Lonely Living

Max and I text A LOT. It’s our main form of communication.

Frequently, I get a text from him as he leaves work and he says things like,
“Going back to Loneliness.”

What does that mean, you ask?

“Loneliness” is what he named his apartment.
His bachelor pad.
His place of dwelling.

Sad, huh?

It’s been awful for him to be away from his family this long.

Believe me, we miss him too, but our situation is different:
a) we are in our own familiar house
b) we have each other
which makes the separation somewhat easier to bear.

Since Inigo and I finished our production last week, we decided that since we have so much free time on our hands, we’d jump in the car and drive to New Florin to surprise him.

And we actually would have gotten away with it, if
a) we had left Florin a little earlier, I could have driven straight to his office and surprised him there
or,
b) if I actually knew where he lived.

He had to move out of the house he was renting, so he’s in a new apartment and I didn’t know where it was.

We texted Max when we were nearing New Florin and said, “Don’t go to the gym tonight because we want to Skype with you.”
So, he waited and waited for us to get to a computer
(we told him we were en route to Florin from Guilder)
while we drove up and down the streets of New Florin looking for the new apartment.

Finally, he said,
“I’m going to the gym now. I won’t be gone very long. We’ll Skype when I get back.”

Uhhhh……
”Please don’t go to the gym,”
I had to text back (or have Inigo text since I shouldn’t be texting and driving)

There was a short pause and the reply was,
“Are you in New Florin?”

He got up that morning with a feeling that we might be driving over to surprise him.

Seriously?
Can I EVER surprise that man?

In a nutshell, we had a FABULOUS weekend and spent some WONDERFUL time together!

In a desire to better acquaint ourselves with our new area,
we drove over two large mountain ranges that were around 10,000 feet in altitude.

We played in creeks, and walked through snowbanks to get to sacred Indian ground.
We gazed with awe and wonder at some amazing waterfalls, wondering where ALL THAT WATER could be coming from.
We went swimming in the local swimming pool
and walked up and down the Main Street of the nearest
”Tourist Trap” town.

And I took photos.
Tons and tons of photos.
So many photos that Inigo started yelling at me.

”STOP TAKING MY PICTURE!!! YOU’RE SUCKING THE HAPPINESS OUT OF ME EVERY TIME YOU DO!!”

But eventually he started smiling for the lens again.
Because he was having fun.

He didn’t want to drive over the big Bruin Bicuspid Pass
(don’t you love how I change the names?)
but in the middle of the teeth clenching drive said,
“Wow!! This is amazing!”

We missed Buttercup.
But she was down at the Shallows
(an amusement park south of here)
with Biff (her new fiancé) at his family reunion.

Hopefully Max’s life was a little less lonely while we were there.
And while I’m finding it difficult to leave Florin, I know that being with Max is more important and I’m anxious for our own reunion!

Looking forward to the many new adventures that await!

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Waterfall in the Large Antler Mtn. Range

There is a Native American medicine wheel in these mountains and these are some of the religious relics that you find there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On top of the Bruin Bicuspid Pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To prolong our time together, we also stopped and walked through a geyser basin in
My Park.
(Max drove his own vehicle, so he could drive himself back to New Florin while I drove Inigo and I back to Florin. We each got to our respective domiciles at about 11 pm.)

Okay.
Here’s the end of all my clever names. :(

I wanted to take a picture of Inigo at the same place we took a picture of Buttercup.
This was the last time we had driven over this pass – 2002 – and I was only a month or 6 weeks away from delivering Inigo when we drove over.
(I can’t believe we drove it that close to my due date! What were we thinking?)
You can see our dear, wonderful dog, Bandon in the windshield of Buttercup’s picture.
Sadly, he passed away in November of that year.