Tyler and I got up relatively early this morning; we didn't spend a lot of time at the bar with Jesse and Brenda. It was interesting, however. There was a lady at the bar that kept staring at me, and she bought us a round of drinks, but I never met her. Jesse and Brenda had their 5-year-old granddaughter with them, she was cute as a button and sharp as a whip.

Jesse has had all of his top teeth removed recently, preparatory to getting false teeth, and he was really hard to understand. He was about 2/3rds of the way drunk when he got there anyway, and the combination of no teeth and alcohol made much of what he said intelligible. We did have a good time, however. His wife Brenda has ovarian cancer, and has recently undergone chemotheraphy. She had multiple biopsies a month ago and they were all clear. It is very unusual to be cured of ovarian cancer, but the docs said that she was... or at least that's what they understood them to say. I wish her luck on it, but I am somewhat skeptical.

Of course, my skepticism is widely known...

Tyler claimed that he had not slept well, being as there was a loud party on the corner for most of the night. I didn't hear a thing; I tossed and turned for about an hour and then I was out. I'd had three caffinated cokes, and I was relatively wired, but physicaly tired. We did not take a nap yesterday, and I'm getting used to my naps!

Anyway, after eating cereal for breakfast, Tyler and I went to my favorite junk place, the Enid Flea Market. We spent about an hour browsing the stalls. I came up empty-handed, and Tyler bought some incense. I couldn't even find any books that I wanted, which is pretty unusual for me.

We still had two items left on mom's list. (Does everybody's mom keep a list of stuff they want their kids to do when they come home?) Putting the air conditioner in the window was about a fifteen-minute job. The other one was a bit more difficult. We dug a hole at a specified place in her back yard, then went over to her neighbor's to get a shrub. It was in a pretty awkward place, and it had deep, strong roots; it took us about a half-hour of digging to get it out. By the time we were done, I was soaked with sweat, and Tyler had done most of the work. So I got all of the sympathy... the neighbor lady went to get me a cool wet towel and made me sit down. Tyler got a "thank you".

I may have not mentioned this before here, but it takes a minimal amount of work to make me sweat like a horse. This is due to the coronary artery disease, it is a harmless side effect, but it makes people think that I work a lot harder than I really do. I have used this to my advantage in the past, and I will continue to do so. So don't tell on me, OK?

Tyler and I were packed and ready to go about noon. Damn, I hate leaving every time. At mom's age, every time might be the last time...

We got on the road and started regretting rejecting mom's offer of food. About twenty miles into the trip, a large bumblebee flew into the truck and I killed him with one decisive blind swipe... either that, or he was dead when he got there. Either way, I decided to quit sticking my arm out the window and keep it rolled up partway for the rest of the trip.

We stopped to eat at the Connestoga Cafe on US60 and I-35, at the North Tonkawa exit. This is a regular stop for me, and I would recommend it if you're ever in the neighborhood. Breakfast all day long... Yeah!

We arrived in Topeka about 17:30, and boy is it nice to be home. The grandkids are over here tonight, and Lacee is flirting heavily with Tyler. She just can't stand having a male around that's not wrapped around her little finger. Tyler is there already.

Wonderful wife, grandkids, waterbed, shower, computer. Life is great. Only I have 1154 messages on the system. A lot of which I need to answer fairly promptly. And a week's worth of entries to get up. O'well, I'll do today's, and do the rest of them tomorrow. So, my links won't be working tonight, but I'll fix them when I put the rest of the entries up.

It is Good to be Home!