{"id":1741,"date":"2011-12-29T22:43:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T04:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:08","slug":"departures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/departures\/","title":{"rendered":"Departures"},"content":{"rendered":"

And, all of a sudden, it\u2019s time once again for the grand exodus from the Lund abode. My son-in-law, Joe, has been hauling up great stashes of luggage, Christmas presents and other odds and ends from downstairs (their home for the last several days) into the car and the journey back to Lincoln, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\"How

How does Santa do it? says son in law, Joe as he packs up his sleigh.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ChristmasThere\u2019s always a sadness when it comes time for this ritual especially since one piece of the precious cargo they\u2019re taking along is 10 year old Zoey. It was grandpa date night Tuesday so we went to see the movie, \u201cWe Bought A Zoo.\u201d We shared a bag of popcorn seasoned to her specifications with a white cheddar powder you can now purchase at theater snack bars. We both agreed that the film, about a widowed father (Matt Damon) who buys a rundown zoo in order to get closer to his two children, was good. I\u2019m always puzzled, though, as to why, when it\u2019s clearly a family movie, they feel obliged to include a few swear words in the dialogue. I slunk down in my seat a little bit out of embarrassment for Zoey, a fourth grader, who I know probably hears words like that and much worse on a regular basis but I\u2019d rather she wasn\u2019t exposed to such language on my watch..especially since it was so unnecessary in this movie.<\/p>\n

Too much of a prude? Well..too bad.<\/p>\n

Alarms went off at four O\u2019clock Thursday morning rousing everyone from their slumber in order to get son James up and off\u00a0to the airport in plenty of time to catch his flight home in Oakland through “Chicago.”\u00a0We hope\u00a0see him again in a couple weeks if he can get a cheap flight to\u00a0 Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Yup..we\u2019ll be spending another New Year\u2019s eve on the road somewhere in New Mexico on our way to Fountain Hills Arizona..our home for the next month. They\u2019ve already had huge snow storms and road closings along the route we take but, if weather sources on the internet are to be trusted, the snow has been replaced with sunshine and mild temperatures the entire way.<\/p>\n

Linda has been busy packing and crossing things off the list of things we absolutely need to take along. But, in spite of our fool proof method of checks and balances, there is sure to be that point in our travels (usually while crossing Nebraska) when one of will have that palm-slapping-the-forehead moment \u00a0followed by a mild expletive (not unlike the one Zoey heard at the movie) indicating we\u2019d forgotten something. So far, it’s never been anything important enough to turn around and go back for. I’ll let you know what it is this time.<\/p>\n

While Linda packs, I\u2019m responsible for getting my clothes out, paying the bills, planning our route and getting the car serviced which took on special significance this year since Big Red has had a few issues. The guy at the lube place pronounced Red fit for travel so, with his blessing and a few prayers from me, we\u2019re off.<\/p>\n

As always, there\u2019ll be no vacation from Lund at Large while we\u2019re gone so keep checking in. I promise..no gloating about wintering in the warmth while my fellow Midwesterners suffer through the cold and snow. But, hey, maybe there won\u2019t be any snow or subzero temperatures at all this winter. I know it certainly hasn\u2019t been the kind of weather we\u2019re usually anxious to escape from.<\/p>\n

As we watch 2011 disappear in the rear view mirror\u2026feel free to share what kind of year it\u2019s been for you.<\/p>\n

You all certainly have my best wishes for health and happiness in the New Year which I can just see out the front window coming up on the horizon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And, all of a sudden, it\u2019s time once again for the grand exodus from the Lund abode. My son-in-law, Joe, has been hauling up great stashes of luggage, Christmas presents and other odds and ends from downstairs (their home for the last several days) into the car and the journey back to Lincoln, Nebraska. There\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11745,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions\/11745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}