emotions coming out that I needed because this is the longest time in my entire life not seeing all of them.
Being back in Tahoe was the boost we both needed and spending time with each other was just incredible. Made some breakthroughs with my sisters and spending some time with my niece and nephews especially the youngest one. Going to the lake and jumping off the dock, exploring on the rocks, climbing the staircase that is a monstrosity, getting workouts in (mainly Isometrics & Swimming) including an Animal Workout near the stairs to the water and plenty of activities.
Went on a boat ride one day around the lake with my girl, dad, stepmom, aunt, uncle and my stepmom's friends from Boston (Accents and all). We went around an area called Emerald Bay where the water is not just crystal clear but as green as you would see in the Wizard Of Fucking Oz. Got to swim with my dad for a bit near a mountain with a small castle at the top called Valhalla (I so wish I had my Epic Sledgehammer with me, that would've been one of the coolest shots ever, hoisting it up and putting lightning in the background). Went around an area called Meeks Bay which is really cool because that's my wife's Maiden Name and she has distant relatives that owned or still operate it today. Overall, it was exciting and a lot of fun.
Another day was going to Virginia City in Nevada with my sister, her boys, her besties with her two daughters and the most awesome woman on the planet. I use to love going there when I was little, it was like time stood still as in you're in this old western town that seemed to never die out, you have shops where you can see paintings of men and women of the time, churches that just stand out in time and the cool saloons where cowboys and others drank, fought, cheated and died in. One of the most famous saloons in the town is the Bucket Of Blood where you can see this incredible view of the desert hills. Some of these places are said to be Haunted and I've been in some areas where Ghost Hunters came in and did investigations. Bought some souvenirs including decks of cards, a couple Street Signs for my nephews that says Beware Of Attack Brother just to make my sister laugh even though she at first gave me this cold stare and bought my sister a pink rose quartz crystal bracelet that she really loved. Holly brought her camera with her and put her Photography skills to the test and quite frankly, its unbelievable how these pics turned out.
After Virginia City, we headed out to Reno to meet up with our other sister and her husband with their party. Took the boys to Circus Circus across the way to go play in the arcade. Had a lot of fun there shooting hoops with my niece, winning lots of tickets, tried my hand at the punching bag and see what my score was; the highest they had was 956 and my best was 899 so not too bad for a guy who doesn't do a ton of boxing training. Bought my nephews Panda Express and went back to the cabins on our merry way. Spent a little one on one time with my dad, wished we had a bit more but hey when there's nearly 30 people in 4 cabins all together, you're bound to be hanging around others. Had beautiful moments of growth with my sisters and spent some time with my stepsister and her hubs that are officially going to be parents (Stepsis Macky will be a great mom and her hubs mike is a great guy that lives life to the fullest).
There was a bit of family drama but that's not only to be expected it might as well be mandatory (we do put the fun in Dysfunctional after all). I won't bore you with the details but peace was made in the end and that's what truly matter right? Overall, it was one of the most fun trips I've ever had since going there as a baby. In fact, now in 2023, it is now been 50 years since my dad started all this so it has grown to 4 generations of our family going there. Wish we didn't have to leave but got to face reality and move on to the next trip. We started our trek back around 7am and didn't walk back into the door at home until about 11:15pm, that was a day man but we got home safe, got in a short workout at the airport and finished off with 1 min of isometric push-ups at home.
Yep, that's been the highlights of these last near three weeks and things will be calmer and back to normal but then again normal is just overrated LOL. Keep being amazingly awesome guys and I'll be back to writing a lot more often.
