What a day! We drove to Lakeland, Florida to visit Jean & Reg Alexander who are staying with friends, Gigi & Tony O'Connor. They live in the spacious golf community of Cypress Lakes and we spied a couple of small gators sunbathing on the banks of scattered ponds.Reg treated us to lunch at Sorreno's Pizza where Tony met a double amputee who had returned from Afghanistan and invited him to play racquetball. As Tony said, "That guy's a hero." (Tony is missing three limbs, came in third in the previous Vermont gubernatorial race and generally runs circles around most people half his age). Gigi and Tony would later treat all of us with a delicious home cooked dinner.
In between, Chris and I took turns displaying the fruits of our labors, me with printed materials, Chris with various videos on her computer. We caught up on family business and filled them in with our various projects. We fed the bass and catfish in the pond out back. We took pictures and totally blew Jean & Reg's minds with Chris's iPod. Grandpa brought me a tremendous gift in the book: "American Young Man's Belt Companion," published in 1786. The original owner was my great (x6) uncle, Samuel Kendall, whose inscription lives on the last page.
It was wonderful to spend time with people whose knowledge of my life almost exceeds my own. Whose unequivocal love is apparent from the moment we pulled in the driveway. Who laugh with wonder at how an iPod works.
A lovely day.
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