No Italy

Wellsir(s) (and Misses and Ma'ams), the proposed family Italy/Switzerland trip has been cancelled. The monkeys in Gnosca decided to raise rates dramatically so that my grandfather could no longer afford to foot the bill for the journey there. Bah! Bah to them all!

I found this out several Sundays ago as I was visiting the Agadoni grandparents for an early Thanksgiving. But, I did learn of many other new and interesting things as well. For one, there are apparently no more Agadonis in Gnosca! The last Agadoni guys on earth are my brothers, my cousin Max, my cousin Alex and me. We're it. I had thought previously that there may have been some left in Europe. My grandfather, beyond citing finances as a preventative reason, said that he was also nervous about the whole family being on one plane, given the unrest in many parts of Europe at the moment. I don't think it's some "the Agadoni name must endure" sort of thing. It's genuine concern for the members of his family. Now, I know my grandfather loves his family very much; there was never any doubt of that. But it was still oddly comforting to hear this sort of concern.

I also found out that my grandpa worked for a lense and camera company making top-secret spy-plane cameras for aerial reconnaissance during the Vietnam War! He even got pulled over by a cop in San Diego, and when the cop asked him where he worked, he had to say, "I can't tell you." I hope that, someday, I'll be able to tell somebody "I can't tell you" as well.