So This is Vacation

OK, we werent' going to go. Then we were. Then we did.

We almost left on time. You know, it never ceases to amaze me that I tend to expect someone else -- some unknown ghost of a person at my house -- to rise up and be the mom and take care of all that stuff that the mom always does.

Except, I'm the mom. Oh, that's right. I forgot.

So I ran around tried to remember all the things -- lock the doors, turn down the heat, did I get Mom's coat for her? Dog food, dog leash, dog, check. And so on, until I had to go out to the car and direct the packing, because according to Hunk O Man, I am The Master Packer.

Baby and Dog went in in the back seat. Baby was a bear cub because she hadn't had enough sleep. I told her to get over it because I was happy and I hadn't even had any coffee yet.

We stopped no less than 5 times over the 11 hour trip. Mostly for the dog to get out and do his business. Baby went from "Ewwww, GET AWAY FROM ME!" to "C'mere, puppy, you can lay on me" in about 2 hours. I made chicken salad and we had sandwiches at one of our stops, which was nice -- much fresher and better than a burger.

We argued about stupid things. Here's how one conversation went:

Me: Look at those cows over there. All gathered under the trees.
Hunk O Man: Stupid cows. They're going to get hit by lightning.
Me: You think roaming out in the field is stupider? Like they're saying to each other 'oh, this is so much better because maybe Larry over there will get hit by lightning instead of me.' They're thinking it's smarter to get under the tree. Because the tree will get hit and not them.
Hunk O Man: Pappaw lost a bunch of cows once because they were huddled under the tree. Lightning is going to hit the tree first, so that makes them stupider for going under the tree.
Me: I think it's stupider to be out in the field.
Baby (from the back seat): You guys must be really bored.

We finally arrived and it was almost still daylight. Thank God for Mom and Dad's house.

We spent the day yesterday -- which, by the way, was Hunk O Man's 56th birthday -- at Round Lake. Round Lake is a Christian Camp where he partly grew up. His dad was the camp administrator while he was in high school and college, so he got to be the cool good-lookin' lifeguard. The camp is on a lake, and they have numerous lake "toys" on which to play. They all are huge, like the size of a room, and blow up. So you either swim out to them and climb on and then slide down or fall off or jump on, or whatever.

Hunk O Man, his sister (age 54), her husband (also age 54), and Baby (age 12) all swam and played while Hunk O Man's mother (Mammaw) and I sat and talked. I didn't really want to get in the water, and there would have been nobody to keep Mammaw company, so I did. We watched all these middle-aged people have the most fun anyone should be allowed. They hooted and climbed and heaved and laughed at themselves and had a great time. One of the toys was "The Blob." It's like a big pillow -- really big, like 10' x 25'. You jump off a tower onto it, and then make your way to the end of the pillow. You position yourself just right, and then the next person jumps off and you go flying off the end. The best fun was when Baby got launched by her Aunt. I couldn't see her sitting there from my vantage point -- but when Auntie M jumped onto The Blob, all of a sudden there goes my daughter flying straight up about 20 feet into the air, screaming and laughing. Kind of like popcorn.

Then we had pizza and laughed, and drove back to Mammaw's house and had birthday pie and collapsed. Today we drove back to my Mom and Dad's house. It's nice, quiet, peaceful, and best of all -- there is an internet connection!

We brought The Dog, so more about that tomorrow. For now, Hunk O Man and Baby have gone off to the movies, and I'm here alone with Dad while Mom is at Weight Watchers. She'll be home soon, and hopefully I can talk her into a trip to the fabric store. We'll see. There's actual shopping around here.

Now if I just had a car . . .