Summer@Home: The Bliss of NOT Being at Home

We went on vacation this summer.

To many people, that's not a monumental statement. However, we don't actually go on vacation very often. We visit family at their homes. Or we visit family homes when the owners are not there. But I can only count three real vacations we've been on since Herb and I were married just over 10 years ago. This year was one of them.

Our oldest, Ian, is going to college in the fall. So honestly, we don't know how many more of these "everyone is here together at the same time" vacations we're going to have. So we splurged and went to Hilton Head Island for a week. It was my favorite vacation spot when I was growing up. I had so many fond memories of Hilton Head that I wanted to share it with my kids.

One of the things I didn't really expect was how freeing it was for me to be on vacation with the family. Other than the drive up and back — which Herb had to do on his own — it was easy for me to forget that I couldn't drive. For the most part, when we went anywhere, we were all going together. No disappointments for the kids from hearing, "I'd love to take you, but I can't because Dad's not here."

And we were bicycling distance from the grocery store.  Hallelujah and pass the peanuts! I could go to the grocery store. By. My. Self. I'm not sure that I ever actually did. But just knowing that I could was enough.

And it was a Piggly Wiggly, no less! You can't beat that with a stick.

[Piggly Wiggly ... yet another amazing memory from my childhood! But I'll write about that another time.] 

There were two particularly memorable events from our vacation that I'd like to share.

Summer@Home: How NOT to Run Fast

First of all, I apologize for wimping out. I've stopped counting the days of my Summer@Home because it just served to remind me that there have been too many days between posts.

Which means that I'm not writing enough.

Which means that I'm frittering the summer away this year just like every other frickin' year.

I don't need the guilt, so I stopped counting.

Sue me.

Anyway, one thing I have been doing this summer is attempting to get back into shape. After my little "episodes" got under control and I got my sea legs again, I decided to start running. So, not wanting to take it slowly or anything, I signed up for the Peachtree Road Race.

Summer@Home Day 44 — Meet Diane

Day 44
Yesterday evening, I bought a car. You may be thinking, "That's an odd thing for a person who is legally prohibited from driving to do."

You see, my car died a little while back. You can read her obituary here. Thelma was a good girl and served our family well. But when she breathed her last on the side of Highway 9 in Roswell, we knew that it was not in our future to try to resuscitate her. Again. So we had her towed to No Longer Bound where she is now a member of their "Cars for Recovery" program.

But we leave on vacation on Saturday, and  not too long ago it occurred to us that we would need to rent something to drive. Thelma had always been our go-to girl for family trips. Just last summer we drove to Maine and back with all four boys, our dog, five bikes and three kayaks. Herb's sedan just wouldn't cut it, even with just the boys and dog. So we rented a minivan. For more than $500. 

I almost cried.

Five hundred dollars to rent a car I didn't want? I mean, heck. I couldn't even write it off as an extended test drive. I've decided I'm an SUV girl, not a minivan girl. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) But that $500 could be put towards a car I really did want.

That pissed me off just a little.

OK. More than a little.