Traveling to Omaha, Traveling with Plants (6/23)

If you find a pretty plant while you're out, it's ok to purchase it - even if you're a few states away from home, right??? There were lots of giggles when this plant was purchased on our first trip back to Omaha... and a few stares as it traveled through the airport. But I love it as a member of my growing jungle in Mesa. My collection started with a Monstera which was lovingly saved by David with the move. Tending plants is an unlikely hobby likely after my horticulture friend, Deb, gifted me a Bromeliad which is "the easiest plan to take care of" and I failed! My dad smartly observed that I likely inherited an interest from my grandfather and says that when he sees me tending to my plants, it reminds him of his dad. 

[I don't have many memories of Grandpa Eichmann. He lived alone in a house on a large lot next to the state penitentiary - most definitely in the wrong part of town. He had a particularly unattractive dog named Duke. I remember the koi pond he kept - which was probably near impossible in the cold of South Dakota. He walked with a cane and hadn't worked for some time but I didn't really understand why. He was fairly stoic and hard of hearing but I remember a smile that snuck out here and there. He watched a tiny tv in his living room. I don't remember ever seeing him outside of his house. On one visit, my Dad recalls discovering a large bullet hole in his front window and gathered that grandpa had fired his shotgun directly through the window at a rabbit bothering his garden. For Christmas every year, he gave us brown paper bags filled with apples, oranges, shelled peanuts, and ribbon candy. Of course I remember wishing it was something different when I was a kid but it stands now as one of my strongest memories of him. His skin turned yellow from jaundice when he was dying of cancer. And when he died, my driver's safety awarded dad got into the only car accident I remember him having - it was a surprise to see how sad my dad was.] Finally, I remember that he insisted on plants not flowers at his funeral. Maybe we're connected after all!? And that brings me joy.

An Omaha visit brought us all joy. We played with cousins at Adventureland, reunited with friends - Kindin was hardly seen, and were spoiled by grandparents who wished we hadn't left.