Daughter Dearest, like her mom, doesn’t do anything halfway. My online buddies hail from exotic places like South Carolina or Idaho… DD brings 'em in from Norway!I have to wonder what impression someone visiting the US for the first time would get of the country by visiting one of its crazier corners. Late June on Planet Georgia, even a little less hot than normal, didn’t exactly agree with someone who is used to highs below 70°F in the summer. It was in the low 90s Friday afternoon when I got home and met him… I’d checked the forecast and when I told him this was the high for the week, he said, “Thank God!”
He was very quiet, almost too quiet. One good thing was that he got me to poke the G3 one more time, and this time I got Linux to come up (which made him happy). He’s not exactly an Apple fan, but I like Linux too so this was a quirk I could live with. He's in college, majoring in computer science… and like many CS majors, hacks for fun as well as credit.
DD’s friend Sasquatch was around a lot, and after they finished sizing each other up everyone got along pretty well. Those guys are nearly opposites; one's large and extroverted, the other slight and introverted.
But many things are a matter of perspective: I knew that our gas (even at $4/gallon) is cheap by comparison to Europe’s, but most everything else — food, restaurants, WalMart (can’t visit Planet Georgia without taking in the state religion) — was cheap to him as well. Even the $5 million price tag on a Lake Lanier estate didn’t faze him much… and at this point, Mrs. Fetched was ready to take him and DD to a justice of the peace…
I didn’t get to spend much time with him, which is probably how it’s supposed to be. At this point, I don’t know if he’ll come back or not. DD could probably tell more, if she’s willing. Or maybe she’s gearing up to receive a friend from Australia next!
Hey FAR, so I assume he's taken leave now? He looks like a friendly guy, and I'm glad DD got to meet one of her online pals in person, and from such a distance! I'm half Norski, so I can attest to the quiet nature (still waters run deeper), but we're mostly a gentle and friendly bunch. (Just ask NDD.)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that was some culture shock for him, especially the great retail demon from hell visit. I'd never subject one of my foreign friends to such a place. I'd take him to Target instead, where he'd get a more positive impression, hehe.
Hiya FAR and IVG.
ReplyDeleteI agree with IVG that he looks friendly and that was very cool of ya'll to put him up.
So now all you've got to do is start saving the money for DD to take a trip to Norway. Of course you'll have to send her first class on everything. :)
Norway...I got my wife the old fashioned way, I answered her ad in the local hip weekly newspaper. It was not love at first sight, more like "like" or "acceptance".
ReplyDeleteYeah, that trip to Norway is going to cost you a pretty penny. I read last year that the most expensive city in the world in which to live is Oslo. I found it hard to believe, but who am I to disagree with Ralph Nader.
Thanks for the couch offer, but I think I have things sorted out... sorta.
Later.
Hay Far, have you driven a fjord lately? < ducks >
ReplyDeleteHe looks like a cool guy. Yep, better get one of those credit cards that earns skymiles.
Hey all!
ReplyDeleteIVG, yes he's back in Norway. He laughed when I told him the story of 19th century Norwegians who came to America, then searched high & low until they Minnesota & North Dakota, where the climate is "just like the old country, ya!"
FM, yes DD is trying to figure out how to get to Norway. She'll need a better job than the one she has now, though.
Rick, "acceptance" sounds like a pretty good foundation for a marriage, actually. I'm glad you've got things worked out, but we actually have a real guest bed (I was joking about the couch). ;-)
[flings a tennis shoe in Boran's general direction]
Dear Far,
ReplyDelete"Yeah, you never know who's reading… and in my case, that's what makes it fun. :-) "
See what I mean?
Hi Deborah, and welcome to the free-range insane asylum! I do see what you mean. That's one reason I'm semi-anonymous here.
ReplyDelete