I was up early this morning. I had no reason to be. I’m a slave to my body clock, which wakes me into action whenever it sees fit, and whether I want it to or not. It wasn’t because the bed was uncomfortable. Quite the contrary; it was a most comfortable night. In fact, this isn’t the first time I’ve slept in this bed. That was when we first visited Florida with the kids, which would have been September of 2008. We stayed at Dave and Jennifer’s condo in Jacksonville at the time, and they had this very bed then.
Nobody else was up and about when I wandered into the main living area of the house. It’s a vast open space that incorporates the entry hall, a kitchen with a massive marble-topped island, a seating/dining area and a living room. Leading off this space is a pantry (not much smaller than our actual kitchen) and corridors that lead to the various bedrooms. Jennifer has a brown, wooden baby grand piano on one side of the space, positioned in front of the massive sliding glass patio doors that lead to the half-covered veranda.
I parked myself at the round dining table, whipped out my laptop and set to work writing the notes for what would turn out to be summarised versions of my blogs for the past couple of days. I had resolved to ease up on my blog writing so that I could devote more time to our friends instead.
Jennifer was the first to join me. Throughout the morning, as people slowly roused into action, we spent quality time reconnecting and catching up with each other. Jennifer had laid out various breakfast foods, which we snacked on throughout the morning.
Eventually, the primordial need to go shopping overtook all of us except for Dave, so we piled into the cars and set out in the direction of St. Augustine. Dave had been pottering around the garden and felt it was too hot for him to be out in the exposed sunshine. He had a point. It was borderline too hot to be in the full sun for too long.
Jennifer took off with Sandy and Jae, while I took Joey with me. Jennifer had floated various ideas about what to do today, including some of the touristy activities in and around St. Augustine. These included the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum, the Castillo de San Marcos (a Spanish‐era masonry fort with period weapons demonstrations and living-history interpreters), the Black Raven Pirate Ship (a floating performance stage), and the Old Jail Museum (also called “The Old Jail” in St. Augustine, with costumed inmate guides). Under different circumstances, Sandy and I might have enjoyed doing one or more of those fun activities. However, there was very little likelihood that Joey would want anything to do with any of them. Joey was much happier wandering the toy aisles at Target, Walmart, and wherever else I could find.
As we made our way towards St. Augustine, Sandy had messaged me suggesting I take Joey to a Subway for lunch. I wouldn’t have come up with that idea on my own, so I was glad for the pointer. The first Subway the satnav took us to happened to be closed, but we eventually found one open, and I fed Joey accordingly. I had to do a quick double-take as we were leaving the building. Someone casually walked past us dressed in prisoner overalls, complete with black and white horizontal stripes. Either this was one of the performers from the Old Jail Museum, or someone had escaped prison.
Joey and I met up with the ladies at a nearby shopping mall (of course), where Joey was let loose to hunt down any and all Transformers he could find to add to his truly impressive collection. Having once again cleaned out the retailers of what Transformers they had on their shelves, I had run out of ways to keep him occupied and happy, so we made our way back towards Dave and Jennifer’s house, leaving the girls to head into St. Augustine town centre to enjoy an afternoon exploring all the fun stuff there to do. This turned out to be a bit of retail therapy for Jae. Apparently, I bought her a lovely pair of bat earrings. That was nice of me. Jae had found them, which suited her dark style quite nicely, and evidently asked Sandy whether she should buy them. Sandy said, “Nah, let Dad buy them for you.” I may find sarcasm in these moments, but the truth is, we’ve been looking for opportunities to treat Jae, so this was a no-brainer.
Jae later recalled to me that she went into the Jail museum. She loves that kind of thing—suitably dark and gothic to her liking. Evidently, she was the only person there at the time. She said she got a little creeped out at what she believed was a prop mannequin of a prison inmate depiction moving on its own. She raced through the remainder of the exhibits towards the exit after that fright.
On the way back, I had a sudden urge for a late lunch at a Sonny’s BBQ restaurant. I used to eat there occasionally when we lived in Jacksonville. A billboard must have subliminally influenced this hankering, which we evidently passed on the highway. When I asked the satnav to take me to the nearest one, that turned out to be the exit we had just passed, so I had to double back to find it.
Despite my enticing Joey with a selection of BBQ foods from a combo meal platter on the menu at Sonny’s, he wasn’t really eating anything. I was glad I hadn’t ordered a separate meal for him, which would have been a waste of around $20.
We arrived back at Dave and Jennifer’s house long before the girls did. They were clearly having a lot more fun than I was. Joey and I kicked back on the couch after arriving, where we spent a lazy afternoon chilling out, chatting with Dave. This was another opportunity to spend some quality time with my old friend and work colleague. It was at times a laboured conversation, as Dave’s dementia was fully evident, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t really care about the repeated stuttered attempts at getting a complete sentence out, or the strange world in which his mind clearly lived. I was just glad to be in his company, happily agreeing with his sometimes peculiar perspective on the world. I felt that just being there with him and conversing with him was already a privilege, and I savoured those moments for as long as I could. As the Dave I knew slowly succumbs to the ravages of the disease, he is unlikely to improve over time, so I was glad for the time I had with him, as he is today, once more.
Jennifer, Sandy and Jae finally returned, which was our cue to slowly start packing our things away and getting back into the car. For the second time on this holiday, we bid a sorrowful farewell to our great friends. This would be particularly hard for Sandy, who has already been in tears several times since arriving here in Florida. Saying goodbye is always something she finds emotionally hard to tolerate. She hates it and is often in tears just at the thought of the goodbyes that are to come. It is the most bittersweet thing for her to visit her friends from around the world. I comfort her as best I can, but the sadness is an inevitability which must be endured whether we like it or not.
We left St. Augustine and Jacksonville, having created yet more wonderful memories visiting wonderful friends. For me, there was a sense of completion and satisfaction that we had ticked some of the more essential boxes for this trip. We were leaving behind the little detour from our theme park holiday, and were now heading back into that artificial bubble once more.
During the two-and-a-half-hour trip back to Orlando, I was conscious of the sombre silence that otherwise would have filled the car, so I did what I could to try to kick-start and maintain some conversation as we drove. I thought it was necessary to keep Sandy’s mind occupied at least.
It was a straight run through to Orlando. Although I-95 and then I-4 were both busy, there wasn’t enough traffic to generate any jams or slowdowns. There was a slight re-routing by the satnav around the area of the Disney theme parks, but it didn’t significantly slow us down. I kicked off a game of alphabet to keep us all occupied and engaged. From A to Z, we each took turns identifying something related to the theme parks, and so on. It was one of those rare occasions where we were all happily engaged with each other. Even Joey and Jae, who would often be at each other’s throats in the car, were conversing and laughing with each other. It was lovely to see and hear, if only for a short while
By the time we got close to Davenport, we were all getting a little irritated with each other, likely because of hunger. I pulled into our Maccas, which was the fastest and easiest way to diffuse the mounting irritation.
The catty sniping at each other eventually subsided sometime after we arrived home and unloaded. Jae had written her own blog entry for the day we went to the Halloween Horror Nights the other day. She had been working on it over the past few days, jealously guarding the laptop to prevent anyone from reading it until she was satisfied that it accurately reflected her thoughts. I was nearly brought to tears when I read it.
I often casually mention that we necessarily have to devote time and energy to Joey, leaving Jae feeling a little left behind. My blogs are frequently full of what happened with Joey. It’s one thing to acknowledge this in my own writing, but quite something else to read it in Jae’s own very emotional words. Jae did a brilliant job of expressing her inner thoughts, laying bare for all to see that she is affected by this phenomenon much more than we perhaps realised. After Jae went to bed, we exchanged a few messages on the subject, so she had clearly been anticipating my reaction to reading her words. It was clear to me I had a lot of soul-searching to do. Something needs to change to redress the imbalance that Jae clearly feels is there. After reading her blog, I couldn’t help but conclude she has a valid point. That realisation left me feeling a little ashamed. I decided I need to sit and have a grown-up heart-to-heart discussion with Jae. I believe it’s essential to validate her feelings and ensure her voice is heard. I let Jae know this was to be an upcoming discussion between us. In the meantime, I needed to get some rest myself, to sleep on the matter. I need to revisit this topic and address it as a matter of urgency.