Roughing It

Other than sleeping in a tent on Sunday night, Carter isn't really roughing it in the traditional sense of a summer vacation Up North. But there is more than one way to "rough it," isn't there?

He stayed at my parents last night and, bless them, they don't have all the modern conveniences he's used to -- like cable TV (read: no SpongeBob). I didn't really think of it until I was telling him he'd have to call my cell phone today because Grandma and Grandpa have a rotary phone and he wouldn't be able to just "punch in" my work extension.

When I hadn't heard from him by 10:45 this morning, I called my folks just in case he was having technical difficulties with this phone business. I was surprised when Carter answered the phone -- surely they don't have caller I.D., do they? Nope, Carter said, "They're still sleeping and I just got up like 5 minutes ago." Now that's what I call vacation!

I asked if he stayed up late and he said it was after 10:30 sometime. The reason? Carter tells it something like this:

"Well I asked Grandma if she had cereal for the morning and she said she got Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries. I told her I wondered how they got the strawberries in the cereal. Then I said I wonder why they call them STRAW berries. So we spent an hour looking it up in books and encyclopedias."

Another modern convenience gone missing: No Google at Grandma and Grandpa's. And, I can tell you with 100% certainly, that the encyclopedia set they used was the same one I used for my school reports -- I think a set from 1958 -- so it was significantly outdated even then. But hey, it's pretty cool he could learn the old-school way of finding information!

I checked in on him this afternoon and told my dad he is free to put Carter to work if there is anything he wanted done by a "younger body." Dad declined and said, "If Carter has to work, then I'd have to work, too." So I said fine, keep doing what you're doing.

"We're just shaking dice right now," Dad says.

Hmm. Sleeping in. Shaking dice. Hanging out. Man, I want be on an Up North Vacation. I like this idea of roughing it!