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Ohio Halloween trip, 6 of 9
Nov. 1st, 2023 11:59 pmWEDNESDAY
I woke up about 5:30 to pee, then went back to sleep until my 7:15 alarm. I let Gary sleep in while I showered and dressed, then woke him about eight. We went downstairs about quarter after. There was a hot bear seated at the back of the breakfast room who reminded me of Brian Bolt from SML. Gary also had a reminder for me: "No." 😊
After breakfast we sat in the lobby surfing the net and half-watching the TV, and around quarter to ten I suggested we return to the room and prepare to work out. Gary went downstairs first as I wanted to finish my coffee. While he was on the elliptical machine, I got in my first set of ten laps in the pool. We sat poolside for a few minutes, and I plotted a course for a park I'd visited a few times in my high-school years, then returned to the pool for another ten laps. After a brief break to dry off, we returned to the room to get dressed for outside... and Gary nodded off, so I set an alarm for 12:45 PM and napped myself.
Colleen called me around 12:30 to pick a restaurant for dinner - Ford's Garage in Norwood - and I needed to use the bathroom anyway, so I shut off the alarm and plotted an alternate course for the neighborhood park where I grew up. I woke Gary and asked him if he wanted pizza or bar food for lunch. He chose pizza, so I plotted a course for LaRosa's flagship pizzeria on Boudinot Avenue in Western Hills, where I'd worked delivery in college. We drove across town and arrived there around 1:30. I was used to parking in the lot north of the restaurant, but soon discovered that dine-in customers were intended to park on the other end of the building, so I walked back to the lot to move the car and met Gary at the door. He seemed a bit taken aback when I mentioned I used to work there. We were seated at a table by the window, and ordered hoagies rather than pizza since we knew dinner would be big and early. As we were eating, a simply huge young bear with thick, dark hair and beard was seated in a nearby booth without any difficulty, so I suppose we need not have worried about the fit.
After lunch, I drove us to the new Greenwell Road entrance to Delhi Park, where a new (to me) attraction called Floral Paradise Gardens had been constructed on the site of an old greenhouse adjacent to the park proper. We left the car there (the driveway doesn't connect with the rest of the park) and followed the walking trails across the park to Delhi Park Lake (also new to me, as I remembered it as a pay lake for fishing with a now-demolished tavern on site). We sat on a bench and watched a flock of geese, possibly the largest I'd ever seen close up and personal, swim to the shore of the lake and march off into the adjacent fields to forage, accompanied by a few resident ducks. A few minutes later, the ducks apparently realized they were outnumbered, as they began taking flight in twos and threes to return to the lake. As we made our way back to Floral Paradise Gardens, Gary had to stop and tie his shoes, and I got an email notification on my phone. It was the Polyclinic with my prostate biopsy results: 11 of 14 samples were benign and the remaining 3 were malignant, but not invasive. We realized we had about half an hour before we needed to leave for the restaurant, so we finished climbing the hill and found another bench with a nice view of the park proper. There I shared the news with Gary. I'm not going to dwell on this because I won't be able to evaluate treatment options until I see the urologist in two weeks.
Around 4:20 (whoa, *dude!*) we got in the car and headed to the restaurant for dinner. Since we were already on Greenwell Road, I drove past my childhood home and was amused to see a simply huge camping trailer parked in the driveway. When I made the left turn on Mt. Alverno Road, I noticed the road had been recently repaved and curbs installed. There was also construction on Fairbanks Avenue at lower Delhi Pike. I also noticed the absence of the steel structure at the junction of River Road and the Sixth Street Expressway, the Waldvogel Viaduct, which had been replaced by a concrete structure with pylons painted a deep red. Traffic on Fort Washington Way was backed up in the one lane I had to cross to get from US 50 on the left to I-71 on the right, but I managed.
We actually arrived early at the restaurant and waited for Colleen and Sheila on a bench constructed from a tailgate of a Ford pickup truck and some hubcaps. Overhead, a series of Model T replica car bodies traveled around the room on an overhead chain. When they arrived, we were seated at a high table at the back. I noticed the waiters were all nice-looking dudes with thick, dark beards and wearing mechanics' uniforms. Gary ordered the shrimp mac and cheese, Colleen and Sheila ordered the meatloaf, and I had the pulled pork mac and cheese. I shared the test results with Colleen and Sheila and the conversation soon moved to more pleasant topics. Gary finally got to tell them the story of traveling without his driver's license.
After dinner we met up again at Colleen's for coffee and more conversation. I showed Sheila the actual chart and she was especially relieved to see an absence of invasion in the results, which means it was caught early. Kate was there trying to wrangle children and plan a graduation trip for Alyssa and her in December. They'd narrowed it down to New Orleans vs. Asheville, NC. Consensus seems to be that Asheville will be safer, but colder. Asheville is also close to Saluda, the mountain town where our cousin Corinne lives.
Around 9:30, Sheila indicated she needed to get home, and Gary suggested that we should go as well, so we offered her a ride home since she'd ridden with Colleen to the restaurant. From there we returned to the hotel, with a stop at the Shell station on the corner for beverages and snacks.
When we arrived in the room, we found the towels had been changed and the trash disposed of. I went to get ice, and on the way noticed a tall young ginger dude in shorts struggling to open his room door with his hands full of bagged snacks (🎶 He got legs... 🎶), and an equally tall dude with a thick, dark, and curly beard. We watched the World Series game, which the Rangers won 5-0 to take the Series four games to one, and followed the post-game celebration on the web and then on TV. I got to bed at 12:30 and listened to the tail end of the World Series coverage until I fell asleep.
I woke up about 5:30 to pee, then went back to sleep until my 7:15 alarm. I let Gary sleep in while I showered and dressed, then woke him about eight. We went downstairs about quarter after. There was a hot bear seated at the back of the breakfast room who reminded me of Brian Bolt from SML. Gary also had a reminder for me: "No." 😊
After breakfast we sat in the lobby surfing the net and half-watching the TV, and around quarter to ten I suggested we return to the room and prepare to work out. Gary went downstairs first as I wanted to finish my coffee. While he was on the elliptical machine, I got in my first set of ten laps in the pool. We sat poolside for a few minutes, and I plotted a course for a park I'd visited a few times in my high-school years, then returned to the pool for another ten laps. After a brief break to dry off, we returned to the room to get dressed for outside... and Gary nodded off, so I set an alarm for 12:45 PM and napped myself.
Colleen called me around 12:30 to pick a restaurant for dinner - Ford's Garage in Norwood - and I needed to use the bathroom anyway, so I shut off the alarm and plotted an alternate course for the neighborhood park where I grew up. I woke Gary and asked him if he wanted pizza or bar food for lunch. He chose pizza, so I plotted a course for LaRosa's flagship pizzeria on Boudinot Avenue in Western Hills, where I'd worked delivery in college. We drove across town and arrived there around 1:30. I was used to parking in the lot north of the restaurant, but soon discovered that dine-in customers were intended to park on the other end of the building, so I walked back to the lot to move the car and met Gary at the door. He seemed a bit taken aback when I mentioned I used to work there. We were seated at a table by the window, and ordered hoagies rather than pizza since we knew dinner would be big and early. As we were eating, a simply huge young bear with thick, dark hair and beard was seated in a nearby booth without any difficulty, so I suppose we need not have worried about the fit.
After lunch, I drove us to the new Greenwell Road entrance to Delhi Park, where a new (to me) attraction called Floral Paradise Gardens had been constructed on the site of an old greenhouse adjacent to the park proper. We left the car there (the driveway doesn't connect with the rest of the park) and followed the walking trails across the park to Delhi Park Lake (also new to me, as I remembered it as a pay lake for fishing with a now-demolished tavern on site). We sat on a bench and watched a flock of geese, possibly the largest I'd ever seen close up and personal, swim to the shore of the lake and march off into the adjacent fields to forage, accompanied by a few resident ducks. A few minutes later, the ducks apparently realized they were outnumbered, as they began taking flight in twos and threes to return to the lake. As we made our way back to Floral Paradise Gardens, Gary had to stop and tie his shoes, and I got an email notification on my phone. It was the Polyclinic with my prostate biopsy results: 11 of 14 samples were benign and the remaining 3 were malignant, but not invasive. We realized we had about half an hour before we needed to leave for the restaurant, so we finished climbing the hill and found another bench with a nice view of the park proper. There I shared the news with Gary. I'm not going to dwell on this because I won't be able to evaluate treatment options until I see the urologist in two weeks.
Around 4:20 (whoa, *dude!*) we got in the car and headed to the restaurant for dinner. Since we were already on Greenwell Road, I drove past my childhood home and was amused to see a simply huge camping trailer parked in the driveway. When I made the left turn on Mt. Alverno Road, I noticed the road had been recently repaved and curbs installed. There was also construction on Fairbanks Avenue at lower Delhi Pike. I also noticed the absence of the steel structure at the junction of River Road and the Sixth Street Expressway, the Waldvogel Viaduct, which had been replaced by a concrete structure with pylons painted a deep red. Traffic on Fort Washington Way was backed up in the one lane I had to cross to get from US 50 on the left to I-71 on the right, but I managed.
We actually arrived early at the restaurant and waited for Colleen and Sheila on a bench constructed from a tailgate of a Ford pickup truck and some hubcaps. Overhead, a series of Model T replica car bodies traveled around the room on an overhead chain. When they arrived, we were seated at a high table at the back. I noticed the waiters were all nice-looking dudes with thick, dark beards and wearing mechanics' uniforms. Gary ordered the shrimp mac and cheese, Colleen and Sheila ordered the meatloaf, and I had the pulled pork mac and cheese. I shared the test results with Colleen and Sheila and the conversation soon moved to more pleasant topics. Gary finally got to tell them the story of traveling without his driver's license.
After dinner we met up again at Colleen's for coffee and more conversation. I showed Sheila the actual chart and she was especially relieved to see an absence of invasion in the results, which means it was caught early. Kate was there trying to wrangle children and plan a graduation trip for Alyssa and her in December. They'd narrowed it down to New Orleans vs. Asheville, NC. Consensus seems to be that Asheville will be safer, but colder. Asheville is also close to Saluda, the mountain town where our cousin Corinne lives.
Around 9:30, Sheila indicated she needed to get home, and Gary suggested that we should go as well, so we offered her a ride home since she'd ridden with Colleen to the restaurant. From there we returned to the hotel, with a stop at the Shell station on the corner for beverages and snacks.
When we arrived in the room, we found the towels had been changed and the trash disposed of. I went to get ice, and on the way noticed a tall young ginger dude in shorts struggling to open his room door with his hands full of bagged snacks (🎶 He got legs... 🎶), and an equally tall dude with a thick, dark, and curly beard. We watched the World Series game, which the Rangers won 5-0 to take the Series four games to one, and followed the post-game celebration on the web and then on TV. I got to bed at 12:30 and listened to the tail end of the World Series coverage until I fell asleep.