Dona parentum

Talia per clipeum Volcani, dona parentis,
miratur rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet
attollens umero famamque et fata nepotum.
Vergil, Aeneid 8.729-31

“[Aeneas] marvelled at such things throughout Vulcan’s shield,
And his mother’s gifts, ignorant of these matters, and rejoiced in the image,
Raising up on his shoulders the reputation and fates of his descendants.”

The phrase dona parentis (“gifts of his parent”), in this case, Venus, popped into my head, so I titled the entry after that, but modified the genitive to a plural, parentum, hence “gifts of the parents.” My parents were visiting here for a few days last week. I hadn’t seen both of them together in a long time (July 2022), so it was really nice to have them both visit us. They flew in fairly early and my spouse and I picked them up at the Denver airport, then headed home after that. Neither my spouse nor I had planned much to do with them, but mostly just wanted to hang out, show them around town, and catch up. We planned out a couple of excursions, mostly checking out downtown in our city and the city up the road. I was also excited to have my parents meet Lyra, our new kitty, since neither of them had met her before. We got her in May last year, after my dad visited in April last year.

When we got back to our place, the cats scattered, as expected, but Xya, as usual, warmed up to them first. She really just wants a lap to sit in. She ended up on the back of the couch and rubbed her face all over my mom’s head. She’s a delightful little weirdo and I was happy she warmed up to my mom so quickly. She came up to see my dad as well a bit. Lyra mostly hid under the couch, and Ajax mostly hid as well, but at one point my mom got to pet Lyra and deemed her very soft!

I won’t go into things in super ridiculous detail (I am trying to avoid falling into the Xanga trap, lol). We took my mom to one of our favorite local coffee shops and got her a fancy drip coffee and good stuff for ourselves. My dad got the fanciest hot cocoa I’ve ever seen and I think he liked it. My spouse got a scone and pronounced it the best they’ve had thus far. My spouse is on a quest to find the best scone in Colorado this year, and so far that is the headliner. I got a strawberry croissant which was also delicious. We walked around a little more, checking out an antiques/bookshop downtown that is closing a little later this year. We found a bookcase for sale there and my spouse loved it, and my parents said they’d buy it for us (We ended up coming back the next day, and my dad and I loaded it into the back of the car and got it home; it’s lovely!). I bought a couple of books there: a collection of medieval Latin poetry and an omnibus of Robert Service’s poetry, both cool finds. We got a good lunch at one of our favorite places downtown, and decided to come back a couple of days later for the standing dinner special. Got some ice cream downtown too and my dad said it was the best he has ever had, so that was cool.

We did some more fun downtown stuff the next day in the town up the road. My spouse and dad got a ton of cookies and we honestly just finished the cookies last night; I think they got like 7 cookies and we split a good chunk of them with my parents.

My parents were flying out Tuesday night and I had taken Tuesday off, so my spouse worked that day and I ended up taking my parents to the airport a little early. But before that, we had a lot of time together to hang out.

Overall the trip was very nice and I was happy to see them. My dad helped me put in a towel rack in the bathroom. I had tried to put it in previously, but fucked up the anchors, which just shredded apart when I tried to cinch them down, and I gave up. That was like a month or two ago, so I asked my dad if he could help me salvage the kit when he came and visited. We did some rooting around at Lowe’s for supplies (spackle, wall anchors, &c.) and set to work earlier this week on it. It was a pain and took way longer than I expected, and we knocked a couple more holes in the wall that need filling, but we ultimately got the rack installed and it seems to be holding. My mom and I put the finishing touches on it on their last day here, as it didn’t take the first time.

Again, we didn’t do a whole lot, mostly hung out with the cats at the house and talked for hours with my parents. I was happy to catch up with them, show them more of the house, and just to have them here. It was ultimately really, really nice to have the time off (3 workdays for me, 2 for my spouse) and sleep in a little bit. At night I was working on finishing up Marble Hornets, a delightfully creepy webseries (2009-2014) steeped in the Slenderman mythos (I had no idea about that piece when I started watching it). It’s one piece of pop culture that just sorta passed me by entirely, although I’ve heard about it for years. I finished it a few days ago and loved it, and now I’m looking for more creepy stuff; this is a good start to a list.

I’m sorry, I am going off track. The time off was nice, the time with my parents was nice, and it was good to just unplug for a little while from the stresses of work and the “real world” and spend some time with family. My mom is going to try to come out this summer and visit us, which will be great, and I think we’re gonna see a Rockies game probably. I’m sure my dad will be out at some point too. We have at least a couple of trips coming up this year to look forward to besides all this.

anyways I’m not sure where all this ends. Apropos of the title of the entry, it was a gift to see my parents. I am grateful that I have a good relationship with my parents, since not everyone does, and I enjoy seeing them. It hasn’t always been easy over the years – we’ve had our differences, to be sure – but at the end of the day I love them and they love me and it’s all good. I’m happy my spouse is getting to know my mom better too and my parents in general. It’s just great to have everyone get along and enjoy each other’s company, y’know?

More soon. I just wanted to write about seeing my parents mostly, since that’s the most momentous thing that’s happened lately. Not much else is going on, but life is generally pretty good. thanks for reading, friends!