New Hope Journal

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The New Hope Journal
The Poetry, Essays and Personal Journals of Larry L. Dill

September 2011

How I spent My Summer Vacation by Larry L. Dill

Deborah Gaddy in her pool in Tucson, August 2011

We're in and out of our own lives, and the lives of others--sometimes in dreams--sometimes in reality. Dreams are reality of course, too. Some physical part of the universe let loose inside of our own brains like mystery chefs showing up at our doors for some reality show to create a meal out of what ever they find in our refrigerators.

I helped Deborah Gaddy move from Appalachia to Arizona this summer and it was the hardest thing either of us has ever done. Shipping the cat and the dog and meeting them at the other end…very stressful. We bought airline tickets from Atlanta non-stop to Phoenix, then had to drive 3 hours to Atlanta from Waynesville, check in the pets, check in the car, then make the same plane the pets would be on. I saw their forlorn little crates riding together up the baggage ramp into the cargo hold. Then we were there…in the wild west…passing over Scarsdale on the way in…looking at the canals and all the blue water in the middle of the desert.

Rented another car, picked up the pets, and sped off for a 2 hour ride to Tucson. Rain coming in torrents as we landed on Norton St just a few blocks from the university of Arizona. Deborah is is in her new home. The pets ponder. The dog is fine. He is with us which is all that matters. The cat is more cautious. Must get the feel of the place. We camp out in the house for 3 days and then the furniture arrives. Her car arrives 3 days later.

August 1: Deborah starts her new job. I start unpacking her boxes, hanging pictures, building bookshelves, a dog run, hooking up electronics, hauling boxes to the recycle center.
I walk the dog in the neighborhood in the hot, Tucson mornings. Rabbits and quail everywhere. The cat is beginning to venture outside and over the 6 ft adobe walls surrounding the pool. She feels at home now in the desert heat. Both dog and cat are afraid of the swimming pool but love to be on the patio when we are there.

Week three. Deborah is loving her new job. She loves the heat, too, and the pool and the city of Tucson and her new colleagues. She gets her first pay check and her first bills. My daughter, Camen, flies in from London, her course work and dissertation finished at the London School of Economics. She loves the house. She loves the pool. The dog loves her. The cat loves her. We take her out for dinner and drinks at the Arizona Inn. We take her to see the Biosphere 2. We take her to a party hosted by Deborah's new boss.

All seems well now with Deborah settled in. Camen and I fly to Austin to visit Jessica, my other daughter. They live in Montopolis in south Austin. I sleep in the guest room, Camen sleeps on the couch in the living room. Jessica and her husband, Geoff are both chefs. We
spend a week there. We go swimming in Barton Springs. We play Scrabble. I lose consistently to my two daughters. We hit the bars. The chefs treat us to great home cooked meals. We enjoy their two dogs. It is as hot in Austin as in Tucson. Or hotter. 112 in Austin on the last day we are there.

On August 29 we fly on to Asheville. Friends pick us up at the airport. We have happy hours with more friends. The next morning we go to Rabbit Rock to spend a day and night in the woods. We return to Asheville on Wednesday and have dinner at the Laughing Seed. We take a stroll around the Pack square district and go home to listen to Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. Camen sleeps on my fold out futon couch. We are up early this morning to take her to the airport. She flies to Boston to visit her husband's in-laws and then home to London on Sunday.

I'm in my room at the Vanderbilt now. paying bills, trying to finish up or sum up a journal entry already 2 months overdue. Deborah and AK, her dog and her zen like Cat, Molly, too, have moved 2,000 miles to a new home and a new life. It all seems like a dream. An out of body experience. Molecular transformations like something out of Star Trek. I'm drinking a beer and trying to edit random flip video footage I've taken over this extraordinary summer of high heat, sunshine, desert sand, cold water and a kind of Satori that cannot be described in words, only felt in the bones.
                                                                                                  --Larry L. Dill
                                                                                                    Asheville, N.C.
                                                                                                    September 1, 2011

Sunset from a window in Deborah's house and from her Mini Cooper looking north at the Catalina Mountains from Campbell Avenue

Larry L. Dill