Saturday, July 19, 2008

Confessions of a back-slidden blogger

I know I have been recalcitrant on updating the old blog this week, but I do have a legitimate excuse.

Actually, I have THE legitimate excuse.

We’re moving.

I pick that tense with significant remorse since it is an on-going enterprise. The movers, God love them, came Wednesday and stuffed so much stuff in their truck that it’s a wonder it could still roll. But we’ve still got enough leftover at the old abode that I am spending my “off” Saturday driving a significantly smaller but still rented truck filled with the stuff we’ve still got to catch up on.

Moving is like going to the dentist, only more expensive.

Why, you might ask, would we put ourselves through this? My wife’s dogs, which aren’t terribly bright to start with, are having significant difficulty figuring out the answer to that. They’ve been confused all week.

The answer is quite simple, actually. His name is Eli.

The wife, Katy, and I have a grandson who’ll turn 2 in October. He lives in Oakboro, N.C. and we lived in Gastonia. It was about a 60-mile drive, each way, to see Eli and that was just entirely too far.

We’ve picked up and traipsed off to Stanfield, which I like to tell people is located in suburban Locust. We were west of Charlotte. Now we’re east and just a smidge south.

If you go to the end of our street and hang a right, you go past Stanfield Elementary School and swing a right through downtown Stanfield. No, there are no stop lights. Stay on that road a while and it becomes – I swear – Big Lick Road. One more right and a left or two and within about 15 minutes we can be at Eli’s. Or he can be here.

Eli has his own room at the new house, and as he gets a little older I hope he uses it a lot.

He’s the quintessential little boy. He’s got one of the best climbing gears I’ve ever seen. He runs just about everywhere he goes with a little sideways gait that makes it look like he needs to have his wheels aligned and balanced. He loves tractors and says that word as well as any other word he says with the possible exception of “paw paw” (which drives Katy a little nuts, to be honest with you).

We took him over to see the Kyle Petty Charity Ride stop in Charlotte the other night and the sight of a couple hundred motorcycles was the kind of sensory overload I love giving him.

One of these days, I’ll take him to a baseball game in Atlanta or to see the Carolina Panthers or the North Carolina Tar Heels play. (There are some N.C. State fans in the weeds of his side of the family, but I think Eli’s smart enough to see the light on that one.) And yes, I am quite sure he’ll be adding “race car” to his vocabulary soon.

Things will get back to “normal” some time next week. I head up to Indianapolis Thursday for one of my favorite race weekends of the year, and I am sure a lot of stuff will be going on there.

For now, though, I’ve got boxes to pack.
And move.
And unpack.

19 comments:

American Citizen said...

Good luck with the move. May the force be with you.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations and good luck with the move. Grandchildren are one of life's biggest rewards!

Bruce E Simmons said...

Ug.. moving. To the outside, an oddity at best. One day the neighbor is there, the next day, Poof: They're gone! It seems so easy.

From the inside, it's back straining, stressful, box packing time that makes the day feel like a 35 hour day and that's just the first half of the day when it's nice and cool, relatively speaking.

One of the last times I moved, all the beer and pizza were not enough to make my friends, my helpers day better.

It hit 118 degrees, one car took a pipe in the window on the freeway. Never ask what more could go wrong if something small happens. After the pipe incident, the rental truck broke down, and the tow truck that picked it up broke down.

It was a long day indeed that's left an emotional scar on me!

3KillerBs said...

"Moving is like going to the dentist, only more expensive."

Far too true.

At one point we did it 9 times in 13 years (not counting 6 weeks in company housing), and then again 3 years later. And neither of us is in the military!

Good luck with it all and I hope the new house doesn't have any significant undisclosed issues.

Monkeesfan said...

Eli is two? His mommy and daddy are in trouble now, because MINE! and NO! will be the two most evil words in the English language. ;-)

Anonymous said...

DAVID- Congratulations. You can never have too many grandchildren- and you can send them home after you spoil them. Good luck with the move.

duane said...

And when you’re looking for your freedom
(nobody seems to care)
And you can’t find the door
(can’t find it anywhere)
When there’s nothing to believe in
Still you’re coming back, you’re running back
You’re coming back for more

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time
...:)

Anonymous said...

No wonder you were stressed out in O'Hare on Sunday afternoon, with a move that soon! Hope you, the wife, the dogs, and Eli get you settled in very soon.

Mike Hutton said...

He'll be two in October? What are you waiting for? That boy should be in a quarter-midget already!

Congratulations on the new home, and I feel your pain about moving. The last time we did it, I ponied up and paid far too much money so that I didn't have to lift a finger - they even offered a box UNpacaking service! Somehow though, it was worth it.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Eli is going to love having Grandma and Grandpa so close! ENJOY!!!
Jessica in PA

Deadliest Kvetch said...

Good luck. Enjoy more time with the little one.

Anonymous said...

+1. Here's to little boys!

Anonymous said...

Eli is one cool kid and sure is a good reason to go through all that packing! But isn't the real reason that you wanted to make sure you didn't wear your fingers out before the big bowling tourney today?

Dennis
www.RaceTalkRadio.com

Anonymous said...

You know David, it's good that you occasionally write a column like this to show your more human side. Sometimes when you come out for the Chase you sound like a NASCAR-ESPN PR robot.

Just kidding man. Hang in there, it'll be over soon.

Kurt Smith

Anonymous said...

Eli's Coming....old song.
but, he just might sit on
a lap and "help" with a
blog or two. THAT will make
it a lot easier to keep the
blog up-to-date.

HEATHER said...

AAWWW!! That is one precious little boy!
You are doing the right thing. I know how my little boy loves his "Paw paw" so if we were that far from him there would be hell to pay!

Anonymous said...

Doesn't seem like Poole could be old enough to be a grandpa. I remember when you used to work for the Gazette and would do lunch next door at the Putt-Putt with hot dogs and video games (I was one of the college kids behind the counter).

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)

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