Friday, September 26, 2008

Airplane it is . . .

*sigh*

Dad is of the mind that we should get there as quickly as possible and he didn't even "blink" when I told him how much it was going to be to fly us up there. (Dang . . . I hope I'm in that position with my kids someday). And as the airport is only an hour away, versus the train station which is three or four, this is simply the most sensible approach.

Anyway--now it's all about getting the money and ordering the tickets and planning out a thousand last minute details like convincing my long-haired sons to cut their hair at least some before my father sees them, buying them acceptable clothes before my father thinks I've lost my mind (t-shirts, jeans, peace neclaces, and long hair hmm . . .), and lecturing my eighteen year old often and repeatedly about his deportment in our absence.

I hate the idea of leaving him behind, but he's going for his honors diploma and the A-plus program (two year scholarship to college) doesn't want to risk his grades. Dad has already decided that Jeremiah can come spend a week or two with him this summer. Meanwhile, he's really excited about being on his own for a week with the car and the house to himself. Jeremiah is basically a good kid, a straight A student, highly involved in the church youth group, volunteering to be a camp counselor for two summers running, and plays Christian music with more than one group. He doesn't drink and doesn't smoke and runs with kids from homes similar to ours (meaning that the parents keep track of their teens and hold them accountable for their actions), but he is a kid and has been guilty of standard stupid kid things (like pretending to run one of his friends over with a pick-up truck--I found that one out by snooping on his my space page. In brief, he was really grounded for that one). Apart from being occasionally late and caught a major lie or two (he's disturbingly good at this, but so was his Dad as a teen and his Mom has a pretty decent BS detector) we've had no real problems with him. But I'm naturally going to be worried.

And then there's that going up in the air thing . . . That's just not natural . . .

2 comments:

Scotty said...

Sounds like there are opportunities here for everyone.

Dad gets to see his daughter and grandkids, a young man gets to prove his maturity and trustworthiness, and someone might get an opportunity to learn to enjoy flying maybe...

Mary O. Paddock said...

Yeah, it should be a great experience for everyone.

I've had a phobia of airplanes since I was a kid. I'm sure it's all tied up with where I was going I rode them (to see Dad). That and the fact that in my first ride ever (to see Dad) there was this really big storm that kind of threw the plane all over the place. :)

I'll just let Gary sit by the window and tell me how great the passing traffic looks. :)