Brisingamen End Of Year Note, 2022 (September)

December 30, 2022

September was the last time we had a scheduled game night with friends. We only had nine scheduled this past year, two of which were cancelled, which is so, so, so much lower that the 52 game nights a year we used to do in 2017-2019. I think it’s the traffic here. There is no traffic where we came from, so there was no stress getting together. This constant traffic is disgusting out here. But, regardless, I intend on getting game night on the calendar much more frequently in 2023.

Labor Day Weekend was upon us, and I hadn’t scheduled camping or any other multiday encompassing event. Lucas and I had been discussing how had it was to travel in our VW (iQ would be near impossible). So we discussed purchasing a van – a full size van – a conversion van – used of course. Vans are expensive! Wow! But we found an old one here for $10,000. Now look – I know it’s an old van and I know what $10,000 means in the automotive world today. However, I wanted to take a look at it for comparison purposes – and honestly, if we liked it, we could have bought it.

My dad owned vans while I was growing up and road trips were a thing. Whether it was going to a meat market or going on vacation, the van made travel easier. (You try putting bull heads in barrels in a car – see how that goes). We also took people with us to movies (drive-in) on vacation to Cedar Point, the Brickyard 400, or wherever. My dad’s 1990’s Ford Econoline Van was one of the vehicles that I used to learn to drive. I wanted Tawbs to have similar experiences as I enjoyed as a kid.

We test drove the van. It was a 1990 Dodge Ram Van. Huge. Green. Overly plush seats. Running boards. TV. Lights everywhere inside. Ashtrays in the back seats. Back seat folded down flat into a bed. Probably got 6 miles to the gallon – on the freeway. It was exciting! But, obviously, the van needed work. Worst part was, the suspension was bad. The van would sway from side to side while driving straight.

So that was not the van for us, even though I liked all the tacky features, and I loved being in it and I loved the price. We looked at almost new vehicles later on in the day, for comparison. They looked great! But I didn’t want another loan. So we stuck with our VW for travel and our iQ for daily life.

We went to the American Helicopter Museum the same day we test drove the van. It was a very enjoyable time looking at all of the helicopters and learning about flight. Tawbs was all in, very excited. I didn’t know there were 3 main different ways in which helicopters achieved flight. But we learned about it. We got to go in a couple of them. Good fun.

The next day we went to the Bucks County Children’s Museum. I would really like to go back and explore that area. It’s miles of beautiful scenery along the Delaware River and then a superb downtown on the state boarder. Very cool. I realized earlier this year we have not explored very many downtowns or shopping areas. Besides of Ollie’s and Black Fridays, I believe I have only been to a Target twice while we have been here – otherwise we don’t shop! Any way – the museum! There was some water table play, a fun place to uniquely “dig up fossils,” a playhouse, extra large Operation game, energy and force experimentation, play pretend medical/emergency medical field workers game, and several other things. Again, good museum. We did have to pay for parking though.

Upon our detour to look at vans that day, we accidently stumbled upon a “dinosaur lot” in Doylestown. It’s an antique shop that would sell everything on the property – including garden statues and metal work. We stopped in because we saw the dinosaurs (Google Doylestown Dinosaurs, you’ll understand). Everything was for sale, but I only saw one worker there, in back, working on medieval like stuffs. Otherwise, we were able to peruse everything, including the super cool dinosaurs. Amazing surprise – and an excellent free stop!

And that evening, Catawba-Lynn and I went to Longwood Gardens with a friend and her son. She even bought an extra ticket for Lucas – but he didn’t come with (oh no!) So we decided our two families would plan to go in winter to see the winter lights. That night, we were there for a different light show. It was a great show – hard to explain though – it’s art and I’m not an artist. Some lights flashed with “radio” music. Some made it feel like a rainstorm was evident. Others were displays. The kids did remarkably well together, and we enjoyed our time walking through the garden. We are looking forward to the winter light show together.

We switched rooms around in the house. Our living room is now in the back of the house where the playroom was and that feels great. The “classroom,” which I have yet to set up, is strewn about in the front on the house, where the living room used to be. It is much more open up front when you walk in the house, as Luke’s collection of tabletop games went into the living room, and they no longer create a tunnel for guests to walk through as they come in the house. But I need to put work into the classroom. It is a hectic mess. Catawba-Lynn likes her playroom upstairs where the “classroom” used to be. Which is great, that made moving the rooms around a success; I just need to get the classroom in order. Tawbs did tell me, however, she wished she had her playroom in the basement like Gabe and Logan – the whole basement! We had just rearranged everything – Tawbs’s toys, her giant purple stuffed animal zoo from Uncle Connor and ShayLa, her bins of Legos and Duplos and dolls and dinosaurs and tractors and finished crafts and her ball toy box – all upstairs in the playroom put away – but! But I’m a good mom! I offered to move all of her toys into the basement for her and use the upstairs room for something else – no issues here! I could do that! “It’s not the same! We don’t have a basement like Gabe and Logan!!” she huffed. (Theirs is finished – ours used to take on water and is crumbly and dark). “Yep, and they don’t have a second story like we do – looks like room placement will have to do! : ]” I responded.

That night upon laying in bed, scrolling through Facebook, I noticed on one of my mom groups that DelcoLand Mini Golf was celebrating it’s one year anniversary. They would have news reporters and cameras out there to record and celebrate their moment. DelcoLand was inviting children to come out and play for free. After filming was done, kids were allowed a free kids meal! I worked classwork around us going to DelcoLand. Catawba-Lynn and I played five rounds of golf and truly had a great time. It’s a well maintained, beautiful space with picnic tables and firepits in a gravel area. I appreciate the large wooden fence that surrounds the property, as it helps one forget where they are. Each of the 18 holes represents a different part of Delaware County. (I know that sounds stupid – you forget you are in Delaware County while playing miniature totally designed around Delaware County – but I don’t know how to explain it. It is amazing being up on a bridge leading into Philadelphia proper, looking at the city and knowing that our family is a tiny part of it. But as soon as I enter Philadelphia proper, it contorts my soul. It is hard living in such a congested, different area. You know what makes “flatlands” nice? You can look out and see – any and everything. You can see for miles. You can see that there are two three roads and six houses, for miles. You can’t see anything here. There is traffic and houses everywhere. But it’s like the zombie apocalypse! There are millions of people in the area, but you never see them. They are not out walking – they are definitely not at the library – not on the trails and in the parks – I can’t find the millions of people that live here. I mean – they’re in their cars, all over the roads, but it’s so weird. Any way.) It is only $5 to play – $2 on Tuesdays. I would like to make this a prominent feature in our monthly schedule next year! I am very appreciative of a small business freebie. Tawbs was handed a DelcoLand long sleeve shirt – which she was excited about. And her kid’s meal? It looked and smelled great, even had enough to take home and share with her dad.

A couple of days later we went to Norristown Farm [State] Park as a family. I would go here again. It was very enjoyable walking through calm trails with a large white barn in the foreground. There is even a treelined story walk. Norristown Farm [State] Park borders Elmwood Zoo – another great places. Would love to go back. To both. Same day!

Couple days later, Catawba-Lynn and I attended her first 4H Cloverbud meeting of the year. It was hard because 4H is on the second Monday of the Month and Irish dance is on Mondays (and Termite home games were on Mondays – so she couldn’t be in football) which meant that we had to leave Irish early to arrive to 4H late – I hate doing that! But, luckily, we were told the 4H meeting times were going to change. Our meetings were going to be pushed back 30 minutes – so it was a win for us! Catawba-Lynn’s 4H classes would be based a bit more in science as opposed to crafts only. I was thrilled and thankful. (I’m so tired of showing up everywhere late. That’s changing in 2023).

Annnnd the next day Catawba-Lynn and I had an ocean day with Justine and her boys! Wisconsin! Swimming in the ocean, mid-September! Not freezing! Incredible! We started with parking at Avalon beach and playground and eating lunch – then we walked to an educational, environmental, ecosystem hike. We learned how amazing the beach is in the Avalon beach area – the 4+ unique ecosystems exist in less than a mile – from the road to the sand of the beach. Wow! Beautiful – and super cool it was preserved, and we could experience it! We walked along the beach collecting shells (that we left at the beach) and looking at the seagulls and waves. Eventually, we set up camp, the kids splashed in the powerful waves and built sandcastles and rivers on the beach. Seagulls accosted us – in a blatant fight for our food. And super cool – the kids found a horseshoe crab buried down in the sand! The kids also found a whole consortium (correct word) of “night crabs” (ghost crabs) scuttering across the sand – we almost stepped on them! Justine and I took pictures of the kids in the light of the setting sun. We walked over to the bathrooms to use them and to change out of our swimsuits – when we realized the bathrooms were locked. We closed the beach! However – now we needed to find a Wawa gas station to change the kids for our 2ish hour ride home. It was a great day. Magnificent!

I’m in charge of keeping track of maintenance on the vehicles, as I’m the one who drives them. We were a couple of weeks outdated on our state emissions testing and safety inspection, as I was waiting for the paperwork or a reminder to come in the mail like it does in Wisconsin, but no, we just remember to do it out here. You can literally let it go until you get caught and then you are fined. (Which might be what I do with the VW next year, but I’ll get back to that later). So, I took the iQ in for inspection – all good. I took the VW in and asked about the lights intermittently working. The VW passed inspection after replacing a front running light. The guy said he cleaned up the connections of the rear lights, but I would have to take it to a dealership to have it fixed and that was going to cost me a lot of money. Okay – it’s fine – he tried to help me out. I asked him if he reset the replace light warning on my dash that would go off every time I started the car and he said, “Nope. Don’t know how. That’s what you get. Shouldn’t have bought a VW.” What? Shouldn’t have bought a VW? My VW is sitting in my garage with 210,000+ miles on it – and this light issue is the first issue we have had with it! I think we have been pretty lucky so far! Shouldn’t have purchased a VW? Why? Because YOU a MECHANIC doesn’t know how to reset a warning light after I paid to have the light fixed due to state-imposed extortion?! For fucks sake, the work ethic out here. Fuck! But I couldn’t say anything because the VW was the first to go through emissions, the iQ was due to go in the next day, and if I would have pushed the issue, the iQ would have had things that needed to be fixed. So, like a spineless twit, I let it go and allowed him to do a partial job while I paid a full fee – because the state of Pennsylvania is set up to fail its citizens.

This house must not have been built for a cheap ass like me to live in it, because I don’t run the air conditioner; 84 degrees in the Summer, 65 degrees in the Winter – comfort costs too much money. We’ve experimented with different ways to cool our house in the Summer. Any which way we do it though, it’s always humid. So much so that our refrigerator fills with water and freezes. We have to take it apart and chip away accumulated ice. Any way. Lucas bought us a fan. Not just any fan, no. This fan, which bolts into the window frame, is so powerful, that when in use in our upstairs bedroom window, it closes doors on the main floor of the house. This fan. He is so damn proud of this fan! We will see how this works in the Spring. Because there is no snow here in the Spring. It’s hot.

Norwood, PA is a good place to live. I complain a lot – with very valid complaints – but Norwood is a good place to live. We are lucky to be here. There is a Norwood Community Day yearly, which is really quite spectacular. There are vendors and food trucks, church raffles, live music and other fun children’s activities. Giant bubbles (Colorado style), blow-up bounce houses and activities, a climbing wall, petting zoo and pony/horse rides were there this year. Tawbs had fun in the bounce house, obstacle course and slide. She enjoyed petting each species of animal and rode every horse and pony. She chased after bubbles and popped them until she was a soapy mess. And she looked mighty awesome going up the climbing the wall. I was super proud watching my 6-year-old in harness, working on vertical climbing. The muscle definition of her arms, shoulders and back is beyond impressive and I am just so proud of her. I have never had upper body strength. (Lower body strength, my legs – in high school and early 20’s when I weightlifted – before the car accident – I could brag about. Top notch. Upper body? Nothing. Never). I have a video of her climbing and I’m so glad, because she looks gorgeous.

The next day we went to the Hershey, RV Show. It’s advertised as the largest in the country. We went in 2021 and now 2022. We already have 2023 marked in my Legend Planner to plan for next year – so if anyone wants to come out for it, we have a spare bed and I think I am a decent host – I try to be!

We got to the show a little later than I wanted to be, but no issues. The most important thing I wanted to do was meet Mandy Lea. She’s one of the few people I follow. She’s from, or her base is in, Fort Collins, CO (So is Dude Dad from YouTube, now) but she and her fiancé live out of their NuCamp trailer (slightly larger than a teardrop, but commonly referred to as a teardrop) full time. We got to meet her – I got to say hi – and I had nothing else to say, so… awkward… but! I said hi! We looked at the NuCamp and I knew how NuCamp was priced compared to other brands and models and…I was stunned! I knew camping became popular during Covid. I knew teardrops were becoming mainstream. I understand inflation. Yet, um, I was surprised by the price. So, I knew that dreaming of a trailer was a totally moot point within my current budget, so we just wandered about aimlessly looking at everything as opposed to looking at specifics for data collection. I couldn’t afford anything – data collected – got it. Wandering lead us to Torchbearer Hot Sauces and Luke picked up some of those. And then we happened by the main scavenger hunt – which we focused all our energy on to complete before the show ended. We each got a king size candy bar for completing it. We didn’t win the drawing. We saw the Delaware State Parks booth and headed that way. They have an Airstream and they were having a naming contest for it. I submitted the name DelaStream and Luke thought up Delahere. Neither of our names made it to the final voting. The winner was Delawanderer, so we were on the right track.

Couple of days later we were on the road to Wisconsin! We were on our way to the 19^th annual Camp-Inn Camp-Outt! The best teardrop gathering there is – where we showed up with barely a tent! Anyway, I do the driving and Luke works along the way. However, this trip, our car, pets, packing, Oh my gosh. Too much. Lucas rode with a giant bag of snacks on his lap the whole way to Wisconsin, as the rest of the vehicle was filled with 3 dogs, Gram and his mini cage, a kid, and her stuff, camping supplies, regular visit supplies and wedding attire. The trip was long, but we must have snuck in, as we didn’t get pulled over by Wisconsin police.

We got in late. The next day, my dad drove us around to look at vans and schedule the VW at a dealership to look over the light issue. I verbalized the issues and said I worried it was an electrical issue or a larger issues than just the light. I took the time to write these thoughts out on the work slip. Everything was set to drop the VW off after camping.

Camping. Wisconsin camping. Teardropping. What could be better? For our potluck contribution, we stopped at the Pinecone to pick up dinner rolls. (Pennsylvania – these dinner rolls are bigger than both of your fists held together). We stopped at Elderbrech’s Cheese to pick up a snack for camping. We got set up on Thursday and headed out to find food. I don’t like cooking while camping – I cook all the time and don’t want to deal with the work while camping. I would rather eat bars and sandwiches and granola instead of fiddling with heat and plates and dishes, but I married a diva who demands hot food every day. So yay, we drove to a grocery store to find food. On the way to the Bent and Dent grocery store where we bought all of our exotic, gourmet treasures, I bought a raffle ticket at a gas station for a tiny house built by the local high school. Obviously I hoped to win – I really wanted to have the opportunity to ask my dad to drive a tiny house a third of the way across the country. Again, we didn’t win.

We had a great time talking with old friends. I’ve been a part of the teardrop community, the group, since 2006/2006 – my first gathering being Cooler Near the Lake 2, April, 2008 – when tornado warning winds flattened my tent and I spent the weekend with my dogs sleeping in the cab of my 96’ Dodge Dakota. I was 19. Hay! I’m soon to be friends with these people for half my life! Tawbs made friends with a YouTuber’s kids (Playing with Sticks). And it rained. And rained. And rained. We set up two tents. The smaller one had a hole in the bottom and took on plenty of water with no one in it – from the bottom and the sides. The big one – the one we were sleeping in – well, that one took on so much water that we put the necessary space heater (Wisconsin, not Pennsylvania, it gets cold in September) and electrical plug on shoes and suitcases in hopes we wouldn’t get electrocuted while sleeping in water. I had to ties Jude to my arm so he wouldn’t get up in the night and wander around and hit the space heater and kill us all. So much water. The dogs were soaked, I pulled Tawbs towards the middle of the tent so she might sleep instead of be forced to swim in the moat along the edge of the tent. Lucas and I laid in the tent and shined a light up at night. You know the misters you walk through in the summer at the zoo? That’s how it was inside the tent – at literally 44-degree weather. But it was a great weekend. The tents were old – from my childhood. We salvaged some of the parts and threw the rest out. When we got back to Milwaukee, we dropped of the VW and rested.

During our Wisconsin visit, the three of us went to Connor and ShayLa’s house to eat tacos. They broke the bad news to us that they were pregnant – ShayLa even had a cute way of showing us they were pregnant. She walked out with a wine glass with [milk] in it and said, “Well, this is how I have to drink my wine now.” At first – honestly – I thought she was going to down half a bottle of Rumchata – I really liked her style, go you, ShayLa. But it didn’t smell like Rumchata. Was she sick? Ulcer? Battling alcoholism? Cancer? What was she trying to tell us?! I stood there totally puzzled staring at her. She just kept smiling all excitedly. “Well, she’s not dying.” I pondered. “Umm, why?” I asked. “Because I can’t drink alcohol…!” she said – still happy, still excited, why too excited for not being able to drink alcohol, in my opinion. I looked around for some help, but I was still lost. “Because we’re pregnant!” she practically jumped up and down. “Oh. Um. Ah. Hmm.” is about all I had for her. I suck at this pregnancy thing. No one yells at Tomo when he doesn’t squee with delight when he sees a clown walking a garden gnome holding a tarentula – but I get yelled at when my Tokophobia kicks in and I’m not ecstatic that a parasite is sucking the life force out of the poor woman in front of me. That’s okay, Tawbs took it even worse.

Tawbs got angry. And then she cried. And then she got even angrier and yelled “No one listens to my mom!” She stomped. I took her out to the vehicle to untangle that bag on worms. Tawbs was upset because I tell everyone to not have kids. Because, why not? So even though Tawbs is a pro at not listening to me, she expects everyone else to. Honestly, if you are on the fence about having kids – don’t do it – as a whole new life is not worth the gamble of testing out whether you might like this new experience of being a parent. And I’m glad Catawba-Lynn understands that stance on it. She also was very upset that more people would be on the planet due to the environmental impact. I remember being young – I remember seeing things in black and white. I miss it. She’s happy for Connor and ShayLa – but she is also concerned for the environment. Go ahead and tell her she’s wrong – she’s not shy – she’ll argue her point. The tacos tasted good – thanks ShayLa! Sorry it wasn’t the response you were looking for.

The next day mom was off, so we drove to Manitowoc. My cousin, Mike, came with. He wanted to go Goodwill shopping and we thrift shop in the areas we travel to – so that worked out. We went to Manitowoc to look at the outside of homes that were for sale – to do price comparisons against what we were paying in Delaware County. And to compare against any other zany ideas that might creep into my mind. I didn’t have to say anything – everyone in the car knew that Lucas and I were looking at houses. Which of course excited my parents even though I told them not to think much of it – and I knew gossiping would occur – Mike would tell all the rest of the family, and everyone would be looking for when we were moving back to Wisconsin. But, whatever. While we were in Wisconsin, I needed to try and get a pulse on what was going on in Wisconsin. To cap the day, my brother, Matthew, came over that night and he and Lucas indulged in Patron.

Tomo and Becca’s house is beautiful! They too have an American Foursquare! The next day we went over to their house to play tabletop games. I felt bad – Becca made enchiladas – even bean enchiladas, but I ate too much chips and salsa, so I could only eat a couple of enchiladas. They tasted great, I wish I could have had more! It was really good catching up and having the little cousins play together. It was good to sit down and do games again.

What does Dianne do when she’s stressed? She walks and hikes and walks and hikes until it goes away. I started to get stressed, and I started to pace and I couldn’t keep it together, so the next day I took Catawba-Lynn and Sessrumnir to…Pike Lake. Where we hiked until I could think straight and feel calmer. We stopped in at Scoop De Ville and at the Hartford Library to say “Salut!” Then we drove back to my parents’ house, got cleaned up, and my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, Nicole, and us three, went to Fox and Hounds for dinner; one of my favorite restaurants. Yes, conflicting; a vegetarian who loves an old hunting lodge. Yep. I wasn’t always a vegetarian. I’ve gone hunting and help butcher – there’s still hope for you meat eaters to join the good side. ; ] We got back to my parents’ house and we were just hanging out when my mom’s car alarm went off. I went outside to take a look – as she owned a Hyundai – and her car has been messed with twice prior. No one seamed to be there, but yes, her car was in emergency mode. So someone was fucking with it, but us turning on the lights and coming outside must have made the would-be-thieves travel down the alley, like turds down a trench – very similar as to what car thieves are. I truly hope Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis all go under. I wish. I will never buy any of those vehicles.