My brother backed his truck in the drive. I hopped out and grabbed my bags ready to settle
in, check out his home, and just relax or whatever people do after five and a
half hours of security, airports, airplanes, and turbulence. My brother works out of his home and my first
surprise came right after stepping out of the truck. I set my bags down in the drive-way and we
got to work right away. I cannot
remember what we were doing at this point, it did not matter. We worked and he spoke to me with an urgency
that I did not understand.
In the house I finally put my bags down, but never really
felt like I got settled in. My brother
did not show me around the house; it was not necessary, but it is so customary
that I was kind of expecting it. I
finally got a chance to relax; taking a seat on the couch, my brother invited
me to watch television. Since, I do not
have television at my place in Kentucky, I told him I do not really watch
television and then I just sat there for a moment letting my brain catch-up
with my body.
Nothing else worth recalling happened that first night. The kids were shy; I was almost a stranger,
except Maxson did not think so. I am not
sure if he remembered me from Christmas or he is just not shy like his sisters,
but he was hugging all over me. His
speech is almost indecipherable, but his actions said, “Hi! You are a friend.” Aunt Kate (my little sister) was also here. She is a regular to these parts and the girls
will tell: she is pretty cool. She got most of the attention and that was
fine by me.
In the morning I awoke before everyone else and took care of
some chores. My brother asked me to pick
up the dog poop from the back yard and to water his plants. Waking up early seemed easy; I had been
waking up at the same time for two months.
Only now I was two timezones away and that time came two hours
earlier! It was going to be a busy day,
my brother had two customers, we were going to go to church, and the big
shocker my brother was getting on a plane to Miami. He would be gone for a week! Nobody told me about this (I did not mention
his wife was in Bolivia).
Taking my shower, to get ready for church, I noticed
something strange. I am not quite sure
what to make of it since no one briefed me on the proper showering
procedure. In my brother’s shower there
is a squeegee. I have used it a few times
after a shower to squeegee the shower doors and walls. I am not sure if I am supposed to or if they
just happen to have a squeegee in the shower.
That is something you really should tell people. I guess one day I will figure it out, but
until then the question is to squeegee or not to squeegee?
We missed most of church, with Miller kids I have learned
you will be late for almost anything. My brother and I left church early so we were
there all of thirty minutes. The
deliveries that day were easy though, nothing big, no difficult set-ups. Before I knew it my brother was on the
airplane bound for Miami. It was me and
my sister and three kids that hardly knew me.
My family has communication problems; I did not know he was leaving for Miami until the day before or maybe the day of (he did not tell me before I got here). I was left thinking, "Is this what I signed up for?" The
next day Alba or Elba came to
babysit/housekeep/hang out (confirmed as Elba the El Salvadorian Nanny). I am not
really sure, since she knows as much English as I know Spanish. My sister knows a little Spanish, but she
said she was as lost as I was. Elba also
had someone drop off another kid so there were four and outside of a list of
tasks that my brother gave me, the only thing we did was hang with the kids and
watch Nickelodeon. Victorious is now my
favorite television show, sadly. This is
followed by iCarly, but I do not like that nearly as much. These two shows is about all that we watched on
television the whole week.
I did some driving around.
Not joy-riding mind you, but I had to go some places for my
brother. Driving down Sunset road is
pretty cool, McCarran International is basically right beside Sunset and there
is a run-way that is parallel to the road.
On a clear day, one can look down the road and see four planes coming in
at a time. The planes do not really stop;
anytime I am outside I can look up and see a plane flying by. It is kind of cool to think about. There is even a little parking lot beside the
air strip people can park and watch the planes (of course it reminds me of a
movie). Incidentally I found myself on
the strip one day, but I have been here before so it was not really a big
thing. The mountains are different. I have seen them before, but it is still so
strange to me having all these mountains around. The mountains back at home are in Eastern
Kentucky and I have not really been there, so it is mostly just hills that I am
used to. Plus these are desert mountains
the rocks themselves are visible on the horizon and they are not covered over
with vegetation.
My brother ended up going to Honduras from Miami. That meant working without him over the
weekend, but fortunately for me he has this guy named Jose help him that knows
pretty much everything about the business.
I did what he said and we got everything done without any issue. All in all, I think I got more than I bargained for in the
first week. I found out first-hand what
I signed up for. Had a few surprises and
had my eyes opened. Next week could not
possibly have this much in store for me.
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