Hellos and Goodbyes

What a weekend. Instead of reading on Saturday, Laurie and I made a quick trip back down here for a funeral. A friend of the family passed away Wednesday and we didn't find out about the Saturday afternoon graveside service till Saturday morning. The friend was only 29. He had struggled for some time with some personal demons and appeared to be turning a corner the last several months. The last time I'd seen him was about six months ago. The family has not told us why he died and I'm not going to speculate.

During the eulogy I learned many things about him that I'd never known. For one, I had no idea he'd been an artist, and a rather accomplished one at that. I also learned that while he had many struggles of his own to overcome, he still found many ways to help others and took some fairly significant risks to do so. In one instance he bought pizzas for some homeless people he knew on Thanksgiving. In another, he actually allowed a homeless stranger to live with him for a few months until the guy could either get back on his feet or move on. Having seen so much of the darker side of life at such an early age, I don't think there was much that really scared him. He was by no means a cruel or violent person. Just a little lost I think. Still, despite the cards life had dealt him, and maybe a few he'd picked, he did what he could to help those around him and managed to leave an indelible mark in the lives of many people.

After the service, Laurie and I flew back up to Lansing for dinner with her folks. It was clear when we left Champaign, but as we approached Kankakee there was a line of thin overcast at about 4000 feet. It had been a little while since I'd been in any actual instrument conditions so it was kind of fun. We started out above it and then right before we reached the line, ATC had me descend to 4,000 putting us right in the middle of it. It was pretty cool and I got to show Laurie what an excellent pilot I was on instruments. Of course the bottom was only a few hundred feet below that so we popped out in clear air again well before we got to Lansing.

While we were waiting for her folks to get us we waited in Shannon's Landing, the little Irish pub on the airport. It's got a real southside, blue collar Irish feel to it. They serve really good beer (Guiness, PBR, Coors Light, Leinie's and others), awesome bar food, it's really smoky and there's Sox stuff all over the walls. Grady would be in heaven. Actually, it's heaven for me too, because it's on the 2nd floor of one of the airport buildings and faces the runway. So while I sipped a Smithwicks (good stuff by the way) I was able to watch planes take off and land.

When her folks arrived, I slammed the remainder of my Smithwick's, we hopped in the car and off we went to White Fence Farm--home of what can only be described as the most amazing fried chicken dinner in the world. Turns out the place is owned by Dennis Hastert's family. I think this explains some of Denny's girth. Not only do they give you a giant plate of incredible fried chicken, but a choice of potato and all the corn fritters you can eat. I went mental on account of the fritters and bloated myself. It was a sleepy car ride back to Ma and Pa V's. Before I left though, I said goodbye to Speaker Hastert's 90 something year old mother, Doris, who still greets you when you come in the front door. She really is a sweet old lady . . . yes, Marty, despite being a Republican. Of course I didn't ask her, so I don't know that for sure. For all I know she might be a die-hard Dem that raps Denny on the knuckles to this day for giving that "nice young man from Little Rock" such a hard time. Who knows? All I know is she is the patron saint of delectable fried chicken from now on.

Today we went to my future brother-in-law's church for the baptism of his infant daughter--a stark contrast to yesterday's ceremony. She's a little cutie that was born about a month ago. Afterward there was a nice dinner for all the family members out in the lobby. I got to meet a bunch of my future in-laws and I can say, I'm in for a good time. They are a lively, big-hearted bunch. I'm not saying they're all perfect, but I don't forsee any problems sitting across the Thanksgiving table from any of them. It's also clear they love Laurie a lot, so getting the warm welcome that I did today can only be a good thing. If they didn't like me, I have a feeling it wouldn't have taken long to find out.

After the baptism festivities it was back to casa Vanderwall for a little nappy time. After that it was a cup of coffee with the folks and off to the airport. I said goodbye to Laurie and flew off into the sunset . . . literally. It was a gorgeous flight back. I decided to stay down around 2,500 and just enjoy the scenery. You can see so much detail at that altitude. It reminds me a lot of Sim City. Right before I got back to Champaign, the setting sun ducked behind some high cirrus leaving everything bathed in this kind of clear, blue twighlight. Most surreal, but very, very cool. Flying definitely doesn't suck.