Fifty-Fifty

Hello World,     Greetings, everyone! How good it is to be back here, back from Vacation Land, and back here at home safe and sound in one piece. It doesn't seem possible that my vacation is already behind me, and there is nothing else going on after that. Although I felt that my vacation was doomed from the start, it turns out that at least it was good that it happened when it did, because the weather was so much better then than it was after that, so that was one good thing, anyway. Since I'm back home, my car has been fine, going back and forth to work every day with no problems, no funny noises and no rattles, clangs, or waves of smoke, thank heaven. But for anyone who longs to be back in the virgin campground once again, here are a few wooden combo stories to get us back into a vacation frame of mind all over again.     I would guess that it was probably many years ago, when I first started going out there with Bill, that I started searching for a local radio station to listen to in the car when I was out and about. I liked what they listened to at the pizza parlor, WPLR at 99.1, so I changed one of my regular radio buttons over to that, and listened to it while I was out there. Mostly, that was going to dinner, or shopping after dinner, since the rest of the time, the car just sat at the campsite by itself, and I never touched it. However, it all changed this year, when I liked the radio station they had on at the beach concession stand, so I asked them what they were listening to. They said it was 105.9 WHCN "The River," and they liked it a lot. So on Tuesday, after I got my car back from the service station, I changed one of the radio buttons in my car to that, and was surprised to find that I couldn't pull the station in, no matter where I was. I had to drive the car all the way to the picnic area parking lot, just up the hill from the beach, in order to get the station to come in to the car at all, thanks not. So it was back to WPLR 99.1 for me again, and 105.9 was just a beach fade toss-away, alas.     Alert readers may recall a few previous years at Wildwood, when I stopped to turn around at the nearby Baptist church, and found a red Chevy Aveo in their parking lot, and took pictures of it with my own Aveo. Alas, this time around, there was no Aveo anymore in the parking lot at the Baptist church, no matter where I looked for it. The lot isn't especially big, but it's extremely flat, and you can easily see from one side of it all the way to the other, on both sides of the church building, so there is simply no way to hide a red Aveo in there, believe me. Of course, it's entirely possible that whoever has the other Aveo might have retired or changed jobs, or taken the same week off as I did, or taken the Aveo away to university, or any number of other perfectly reasonable vehicle-related happenstances, I'm sure. I just find it a curious turn of events on top of everything else, I can tell you that.     During the week out there, we had one night (Tuesday) that brought all the thunder and lightning that it had, and tossed it all at us with everything including the kitchen sink. Mind you, at the time, I had hunkered down the two sites, and left them in the afternoon, safe and snug, without anything to worry about. Or so I thought! When I went back in the morning, I was certainly surprised to see that the rain fly had collapsed, with the poles knocked out from under it, and just scattered about on the ground. Fortunately, the bungee cords were still holding onto the corners of the tarp, so at least it stayed put over the tent and still kept everything dry inside, so that really was the important part after all. Even worse was the clothesline collapsing, and a lucky thing that I had pulled all of the clothes off of it previously, so there was just a small amount of outfits that were on the ground and covered in mud, thanks not. I wasn't at the park overnight, so I really don't know what it was like there, but when I went to the beach in the morning, you can believe me when I say that there were some seriously gnarly waves pounding on the sand, and looking like they meant business. The water was completely brown, and I went in for the novelty effect, which was fun in its own way, but came out all covered in seaweed. It settled down later in the afternoon, but it was fun while it lasted, and what I would consider unusual conditions for us old-timers at Wildwood, for sure.     So we cut my vacation short by one whole day, packing up and checking out on Friday rather than Saturday as usual, and having a sort of unsettled brake-related headache after we left. We took the car back to our service station one last time, to see what they had to say about it, but since we had 2 cars, we decided to take a chance on driving them home, and have our own mechanic look at it once it was back here. A stop at Denny's for a late lunch/early dinner was just the thing for a Friday on the go, and helped to make the day end up better than it started. We threw some things out of the cars into the garage, dragged a few others into the house, and pretty soon, we were back on the road to the elegant Crowne Plaza in White Plains for the next few days. This is a serious corporate hotel, chockfull of serious corporate guests, and we were trying our best to fit in as much as possible. We hit their shower and scrubbed off the last of the sand, salt water, and seaweed from camping, and made our way into the New Rochelle High School 50th Reunion mixer at the cafe downstairs, where everyone seemed to be having a great time, even the spouses. Bill had been working with the Reunion committee on their invitations, and some other negligible matters, and they met up in small groups to make sure that everything was staying on track. On Saturday was the actual reunion, at the Womens Club of White Plains (officially known as the C.V. Rich mansion) with almost 200 attendees, and it was definitely a blast. There was a DJ cranking out all the oldies, there were pictures from all the elementary and middle schools, there were games, food, dancing, and drinking, and you can believe me when I say that it was nothing but a whole lot of fun, fun, fun. I actually knew some of Bill's old classmates, so I was not like a fish out of water, and the Reunion committee who assembled the event did a heck of a job keeping it real and interesting. When it finally broke up, we pushed out into the parking lot in the pouring rain, clutching our prizes and give-aways, and there was not a complaint to be heard from anywhere. In the morning, we hurried downstairs to the post-Reunion buffet at the hotel, and it was great fun to catch up with everybody one more time, in the bright and clear day-time, before finally breaking up and going our own individual separate ways once more. Can't wait for the number 100 Reunion! Elle