Still Waiting

This long goodbye is torturous!  Each time my phone rings or IPad dings you wonder “is this it?”  

I kept busy after my haircut yesterday cleaning the large linen closet for Kara.  If you need any Christmas linens, she’s your go to person!

We attended an Air Margaritaville band concert at a Troy city park in the evening.  It had three different “green grounds” and it took two of us on either side of the structures to keep up with CeCe.  She decided that running from one structure to the other, ducking into enclosed slides, climbing structures then taking off again for us to chase after her, was the most fun.  We could hear the music so I guess we accomplished two things by attending.  Afterwards we went to Ray’s ice cream shop.  

Friday we drove to Sam’s and bought gas, an apple pie and a key lime pie because everyone was coming for dinner.  When it was time for everyone to go home, CeCe ran into my arms and said “I want to stay here with you.”  It broke my heart to say she couldn’t stay but it filled up quickly with the knowledge she wanted to be with us.  Kara has enough on her plate with her job, house, two college students, us and a 3 year old didn’t need to be added to the mixture.  She has CeCe a lot but it had been a difficult work day for her and everyone needed a good night’s sleep in their own beds.  

Kara was still troubleshooting her work problem so we just hung around Saturday until 4 pm to go to Mass.  She suggested a new parish and we really liked it.  I think we will go there from now.  Kelly, Ally, Cassie and CeCe had all gone to see The Little Mermaid.  CeCe’s synopsis … “there was a bad man and he died and that was the end.”  Walt, obviously she was not impressed!  

We met up to have dinner at Noni’s one of our favorite restaurants with an extensive menu with something for everyone.  Patrick was kite boarding in Caseville and Bidkar had gone to Kalamazoo for his high school reunion.  So Ted and Bill were the only males in our group.

I had changed our reservation from 8/14 to 8/13 in Manistee.  I saw it was available and they agreed I could do that.  We have 10 days but are pretty sure we will have to leave here for Cincinnati at some point.  The longer we can stay the more value we will get from our non refundable $2000.  It is what it is.

We could not check in until 4:00 so we didn’t leave until almost noon.  If nothing else it lets all the Troy folks get “back to normal” without worrying about feeding and entertaining us, at least for a time. 

We arrived safely, made a stop at Meijer’s for some breakfast and lunch items then found our rented cottage.  It is clean and comfortable. The furnishings would not win decorating awards but serve their purpose.  There is a Queen and a Single down and more sleeping upstairs.  But there is no reason for us to go up!  

We drove into the center of town and being Sunday evening when most people have headed south to home, not much was open.  We tried the Bluefish Grille but it was a 45 minute wait and we ended up at TJ Pub where we sat at the bar, watched the FedcEx play off and had some tasty pub food.  I even ordered a hard peach cider on draft from their huge drink selection!  

We came home and spent time figuring out the TV.  I miss the days of “off and on,” channel 9 or 12, etc. At home if I couldn’t talk to my remote I wouldn’t be able to watch TV!  I couldn’t even tell you what numbers the three major networks are!   

We have no agenda yet.  There are friends in 3 different MI places we planned to meet up with but under the current situations, we don’t want to set up too much.  We are close to Traverse City and Mackinac Island but it is a bit of a drive so we don’t want to make plans until we have a handle on our plans.