I love you. I’ll see ya later.

A little story of last weekend’s bittersweet visit in Seattle & Whidbey Island.

My son is in the Navy and stationed on Whidbey Island.  He had been stationed there previously and spent a coupla years at Point Mugu, CA in between.  When he learned he had been posted to Whidbey again we immediately made plans to see a Seahawks game together.  (I’ve been a Seahawks fan since the team was formed and an alumnus of my high school was drafted from the Vikings by the Seahawks.)

In the interim, his wife became pregnant. She gave birth to my second grandchild and first granddaughter on July 28.  Three months ago he received word that he would be sent to Iraq in late Sept./early Oct.  That pretty much made attending the game a concrete item on the agenda that now included an unwanted send-off.  As fate would have it he knew a gal that had season tickets she inherited from her granpa that we could purchase basically at cost, on the 45 yard line.  (Yeah baby!)

Last Sunday was a home opener for the Hawks so the timing was perfect.  Well, almost.  His mother/my first ex-wife (whom I have had no contact with in 30 years) was also going to come over from MT for the same weekend.  Hmmm.  How tough can this be?  She’ll be staying with them, so I’ll get a room.  I made my flight reservations to fly into Bellingham Friday afternoon and the fly out of Seattle 4 hrs after the game.

Saturday was about as glorious day as you could hope for, 77 degrees and nary a cloud to be seen.  My son came and picked me up and we went to their home.  His mom was there dressing the baby and I said hello.  She turned, smiled and said Hi howyadoin? and went back to fussing with the kid.  (okay, we’re cool)  As we’re preparing to all go out together to sightsee, the 4 of us are having various small talk and cross-talk about where to go and is everything packed for the kid, etc.  While my son and I are out in the yard discussing whether or not he has a mildew problem under the eaves my DIL brings out Sarah Alexis for a visit.  Me holding her and telling her that if she grows up to be a narcissistic bitch I’ll disown her is promptly recorded for posterity and the photo-op is concluded.  (WTF mofo?)  I don’t particularly like children and they know that.

So off we go to an WWII gun emplacemnt that is now a local park and hang-gliding launching point (no gliders today, darn it).  We walk around and look around and chitchat before taking a trail that eventually comes out on the beach.  We do some beachcombing while the DIL hikes back up to the parking lot for the car.  It’s the most she walked since her C-section so she was raring to go.  Then we stopped for lunch at the Deception Gar & Grill (I bought) for grilled cheese sandwiches on sourdough bread.  If you’re ever in the area, stop there, have one, they are fantastic.

During the whole day there was a bike-a-thon for MS going on so sometimes the driving lanes got a little cramped.  It also displayed innumerable examples of the pluses and minuses of Spandex.

So we drove around and chatted some more and then they dropped me off at my hotel.  Sea air and not being at 2800 feet above sea level was starting to take a toll on me.  That evening we got together again for some bacon infused buffalo burgers with one of his buddies and his family.  It was a grand day.

Sunday’s weather was equally wonderful as we set off to the game.  We made a stop at an outlet mall so I could buy some new Nikes.  We talked on and off about what his new timeline was looking like down the road.  He is an E-6 in his 9th year so the career/no career threshold is coming into play.  With this upcoming 6 month deployment into a war zone coming up fast the variables change some.  With a war zone deployment on his record the opportunities expand and promotions can come more easily and quickly.  Being an E-6 at 8 years in service is pretty fuckin fast as it is.

We finally start getting close to the stadium so our attention turned to looking for the parking lot entrance.  The seats came with a reserved spot in the disabled parking area.  (Yesss)  After I got out of the car I spent the next 5 minutes spotting him as he jockeyed into a parking spot that left enough room for him to squeeeeeze out of his door.

We get thru the quick frisk bag check of security (guys on the left, girls on the right) and find our seats, it’s row 26 on the sunny side of the stadium behind the opponent’s bench. (holy fuck oh dear!)  It’s loud, it’s opening day, it’s tingly all over time.  I had been to a Dec. game 20 years ago when Denver played the Raiders and that place got pretty raucous.  But it was nothing compared to the atmosphere in Seattle on this day.  When you come from a county with a population of about 70,000 and you wind up in a stadium with 68,000 footballs fans it is a pretty awe-inspiring situation.

My son was seated to my right and I had an empty seat to my left for the first quarter.  Early in the second this black guy that was built like a tank come and sat down next to me.  He and I struck up conversation starting with a general game related remark.  Turns out that his nephew is best friends with Nate Burleson who is a receiver/punt returner for the Hawks.  Jason, who’s occupation I never got, is close with Nate and acts as his “motivator”.  It also turns out the Jason quit drugs about 8 years ago, he looked to be about 40 y.o. to me.  We had some good conversation about being drug free and what lessons Jason learned that he could impart to Nate as motivational tools.  I introduced him to my son with the info that my son was leaving for Iraq soon.  Jason told him that he hated the war and hoped that his deployment would be brief and safe.  Towards the end of the 3rd quarter Jason got up to head towards the locker room to see Nate after the game.  We shook hands and he gave my son a hug and said a few words that made my boy smile and nod.  I have no idea what was said, it wasn’t my moment.

After the game ended my son looked at his wrist for the time and his watch was missing.  A rather pricey Citizen’s watch.  We looked around our seats and saw no watch laying around.  So then we went into instant replay of the past hour.  Well Jason had some contact with you when he left. Naaah.  Any contact with anybody else? Nope. Hmmmm.  “Wait a minute”, I said.  “I remember seeing something fly thru my field of vision a while ago.  Let’s look in the rows below us.”  Sure enough, there it was under the now empty seats 3 rows down.

So with that brief episode of panic over we made our way out of the sadium and out to the car to begin the long wait for getting out of there and off to Sea-Tac.  As we crept around one side of the grounds word came out that I-5 south and I-90 east were hopelessly blocked by traffic accidents.  We asked a female cop for an alternative route to Sea-Tac which she rattled off concisely.  (We only understood part of it, but it was enough to get us started.)  That put me in co-pilot mode as I gestured for a coupla of cars to allow us to move to the right-most lane on the 4 lane one-way street we were on.  My son called his wife on his cell and she got onto the computer with the info we had and he handed me the phone so she could pinpoint our location and I could get a little more of a handle on what we were going to do next.  We found the road we were looking for and that brief episode of panic was gone.

We got to the airport and I repacked my suitcase a bit and added my new shoes and Seahawk paraphenalia.  We went in, checked in at a kiosk (something I had never done before), dropped off my luggage and went in search  of food.  We chatted and laughed as we reviewed our day and it’s unexpected trials.  I still had 3 hours before I had to clear security and it was pointless for him to stick around for that.  We went back out to the parking garage to have a smoke.  While we were standing they we were watching a woman service the machines that allow you to pre-pay your parking charges before you even get in your car.  I wondered if there was window between when you paid and when you left the garage so he went over and asked her.  Sure enough, you have 15 minutes from when you pay at the machine to when you put that recepit in the exit gate or you have to pay more.

With that mystery solved, he said, “I guess I should pay for my parking and head out.” “Yeah, might as well.”  He gave me a hug and I said, “I love you.  I’ll see ya later.” “Yes you will. Love ya, Dad.”

With that, he walked over to the machine and I lit up another cigarette and watched him go around the corner to orange section 4 of Sea-Tac airport parking.