A Weekend Visit

to Ashli in Poughkeepsie was just the thing I needed.

Last weekend I shuffled off this coil and left for one further east. Poughkeepsie was my destination as I decided to visit her for the weekend. She had been telling me how much she missed me, on the phone, so I thought; why not? It was a pain and a half trying to schedule this visit because of her stupid controlling grandmother, who she lives with, but it was totally worth it.

We went out to the mall, the movies, we toured around all of her childhood hangout spots, and just enjoyed each other's company. I ended up staying at her Aunt's house just a few minutes away because they didn't have any room at her house.

Which brings me to the only part of the vacation I did not enjoy, her uncle. Technically her aunt's fiance, but they've been together for like 12 years. I digress. Before I got there on Friday evening, making great time mind you, she told me to be aware that her aunt's boyfriend "Joe" is a bit... of an acquired taste, to be polite. But let me paint for you the picture of what it was like to meet this man.

Walking into the small house I looked around and saw her shy aunt come up to me and ashli asking "hey, whos this?" After my introduction to Heidi I then saw a hefty man of about 5 and a half feet tall walk around the corner and come up to me. "whos dis?" he demanded in a thick Brooklyn's accent. After introductions, we all sat down in their living room and chatted about this and that for about ten minutes. He had long hair tied in the back which was matched by a goatee and mustache. His arms were covered from shoulder to wrist in tattoos of a myriad number of depictions and colors all stacked on top of one another. From our later chats and interactions I came to understand that he was a self proclaimed "true american" as he took me to the room I would be sleeping in to show me his gun collection.

"So what do you think of dis stuph?" he asked looking me dead in the eye as he whirled his hand in the direction of the collection. "I think every American should have at least one," I said playing the part. To be honest I can think of at least ten people off of the top of my head, right now, that I would not want owning guns. "Good, I can see that your... at least educated about dis stuph," he said with great strain.

I later discovered, as he came home one evening dirty and in leather, that he was a 15 year member of a motor cycle gang. And if there was any questions loyalty to it, they vanished when he took his jacket off and revealed a shoulder holster with a .45 caliber hand gun nestled in his side. "Nothing to be intimidated by," he said removing the clip and bullet in the breech. "Yup," I said trying to convince myself.

While the guy never threatened me, and was very hospitable and even nice at times. He is definitely the odd duck of those involved in the Burkhardt family. Let me just make clear that the rest of her family, besides her control freak grandmother, are all vanilla-American do-gooders. And other than him, the weekend went great.

Can't wait for the next visit...