Daddy-O

Today is Father's Day. It is also the first time in all my 28 years that my Dad has been somewhere other than home on Father's Day. Dad recently took a new job that requires him to travel around the Eastern U.S. quite a bit and to be gone for weeks at a time. Right now he's in Ohio...and we are all in Kentucky, which obviously leads to a bit of a problem when it comes to spending Father's Day with my Dad.

Never fear! I am a gypsy by nature, so my solution was to pack up everyone and drive to Ohio for the weekend.

It took a mighty big heap o' plannin' to get the job done because it was all Top Secret stuff. See Dad works with his nephew, my cousin, BJ. The way the job works, is they travel from place to place, never really staying in one town for more than a few days at a time. So its a wee bit difficult to keep up with their current location...especially when you are trying to anticipate a weekend move without letting the cat out of the bag about a surprise holiday visit. ;-)

With a little help from the boss man, we were able to find out their current hotel name and room number without the menfolk finding out. So bright and early Saturday morning, Mom, my baby brother Dillon, and I loaded up in my car and picked up BJ's girlfriend Laura and their son, Hyatt, and we all headed North towards Ashtabula, Ohio. Actually, when we first headed out, all we knew was to head towards Cleveland...we really had no idea where they were at until we got a wee bit closer to them.

After roughly nine hours on the road (give or take a couple of hours for pitstops), we pulled in front of their hotel window. Dad later said, "I thought that looked like your car, but I knew it couldn't be. You were in Kentucky and nobody knew where we were at anyway." Never underestimate me...that's all I know to say. :-P

So Saturday night we all loaded up and went to nearby Geneva, Ohio and at some yummy Chinese food as a Father's Day treat. Then Mom rented a hotel room just for our little family, so that BJ and Laura and Hyatt could spend some time together as a family as well. Plus, seven people can't really fit in a hotel room only big enough for two. ;-)

It was nice having the families together. Dad has only been gone a week but we miss him around here. That's the longest he's ever been gone from Nunn Road his entire life, believe it or not. BJ was surprised to see Laura and Hyatt too, but I know it was a great surprise for him as well.

We hung around the hotel room until around noon on Sunday and then we headed back to Kentucky. It was a short trip, but it was a great surprise for the daddies. And I think it was a great Father's Day gift for them as well, because when we got ready to leave, BJ said, "This has been the best Father's Day ever." :-)

Hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

Here are some photos from the trip. I took them with my phone, so they aren't the best, but at least its something.

(Hyatt getting tired on the way up there.)

(Much needed break for H.D.)

(He wouldn't sit still long enough for a picture.)

(Dillon pretending to be domestic in the hotel room.)

(H.D. and the "blue" light. lol.)

Daddy

Note: Please do NOT tell me what is wrong with my Father's health. Yes, he has high blood pressure. Yes, he needs to go to the doctor. No, I can not do anything about this. He is a Nunn male. Nunns have a tendency to NOT go to the doctor when they should and the male members of the family are the worse ones for that. He knows he should go, but he won't. I can't do anything about that. I've talked to him repeatedly, but it doesn't work. If I thought something I could do or say would make him go, then believe me I would do it, but it will NOT work. So please, do NOT add extra worry to my life by telling me how unhealthy he is or isn't. It frustrates me. It worries me. And to be honest, I don't need that...because I worry enough as it is. Thank you!

Now that THAT is over, I will say this...

This weekend is Father's Day and this weekend my Dad will be far, far from home for the first Father's Day since he became a Daddy 28 years ago.

Dad took a new job. He lost his dairy farm last year due to circumstances beyond his control and since then, he's been unemployed. We were fortunate enough that when he sold the cattle he had enough extra money left over to be able to pay the mortgage and some other necessary bills while he was "in between jobs." That money is running low however, so when my cousin B.J. offered him a chance to come work with him, Dad took it.

The only real issue is that he will be gone for seven weeks at a time. Not just gone a little ways away, but gone to various different states...hours and hours from home. Dad has never had a job quite like this before.

I'm glad that he's back to work. I think it is a job that he will enjoy. I've inheritated that gene of wanting to do work outside from my Father. So I know how hard it is to be stuck in doors all the time. He is not a factory working kinda fella to say the least.

I am also very thankful that B.J. was able to get Dad on at this job. Dad has been unemployed for quite some time, but its not from lack of looking for a job. The economy is bad right now, especially if you are unemployed, have only a high school education, and are just shy of turning 50. These are traits my Dad possess and employers are unforgiving when they look at an application and see those things. So thanks to B.J. for taking Daddy along.

But we are gonna miss him around here. Its funny how quickly you miss someone and what it is that you miss about them. Its also funny that my Father would be the one to leave before me. :-) But I assure you if he had any other choice he would have stayed closer to home.

I guess I'm officially the "man of the house" now, since I'm the oldest and the only other "man" in the house is my 14 year old brother. So, note to anyone that thinks they might be able to get by with more since the big, scary intimidating hillbilly man is no longer here: Ummm...sorry about your luck punk, but I may be little and a chick, but I'm just as mean as my Daddy. He raised me well and the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree.

So anyway, this weekend is Father's Day and Daddy doesn't know it yet, but I'm keeping tabs on him each night. Saturday morning, once I find out where he is exactly, Mom, Dillon, and I are loading up in my car and heading out on a weekend road trip. I don't know how many hours we will have to drive, but we are going to go spend the Father's Day weekend with my Dad. We'll leave my Aunt and our cattle dog, Rosie in charge of the house while we are away and we will surprise my Pops with a visit from his kids and wife on his holiday.

In the meantime, please, no disrespect, but those of you that keep telling me all these really negative things about my Dad, read the NOTE at the top of the blog. 'Cause honestly, I don't want to hear it anymore. It does no one any good. Ya'll know how Daddy is anyway and all ya'll are doing is causing me more stress and aggrivation. Now that I'm the man of the house, I really don't need that anymore. ;-)

Day 8 Photos

(John Travolta's. One of many there, I just didn't want to have to post ALL the photos.)

(Jack Nicholson...again, one of many.)(Simon Cowell lives here...yuck!)(Santa Monica, CA)(Venice Beach, CA)

Hooray for Hollywood (Day 8)

Day out found us waking up in Anaheim only to brave the traffic to downtown Los Angeles. Yes...DOWNTOWN L.A. Good Lord! I thought the traffic was bad before...it was CRAZY that day!

Mom and I had made a reservation the night before for a tour of Los Angeles. It was to last six hours and hit all the "hot spots." Now, I don't typically like "tours" of this nature, but I KNEW after my first experience driving in Los Angeles traffic the day before that I was NOT willing to drive to all the places I wanted to see. So we booked a tour.

We were a little late to our pick up point, but no worries, because our driver was late as well. We ended up on the tour with an 86 year old lady from Florida and her 45 year old son, a mother, father, grandmother, and 4 year old little lady from Australia, and our tour guide, who was from NYC originally. I was actually quite impressed with the knowledge of random information this tour guide possessed. Sure he knew a lot about Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Los Angeles. He knew a lot about California as a whole because he'd lived there for 12 years. But he actually knew a surprising amount about Florida, Australia, and Kentucky. While on the tour we all debated politics, immigration laws, taxes, the economy...you name it. So needless to say, it was quite an interesting tour. :-)

Anyway...

We spent six hours driving around Los Angeles. We got to visit the following places (and many more, but I can't remember them all): Griffith Park & Observatory where we also saw the Hollywood sign, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Kodak Theatre, Beverly Hills (yeah, I took some pics of the famous people's homes, but I wasn't really interested in all that anyway, so they weren't very good pics), Santa Monica, Venice Beach, the Farmer's Market, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Needless to say we were very tired after the tour, but as soon as we got back to the car, we hit the road and headed North back towards San Francisco. We drove until ten thirty that night and I was completely tuckered out. We found a hotel in a little town called Solvang, and settled in for our last official night in California.

Anyway...I have to say this about Hollywood and Los Angeles in general...honestly...I wasn't that impressed. I guess I had it all built up inside my head to be something bigger/better than what it really was. Really, L.A. is just another city. You have your more affluent places (like Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills) that are nice to look at and probably nice places to live, but then you have your flip side to those...your "bad" parts of town. L.A. seems to have a lot of those parts. The roads, the buildings, all of it were really run down and it just made me kind of sad. It wasn't the "dreamy" place that you think it will be from movies and whatnot.

Santa Monica was nice. I really, really liked it there. Venice Beach was pretty cool too. Griffith Park would have been nice to explore and there was an art show in Beverly Hills that I would have liked to just walked through for a little while, but there wasn't enough time. Everything else I wasn't very impressed with. :-(

Anywho...I'll post pictures on another blog. Promise. :-)