40 vacation update

40

Not really much to report on the Dad situation. He is resigned to using his vehicle when we go on vacation, but not to letting my husband drive. So my mom and I will have to do all the driving. I hate driving. Oh well.
We are hoping he will agree to stay for the whole week-last year he came back after 2 days. If he wants to come back, Will & I are just going to rent a car and stay. We haven't been on vacation in over a year and we're not coming back early. The only time I ever came back early from a vacation in my life is when my grandma fell in Provincetown and broke her ankle. I remember how pissed off my grandfather was, because he was having a good time. (He wasn't mad at my grandmother, but at the situation.)
He was very upset that I was going away over Memorial day weekend (to see Tlakaelel-see my other blog.) That meant I wouldn't come over on Friday night to play cards and eat popcorn, and I wouldn't be at Grandma's on Sunday. I did stop by one night that week, because a high wind had hurt many of my plants and I needed new pots and potting soil, and he was so sad that he wouldn't see me that I finagled my mom into having a memorial day "picnic" on Monday night when I came back. I ended up leaving Chaplin earlier than I had planned, so I had plenty of time to take a shower before I went there, which was good because my mom's best friend was there too. She is a sweet lady. Her boyfriend (I always thought it was her husband!) died last summer and she's been sad and lonely so my mom's been spending a lot of extra time with her.
Her name is Janet and my mother-in-law's name is Joanne and I know my dad confuses their names, but when he sees them he knows who is who (that Janet is my mom's friend and Joanne my husband's mom) but not which name goes with which lady. Ah, what's more important? A name or the relationship? And I never knew my husband hadn't met Janet before, so that was nice too.
We are going to bring all our cards, including Waterworks, on vacation. I am going to pop lots and lots of my special popcorn, but with no butter. There's a microwave in the breakfast room we can use to melt the butter for each night's bowl of popcorn.
I am looking forward to it.