Monday, August 9, 2010

Detroit Rock City



I'm back from a four day road trip with family to Detroit. Even though I brought the computer, there wasn't any internet available, and I decided to take the opportunity to break from the digital world. A few choice moments for you all from the trip:

After about eight hours on the road and no sleep, my father responded to a comment about watching the same news program repeatedly "They play it ten times so that I will remember it!"

My uncle, who recently became a Catholic after years of having no desire for religion whatsoever, reported on the way out to Saturday mass that he wouldn't have a beer beforehand, but the party could start once he returned.

One of my younger cousins arrived on Saturday enthusiastic about this year's Detroit Lion's team. When someone pointed out that they had won 2 games last year, she said something like "See, things are looking up."

My great aunt's neighbor likes to feed birds. All the birds in St. Claire Shores (a suburb of Detroit) seem to know. It was almost like being in a Hitchcock movie, sitting there on the back porch as the power lines filled one by one.

My great grandmother, who is 101 years old, purchased a gold $1 coin this year for all the great grandchildren under 18. For some reason, she thought I was 15 this year, so I came home with an unexpected gift.

Yesterday, I sat down at the table, and great grandma called me by my father's name.

She's still got enough energy to flit from room to room to visit with people.

I did zazen twice in a hotel room 20 floors up, overlooking the Detroit River.

Many bows to my yoga teachers over the years, as the long car rides didn't destroy my body or mind as they have in the past.

As we stepped out on the curb this morning at 5am to leave the hotel, a white van pulled up and a guy from the film crew of the movie being shot there got out. If you ever see a movie called LOL let me know how it is. I have no idea if Miley Cyrus or Demi Moore were around, but there were a lot of film crew types sitting on boxes and moving cameras around. Pretty exciting, eh?

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.

3 comments:

Mumon K said...

Wow. Such are summer "vacations" sometimes.

Mine was full of family too, but I left that part out of my blog.

Daniel @ Campinas said...

Sometimes, it's the smallest thing that sparks a comment: My grandmother passed away at 90 last week. Every year (when I lived in the States) on my birthday, till the last one I spent there (I turned 34 that year), I got $5. I never had the heart to tell her $5 didn't go as far as it used to.

Nathan said...

Daniel,

That reminds me of my grandfather who used to give me a dime or a quarter for doing house chores when I was kid. Even though that was 25 years ago, he didn't seem to realize that I couldn't really buy nothing with that little money. He's been gone 20 years. I still miss the guy a lot.

Thanks for sharing about your grandma. May you and your family be well during this time of mourning. Peace.

Nathan