Fussing with a Houseguest

Have you ever had the best of intentions and then not lived up to them? So it goes with our blog. Yosemite Sam and I came back from the NRA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky all fired up and ready to blog. We even had notes from speeches, photos, and various other goodies to share.

The best laid plans and all that. On Sunday (May 18), I got a call from one of my relatives. He just got out of the Marine Corps (I thank him for his service) and will start college in the fall. He is bumming around for the summer. He is planning to travel for about two months across our great land, more power to him.

Brad (not his real name) asked me in that fateful call if he could stay with us so he could see the Washington, D.C. area. He intimated it would be for a couple of days. Sure I said. Family solidarity and all that.

He showed up the day after we left Louisville—and we arrived at home after our late night flight sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning. That was cool though. I told Brad that I could not take any time off because of work responsibilities. I gave him an apartment key and told him to knock himself out with the monuments, museums, shopping centers, whatever floats his boat.

I’m not talking ill of a Marine here (once a Marine always a Marine), but the houseguest turned into a housepest. The first day here, he wanted to talk about the family, his schooling, his Marine career (he didn't serve overseas and was really impressed with Yosemite Sam’s Air Force record). We ended up going to bed in the wee hours again and we get up at 5:30 am. Sigh.

Then, Brad stayed for a week. He never left the house; he liked our HDTV, enjoyed the air conditioning, playing with the dog and cat too much for that. He watched TV until 3:00 in the morning (didn’t disturb us though) and stayed in bed until 1:00 pm. He didn’t see the monuments, the museums, but we did see restaurants and shopping centers (on my dime).

Even worse, Brad turned out to be liberal. He thought no one should own an “assault weapon,” that handguns should be licensed and registered, and that Obama would unite the country. I about ground my teeth down trying to politely refute his points.

I blame his mother not the Marines.

Thus, Yosemite Sam and I ended up exhausted and not in a frame of mind to blog about the NRA convention (except for a short post I snuck in at work). Most of our notes and photos will remain unseen by anyone other than us. The next week turned out to be tough for us for other reasons, including a sick dog (kennel cough). But, we no longer have a housepest and can resume blogging. Keep watching this space.