Times are changing

As time passes I find that a lot of things change. Some for the better, some for the worse.

I'm glad I got to spend a weekend with my nephew a few years back as he is now busy raising a couple of kids. I do wish I could have hung out with my niece for a weekend but she started her family earlier as she is older than my nephew.

This next visit may be one of my last ones as a house guest as kids are starting to grow up and occupy the former guest rooms at their houses.

Besides things are getting crowded and I am finding I sometimes get in the way. It's hard to get into the rhythm of things as families with kids tend to be fast moving.

I know they'll let me crap out on the couch if push comes to shove and I might do that on Thanksgiving night as nobody should have to drive after a huge feast and a couple of snorts of cognac.

I'm going to start to scout out bed and breakfasts as an inexpensive way to go. The hotel/motel rates there are damned prohibitive, especially in the summer season.

Bed and breakfasts run the gamut of being luxurious and expensive to semi primitive and inexpensive.

I suppose if I were looking for a luxury vacation some would be nice but all I really need is a simple bed and a cup of coffee in the morning. An old GI cot in a closet is fine by me.

At Camp Perry I generally stay in a barracks room and it works for me. 

I really don't like fancy starched sheets and fluffy pillows. They do nothing for me. I can pretty much sleep anywhere and if the weather isn't too cold I can clean up in a creek of push comes to shove.

I remember visiting my family and hearing them tell me I looked fresh as a daisy after a long 10 of 12 hour drive. When I told them that I had just bathed in a creek a couple of hours earlier they just shook their heads.

Once I arrived at a class reunion after cleaning up for it in a creek. Nobody was the wiser until someone asked me about the drive. I told them I had just arrived in town a few minutes earlier and they told me I looked pretty fresh for such a long drive. I casually told her I had cleaned up in Silver Lake and she looked shocked. The guy with her told me I hadn't changed much. He knew as a kid I was a camper.

I had left my home in basically rags and an hour or two before I arrived I cleaned up in a creek and slipped on a well pressed shirt and nice pair of slacks.

Yeah, a hot shower would have been nice but I can easily make do with a creek, a bar of soap and my old double edged razor. 

I did find a bed and breakfast that made me laugh and if the schedule fits I very well may use it in the warmer months. It's actually a screened in porch! Actually between St. Patrick's Day and Thanksgiving it ought to be just fine and kind of a case of life going full circle.

When I was in about 6th grade I moved out onto the family screened in porch and that was my room between St. Pat's and well after Thanksgiving. A couple of years I stayed there year round.

There would be a couple of feet of snow on the ground outside and I would be tucked into a warm sleeping bag out like a light and waking up feeling like a million bucks.

I don't think I'd stay in the porch in January now but I suppose if push came to shove I wouldn't think to much about it and just crap out there.

Still, I do think that I am going to find one of the less extravagant bed and breakfasts out there and try and build a good relationship with the hosts so I can have them look forward to my visits. All I really need is a place out of the rain and an outlet to charge my cell phone and run my laptop.

The thing about bed and breakfasts is that I just need a place to sleep, a cup of coffee and a morning shower as I am going to be out and about and busy. It's not like I want to hang out there and need to be entertained.

Maybe when I retire I'll set up one of my unused rooms and open my own little bed and breakfast and serve biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Betcha I'll get an interesting clientele.





To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY