Summer 2010 - Phase I

Summer 2010 Phase I
6/21/2010 11:12:44 PM
Each summer Martha and I have to juggle a series of trips back to the midwest - and this year presented some new wrinkles. Patrick and Nathan went to camp at Camp Highlands in northern Wisconsin (Nathan for the first time) just as school ended. Normally we'd put them on a plane to Chicago where they'd be picked up by the Camp counselors. But this year I drove them back - in my new car - stopping off at Tom & Joan Smith's in Indiana. The scheduling was fortunate since my Chicago "Picnic Band" friends were plotting a practice for that weekend and it allowed me to join. Dropped the boys off on a Sunday morning, did the practice that day, stayed at my aunts through Monday and drove back to Virginia by myself on Tuesday.

Back in VA, the quiet of the house was eerie. Just Martha, Chris and me (and sometimes Jamie when he was around). We missed the 'little guys' terribly and Chris suffered a bit of overload from mom's more intense focus on him. But three weeks later - July 8 - Martha drove back to Chicago to pick them up; stopping to see her college roommate in West Virginia, and the Smith's in Indiana. After getting the boys in Chicago, she took them to stay at her sister's in Evanston, went out to see my aunt in Lake Zurich and then up to Castle Park in Michigan. In the meantime, Chris and I were home alone - again, with Jamie making fleeting appearances. I tried to minimize the time I had to be working downtown over the next few weeks; taking him to work at Endless Summer Harvest, up to Frank's for lessons and out on driving lessons since he's just gotten his permit.

On July 26, Chris and I flew from Dulles to Midway, bopped around Chicago for a few hours, then got on Amtrak for the ride up to Holland. I was thrilled to see Martha and the boys. I hadn't seen them in almost six weeks. And it was nice to begin some kind of personal vacation and get some relaxation. The following Friday I arranged to drive over to Chicago with the van. I arranged meeting with Wade Nelson, Ellen Warren and Thom Serafin at the former Ricardo's - and had asked Bob Allen and Matt Osterholt to join us. Bobby & Matt ultimately didn't make it, but I had a wonderful time. We'd also arranged for Jamie to fly into Chicago that day and he took the "L" out to Oak Park to stay with former neighbors, the Helwigs. On Saturday, I drove down to pick him up and went back to Lake Zurich and then took him with me to Dan Van Schindel's - where Dan really bent his ear on how he ought to be moving on with his life. (I could not have scripted it better myself). We took my aunt out to dinner at Hackney's and decided we'd go back to Castle Park that night. Jamie drove most of the way -- sometimes a little too quickly -- and we had some very good bonding chats -- arriving around 1:00 am.