Sheep Guarding Llama

Wednesday.  This evening the Tocco clan set up an outdoor movie theater with our traveling video projector and the new shed.  The kids all loved getting to watch movies outside.  I never got to see the outdoor theater all summer, but Dominica posted pictures online.

For lunch today dad and I went up to Peppermint’s in Avon and had lunch there with Jenny Case.  I last saw Jenny at SpiceWorld in Austin last year.

Yesterday we dropped off dad’s car at the shop to get it looked at.  The word came back that the car is dead, his suspension punched through the frame of the car and it cannot be repaired.  He spent years getting this car picked out and he loves it.  He’s going to be very sad if no one is able to fix it.

I talked to Art and he things that a high school friend of ours will likely be able to weld something together to fix it.  So we are going to look into that.

Tuesday.  Today dad and I had to run up to Batavia to deal with some errands.  We had to get to FedEx and drop off some stuff that I needed to get shipped off so we hit the FedEx out by the new developments on the Buffalo side of town.

We stopped at Tim Horton’s there to get coffee and donuts while we were out there.

This evening I went down to the NTG Offices at the Ralstons’ and worked there for a while.  Then we decided to go to Letchworth to do some scouting and videos to prepare for MangoCon which is coming up in September.  We put in probably two hours out there getting pictures and videos.  I’ve not seen Letchworth in at least a year and possibly in two.  We took the girls there but it has been quite some time.

It is so hard to believe that going to Letchworth is not something that we do all of the time.  Growing up it was such a huge part of life; now we go years between trips there and I forget that the girls are not there enough to think of it as a place that they regularly go.

It’s also national selfie day.  I got to see the old train bridge that is being torn down.  It’s been there my entire life, it is not going to be the same Upper Falls without the old train trestle.

It was nice to get the see the park again.  It’s been too long.

It is Monday morning at dad’s in Peoria, New York.   No plans today.  Dad and I just hung out and relaxed out on the farm. We’ve not seen each other since Christmas in Galveston.  I’m out at his place all week while Dominica and the girls get time to visit her family in Frankfort.

It’s Father’s Day today.  I came out last night to dad’s place so that we could celebrate Father’s Day together.  I got a good night’s sleep and feel much better.  It has been nearly a year since I have been out to dad’s house.  Amazing how the time flies these days.  So much has happened since then.

More or less first thing we drove separately over to Geneseo and went to the Omega for breakfast.

We had a good day hanging out.  First in Geneseo for breakfast, then we dropped off the car and went back to the house and spent the day catching up.  In the evening we went over to Perry and had dinner at John and Sarah’s there.  I had the best fried shrimp dinner that I have had in a very long time.  I’ve decided that their shrimp is better than Red Lobster’s, for sure.

We had a very nice Father’s Day together.  Dominica and the girls spent the day out in Frankfort.

For the first time in 2016, we woke up in the United States!  Hard to believe that we have been out of the country since 2015.  Sure it was the very end of 2015, but still.  Such a long time away.

We would have slept in this morning but, given the time lag from Europe, we were all awake pretty early anyway, even without an alarm.  We got a great night of sleep, though, and are well prepared to get back on the road this morning.  I was up first at six thirty and Dominica not all that long after me.  We didn’t wake the girls up until we had to so that they could go down to get breakfast and in no time we were off on the road again.

We got out to Frankfort to Dominica’s parents’ house.  Truman the Boston Terrier was very excited to get to see us.   He has missed us.

We hung out for most of the day with Dominica’s parents.  In the evening I packed up the car and drove on to my dad’s house which is about three hours further to the west.  Tomorrow dad and I are celebrating Father’s Day together and also returning the rental van to Enterprise in Geneseo.  Originally it was going to get returned somewhere else, but Geneseo said that they would take it for us without any charge, which is awesome.  We love Enterprise.

It was very late when I got out to dad’s place.  We spent a little time catching up, but not too much.  I’m exhausted, all of the travel is catching up with me and we need to do things in the morning so more or less it was straight off to bed for both of us.

I’m sleeping on the futon in the basement.  My first time alone in a quiet space in a very long time.  I slept great.  The futon is super comfortable and the basement is very cool which helps me to sleep a lot.