Filler

This is one of those posts where I feel compelled to write something simply to keep things fresh, but in truth have nothing to say. So, let the weekend travelogue commence.

Since last Easter was spent with my family in Kentucky, this Easter was with Laurie’s up in Dyer. Now I realize that what I’m about to say may sound a bit off, but I actually feel very relaxed when I visit her folks. We really don’t do much but sit around and eat Donna’s cooking/baking and hang out with the nieces and nephews if they come over. None the less, I’m never bored. I just feel really at home.

Against our better judgment (and the HobbyZone manual’s ample warnings) her dad and I took his Firebird Commander out on Saturday. That’s one of the ways he and I bond now. I’ll bring down a Stryker or something and we’ll head to the local park to do some flying. We haven’t done a lot lately because he’s had to work just about every Saturday I’ve been there. So, we decided to make the most of his day off, even if it was a tad breezy.

Long story short we quickly had the Commander blown about ½ mile downwind of us and couldn’t get it back. I finally gave up and simply let it come down in a field. We found it in perfect shape resting under one of those giant irrigation gantries. I had to walk a good 100 yards into the field to retrieve it, and the entire time I was listening for the sound of water flooding the pipes. Thankfully, the sprinklers had the day off too.

I told Larry not to say anything. That Laurie and her mother would never let us hear the end of it. We had the plane and it was in one piece. There was nothing to see here and nobody needed to know. He told them anyway. Now I can expect to get razzed every time we go flying. I can just hear it now, “So which one of you is going to fly and which is going to drive the retrieval truck?”

Sunday we went to church. It was my first time in the church since our wedding day. Larry, who is one of the elders there, told me they were thinking about moving to another location in a few years. It made me kinda sad to think about it. Not only is this the church where Laurie became my wife, but if I’m not mistaken it’s also the one in which she was baptized as a baby. Sure, God’s house is wherever He wants it, but that building is a landmark in my life. At the very least, I hope it never gets torn down should her family’s church find another home.

Sunday dinner was awesome. Since it was Larry’s birthday, I let him relax and I carved the ham. The electric knife they have is fantastic. Laurie says we have the exact same knife that we received as a wedding gift. I almost want to cook a turkey just so we can break it out. In addition to the delicious ham, there was corn, mashed taters, green been casserole with the Funyon-like crumbles on top and homemade beef and noodles. I washed it all down with Donna’s delectable iced tea then piled on with a nice sized piece of turtle cake with ice cream. I’m still feeling the effects tonight.

On the way home we drove through the backside of the super cell that blew threw yesterday. Didn’t see anything too scary, but the Saturn’s anti-skid was working overtime. Its tires are a tad worn so we were drifting a touch in some of the turns. I wasn’t driving real fast either. There was just a lot of standing water on the back roads we were on. We took a different route back than we usually do. It runs down 1 through Beecher and Grant Park, then heads west on 17 at Momence, paralleling the Kankakee River for a few miles. It’s actually sort of scenic and shortens the amount of time we have to spend I-57.

Oh man, I’m talking about travel routes. Clearly I’m becoming my father. I remember my father and his friends talking ad infinitum about the quickest way to Chicago or Louisville or Indy. As a child there are few worse things than having to sit at the table and listen to adults discuss the merits of the 465 bypass vs. taking 74 straight through to 65. I couldn’t fathom how boring adulthood was going to be if this was all there was going to be to talk about. Farts, girl cooties and King Kong were much more interesting. With the exception of girls having cooties, I maintain they still are.