Life after 2 weeks with child – my Niece has been with us that long.

Well Bride and I had our first child, she was 22 when we birthed her, my Niece has been in Florida for two whole weeks now. We went for a walk last night and she has only been homesick twice. The first was when we were still in Ohio, at lunch with my Dad, the other was once she was here. She went to a Starbuck here and had phone coffee with a friend, who was in Ohio I think. She is so sweet, she left me a note yesterday morning that almost made me cry. Paraphrased she said she looked around at her surroundings and realized she was home and that it was a good feeling. She went on to thank us for everything we were doing to help her get a new start in Florida. She has gotten a job already, Gator’s Dockside no less, which are the BEST wings in town – in my humble opinion. I am looking forward to a long term, potentially permanent career for her at Gators, that is for selfish reasons on my part because I LOVE the wings there. She worked at BW3’s in Ohio and has an opportunity there as well but she wanted to try something else. Bride and her have contacted the University of Toledo and Owens Mills colleges to get the transcripts sent to FCCJ. She is going to pursue a career as a surgical technician and they have a program for that at the north compass.


We have not done a lot of things since she has been here but we are on mission to get her picture in front of the signs for all seven bridges that cross the St. Johns river here in Jacksonville. At first thought, I said no problem but once we started out on our quest I soon realized the potential for danger on this quest. Our first sign was the Matthews bridge, there is a big concrete obelisk at the foot of the bridge on each side with a gigantic Bronze plaque with the name and some other historical details. Little did I know that in 1949 when the bridge was built Fuller Warren was the governor, that is only relevant if you live here and know that one of the seven bridges is the “Fuller Warren”. We decided to catch the one on the east side going towards downtown. We had to park along the expressway and walk all the way up to the sign, that scared the shit out of me. So there we were, only a few feet away from cars whizzing by at freaking 60 miles an hour with nothing but a small guardrail protecting us from certain death. HOLY COW - that scared me to death. So of course I put on a macho face and pretended it was no big deal, I damn near had to turn around and go home to change my shorts but I was not going to let her know. Well the only other ones we got that day were the Buckman and the Main Street, which is actually called the John T, Alsop Jr. Bridge. I have been here 20 years and did not know that. Folks I am telling you as scary as the Matthews was the Buckman was brutal.

I am not sure how parents can raise a child from the tricycle motor size up through the terrible two’s and into adolescence all the way to young adulthood. I recognize how lucky I am to have missed those younger years of parenthood. Bride and I do not have kids, that is a story for another day and for some reason kids scare me, little ones and big ones and all areas in between. I do not even know why, the only thing I could come up with there must be something from deep in my childhood that has put me off to kids. Starting out at 22 years old does not seem quite as hard, no diapers that I know of and I will always have an out – she is actually my sisters daughter. She has one tattoo, Pink Floyd on the inside of her lip, that is also her vanity license plate from Ohio. She has a great number of piercings, wait they are not like some that are hideous. Two tasteful little diamonds, one in her nose and one above her upper lip, they look cool to me. She then has a great number in her ears and one in the middle of the back of her neck. She does recognize that eventually they will have to come out, she said she still has a few more years as a kid before she starts her career – very smart this one, which reminds me how lucky I am in my new parenting role.

Since Bride and I have been in Florida we have enjoyed a 1000 mile buffer as we like to call it. My family is up north in Ohio, Brides family is out in Austin Texas. We stayed here after I got out of the US Navy and that is how it worked out, no snow so we stayed. There are many pro’s and many con’s to that buffer, to many in fact to go into in this oratory but anyway. Since we enjoyed that buffer one con was that we never really got to know any of our nieces and nephews as they got older, we have nearly 20 of them between us and we will have to reconcile that somehow.

We went to the beach this morning and watched the sunrise together, from pitch black to the sun actually breaking the horizon, which is something she had not done before. We both enjoyed it and have already made plans to do it again on Sunday morning. Anyway, I am really looking forward to getting to know my Niece as an adult and so far, I really like her, she is smart, funny and a terminal smart ass and that has forced me to step up my game – we have been getting along famously.

I love ya O Niece O mine