THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407140155
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Over Easy
SOURCE: Jo-Ann Clegg
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
There is, I have come to the sad conclusion, something about life that I do not understand. I think it's the ability to organize it.
Three years ago, I gave up a decent job with a corner office, an efficient secretary and reasonably regular hours so that I could do more of the things I wanted to do when I wanted to do them.
``If I stay home and free-lance,'' I told Bill, ``I'll just write when and what I want to and then when we want to go somewhere or do something special, I won't have to worry about having the time to do it.''
That might work for someone else, but it sure isn't working for me. Take the two current flaps: a family reunion and new furniture and carpet.
The reunion started out as a visit from my cousin Lee, his wife and two children whom I haven't seen in eight years. As of today, it has grown to include six or eight other cousins, depending on whether Joe and Pat can make it and whether Steve gets the message I left in his voice mail box.
Since Lee's planned visit fell just a couple of days after my mother's birthday, our three sons and Andy's wife, Kristin, are coming as well.
I figured that made a nice little group of about 20 who would gather at our place for a backyard family cookout just like we used to have when we were kids back in the 1950s.
In case you haven't noticed, after 2,382 consecutive days without the wet stuff, Don, Jeff and Dr. Duane all have major lightning bolts flashing on the portion of the weather chart set aside for Saturday. That complicates things.
So do the lodging arrangements, which I more or less left to chance. Cousins Joel and Mary Anne, who are driving in, have reservations at a hotel three minutes from our house. Cousin Jim, who has to be met at the airport, has a room at a place that's closer to Cape Charles than it is to Kempsville. Everyone else is divided up between Mother's place and ours. Who's staying where we don't know for sure. Nor do we know where the three questionable arrivals plan to stay if they do show up.
Speaking of arrivals, Lee and his family are arriving sometime Friday, maybe. Bill Jr. is arriving mid-afternoon on Friday, definitely, and has to be picked up at the airport. That means that I may or may not be there when Lee arrives.
That wouldn't be a problem except that I forgot to tell Lee how to get to our house, and I can't get hold of him now because he's on the road somewhere between Michigan and here.
Our son John is arriving at the crack of dawn Saturday morning before anyone in the family expects to be out of bed, much less on the way to the airport. Jim is arriving late Saturday, possibly after the main events are over, and will need transportation both to our house and to his lodging, which nobody is quite sure they can find.
No one knows when Andy and Kristin will get here. I hope it's early because Kristin, the family's best cook, is bringing food. When last heard from, Joe and Pat weren't coming at all. But that has yet to be confirmed.
So much for our reunion plans. That confusion is minor compared to last week when we had new carpet laid in three rooms and a truckload of new furniture installed in my home office.
The furniture from the rooms that got new carpet was moved into the rest of the house. The installation was delayed because either A.) an irate gorilla devoured the entire contents of the carpet company's warehouse or B) a disgruntled employee walked off the job, took a truckload of carpet with him and hasn't been seen since.
I like the gorilla theory myself, but it doesn't matter all that much. The main thing is that everything got pushed back a couple of days while the carpet company straightened things out. That left me with dressers on top of spare beds, desks in closets and knickknacks covering bathroom counters.
If the confusion had lasted much longer, those relatives staying at the house would either have had to pitch tents in the backyard or join Cousin Jim at the place out toward Cape Charles.
Fortunately everything was straightened out in time, the new carpet and furniture look fine and the house is almost back to normal.
The only remaining casualties are Bill's back and my shoulder, both of which took hits in the rush to get everything back where it belongs.
We hope to be fully recovered by this weekend after which, if I had any sense at all, I would call my former boss and beg for my old job back.
Right now a boss, a secretary and a regular pay check look very, very good. by CNB