I'm always complaining. To the nurse that we never hear much from the offspring. I guess that's a good thing, that they are doing well and don't need the help from the old man anymore. But it kinda bothers me when a year rills around and I didn't see either one of em.  Even the phone calls are months apart. One is 2 hours away in Des Moines, the other Montgomery Alabama. Don't know how many hours that iz. Theres a couple of grandchildren, but him and his wife have split up, and their even further way, in Crawfordville Florida. Oldest is in school now. Only seen em a couple of times.

The nurse says it's a two way street. If ya wanna see the young ens, yer gonna have to drive to them. Yeah, she's right as always. But it's kinda hard when yer not retired yet, an yer still tryin to scratch out a living.

It was 2008. The boys final year in college. And he's a sports fanatic. By gosh if there was a ping pong match on TV he was watching it. And I told him. If by some miracle Iowa State makes it to a bowl game, I'll take ya to it. He he . Nothing to worry about. Iowa State had gone 2 wins and 10 losses the year before. Probably since the pigskin game was invented. My bet was safe. Couple of months later, I'm standing at the gates of Yankee Stadium, about to witness the first ever pinstripe bowl game. To bad they lost tho. And I never made that wager again.

Fast forward to yesterday. The boy calls. The nurse hands me the phone. I whisper to the nurse, "Are you sure it's him? What's his name again?" The look from the nurse wasn't a pleasant one. He invites me to go to the Alamo Bowl. No expenses paid. You'd think I'd be thrilled, but I'm not. I gotta ride in a van. With 6 of the in-laws. An we ain't got nothing in common. They are all Iowa State Allumni. And Iowa State football is their passion. Nothing ranks higher. And to sit in that van and having to listen to the singing of the Iowa State fight song all the way to San Antonio, well, I'd rather hear fingernails on a chalkboard. Just can't seem to get my self to believe it would be a good time. Part of it, is the expense of it all. The expenses are split 8 ways. The nurse gets to stay home. I'd rather use that money some other way with the son. But I don't know what.

Grin and bear it? What would you do?

Guess you could say NO, but it is that boy whats his name!:)

or 

 

He's invited you on this trip based on a memory of something else you did together, 10 years ago.  When will the next opportunity arise?

 

Sometimes, even though father and son, the common interests, common thinking, being similar people, just aren't there.  You said it yourself, you'd like to spend it with the boy some other way, but you don't know what. 

[TUBE]pu9pO-rCzy4[/TUBE]

   ,,,only YOU could come up with something like this,,,,,,

 Hey Les,,don't beat yourself up bout the Boy,,it just seems to be a sign of these new times as the things that were important to us don't mean nuttin to the younger generation,,but ole MDM may have a point in that your Son is needin some company for HIM,,,,and,,,and,,,thet In-law may be some pretty and quite friendly and,,,,and,,it a loooooong way down thar,,,,of course you may wind up havin to catch a bus comin back,,,but you'll have plenty of time to come up with a good story for the nurse as to what happened that they kicked you off the van,,,,,

 Chit,,,wasn't much help,,was I,,??

If you really want to see him do it and eat it and chalk up to what the old folks are supposed do. Gotta be nice too but not like it. He will understand in time....maybe.

I know my youngest son can piss me off to no end for some of the chit he does.

You know I have thought about that a lot trying to figure him out and the conclusion is I did the same type of chit almost verbatim and not put a second thought about it at the time.

It don't come to you when you are supposed to be old and wise, but then that thought pops in....Huh, that sounds familiar.

I just tell the wife to roll with it, I did the same chit.

Usually not acceptable.