AHHH Georgia...

Jared here, typing the blog as Kimmy begins the long task of unpacking after a week long vacation. Which started with a trip to Indy (see Kimmy's previous posts) and then a trip to Georgia Wednesday through Sunday. The trip to Georgia was to visit my Uncle Dee aka Brother Cassian who's a novice monk at a Cistercian Monestary. My Uncle Rick was coming from Texas and my Mom and Dad were traveling down as well.

















We left first thing wednesday morning.. some might say we left at the butt crack of dawn. The trip down was nice, took a little longer than expected. Mainly due to the 17,983,181 car that were on the highway at the same time as us. WOW was the traffic amazing. Growing up travling around interstate 465 in Indianapolis had honed my high volume traffic skills to perfection. If there were 5 available lanes for traffic they were filled, bumper to bumper and 75mph. Quite the experience and the traffic never let up once...all the way to Conyers, GA...even the back roads of GA were packed. One of the reasons the trip took a little longer than normal was ( and no I didn't get pulled over) our lunch stop. We stopped at a McD's that was not use to the higher volume of lunch customers. I heard several locals remark how swamped the place was... however, being a frequent flyer of the McD skies it did not appear any busier than a typical lunch rush. However after waiting in line for quite some time and recieving a look from the clerk behind the counter when I orderd grilled cheese sandwitches... it' was the same look I believe I would recieve if I pealed my face off... kind of a deer in the headlight look with some various face contortions thrown in for good measure. Of course the got the order wrong but I was expecting it from watching the previous several customers recieve messed up orders as well in some fashior or other... anyway we ate and moved on. We were the first of the three vehicles to arrive and greated Uncle Dee as he was exiting the guest house. The guest house was very nice and quite confortable. The monk who's responsible for the organization and upkeep in a sense does an excellent job with nice lables etc. I'm recommending him for the Corporate 5S award of the month. (inside joke that is too long to explain but those from the weekend will understand). We made ourselves at home and waited for the rest of the folks to arrive. Mom and dad were next followed by Uncle Rick a few hours later. Uncle Rick came in with a large gerocery sack full of stuff and handed it to me. Inside were several things that made my MI stomach turn over in varous twists and turns. Actually it started with Jacob running into the room covered in this t-shirt that was from a lesser hockey team called the Dallas Stars. I think it's some minor league team. Well then the gerocery sack came out and there were several items inside that are just too hideious to mention...all with this Star's logo on them. I think Truman and Kate will enjoy them. Actually some of the items were pretty cool and I look forward to taking them to work and incorporating them into my professional looking 5S workspace. Jacob loved the light up necklaces that blinked an electric green color.

















The next few days were very relaxing and quite nice getting to catch up with Uncle Dee and the various things happening at the monestary. Thrusday we toured the church and monestary buildings. We visited such rooms as the refrectory, scriptorium, cloister, one I cant remember the name but where the monks meet for midday prayers. The rooms and buildings were amazing and built by the founding monks. The detail and craftsmanship is quite impressive, all very nicely done. We also visited the new glass shop and we picked up fragments of stained glass from the old pine board monestary that burned to the ground a few years ago. The new glass shop in very nice with lots of attention to detailed and very practical for use. It was nice to see local exhaust ventilation installed for use to help control exposures to various fumes. However the nitrile gloves found being used in the glass shop used to reduce cuts are not sufficient and should be replaced with a cut resistent style kevlar glove. But that's another story... oh that isn't even close to the number of drug stories we had to hear from Uncle Rick. Friday we went on a tour of the Monestary and visited the Bakery where we helped lay out boxes for fudge to be packaged in later. We sampled a little of the maple walnut fudge...yum yum... Uncle Dee recieved a gift of a fruit cake from one of the monks...Brother Agustine ? I believe, for consumption at a later time. Brother Agustine warned us to do no driving after eating the fruit cake. Monk humor of sorts. So we walked around the monestary grounds...oh wait I think Friday is the day we visited the glass shop... ok memory is foggy on that. Well we walked around and saw the bonsi plants and the Abby store and the barns and just had a very nice day. Friday night Uncle Dee took us out to dinner at a local Georia style bar-b-que resturant called Mad Dogs it was excellent. Saturday we took a nice walk through the woods out to see the slave cemetary that's located on the property. We relaxed and visited at the guest house and had a wonderful day as well. Saturday we picked up a couple of bonsi plants to take home with us as reminders of our visit... they are just little bushes now but maybe one day soon they'll become bonsi...either that or die trying. literally. Uncle Rick ate his weight in Fudge... and they'll now have to work extra shifts at the bakery to add production volume. Mom installed a revolving door on the oven at the guest house when we first arrived...that way the apple pie production could be maintained at peak capacity. After 2 pies in 2 days the third pie seemed to vaporize before our eyes... or actualy should I say ricks eyes/fork.... actually I think every morning the first thing Uncle Dee did when he came to visit was grab a piece of pie. It was good pie and it was fun being on the quality control side of things. Dad came home with 3 or 4 walking sticks... Mom had 3 or 4 bags of pine cones to bring home as well... after 34 years...nothing really does change does it. An excellent week, a beautiful church and monestary, good food, the Colts won, it actually rained in GA when we were there on Thurday, mind you nothing that would make you look for animals being lined up in two's but it was a good rain. Jacob and Adam did very well during the week, seemed to have fun playing with their great uncles and grandparents...however it was noted that the toys were played with by the adults more than by Jacob and Adam. But then again Jacob seemed to enjoy the set of coasters more than the toys... and Adam seems to enjoy just sitting on the floor talking/babbling to himself. Probably about his crazy relatives playing with all his toys. So anyway, Thanks Uncle Dee / Brother Cassian for an excellent week in GA. Look forward to coming down again sometime. We left for home at 12:30am and we made it home in about 14 1/2 to 15 hours of driving... not bad, Kimmy drove for an hour, 5:30am to 6:30 am, while I snored in the passenger seat. Being so dark and driving through the hills/mini mountains of tennesee was a little unerving for her so I took back over refreshed after my nap and ready to burn up the windshield time. Once I regained the wheel I was far too stuborn to give it up again, and I drive faster anyway. I managed to drive ~1800 miles without getting pulled over by a police officer...however I did get pulled over several times by a small voice in the back of the car saying I got pee daddy, I got pee daddy...

















Upon coming home I had forgot to make sure the furance would come on and apparently it did not the entire week we were gone. So it was 46degree F inside when we arrived home 40degrees F outside. Yes my toes are still quite cold and the kids still have thier coats on. I believe it's up to about 57 now... 3 hours later. The corn furace is going full tilt and I'm refusing to turn on the propane furnance. I just told Jacob it's a character building experience.

















It was good to see you again Uncle Rick, Mom and dad we'll see you in 3 weeks and Thanks again Uncle Dee, an awesome time was had by all.

















Now where are my long johns.....

















Jared