We arrived safely at home tonight, having pulled into the driveway sometime around 2214. Today mostly featured a ten hour drive from the farm in Minnesota back to the house: seven-and-a-half hours were actually spent moving, two hours were spent visiting some of Curmudgeon's relatives in Wisconsin and the remaining time was split between fuel stops. Our average speed of travel? A paltry 54 mph, fully 11 miles under the limit for most of my drive. Why? Because apparently nobody who lives in Wisconsin has ever seen snow before! So at every turn and every hill there was a cascade of brake lights and we'd go from a decent clip of about 65 mph to something closer to 20 mph. Truly amazing, the conditions didn't at all call for this level of caution.

Overall it was a good weekend, paired with a good holiday. I spent time with my parents, Curmudgeon got to meet all of the uncles on my father's side of the family (two of whom I haven't seen in over two years), I had tasty dinner every night of the week and I got to watch some truly horrible 80s movies over at chebutykin's place. Further, we came home with the truck full of goodies. For instance, who knew my mother was holding my gun collection hostage and all it would take to free two of the members was a ringer washer in trade? Heck, that's just a small part of it. What really has me excited is the brand-new Poulan snow blower with a 5.5 hp motor and a 24" deck. The 'blower even has electric start, how cool is that? Now neither I nor Curmudgeon will need to have a coronary when shoveling out the driveway this winter! As an added bonus my father gave me a pair of boots, a pair of pants and a jacket from his fire fighting days. He says that since he's retired, well, he doesn't need them so I might as well have them. Score! Now I can stay warm and dry no matter how cold or wet the blizzard of snow I'm removing may be.

I have Monday off to recover from the drive, something I'm going to need since this sinus congestion is utterly destroying me. Tuesday it will be back to the grind at $EMPLOYER. Though I believe that I have one or two more "use them or lose them days" to burn, I don't expect to be able to take any more vacation time before year's end. Pity.

Drivin' my life away

Tags: 2008, family, thanksgiving, vacation, weekend
Current Location: Blue Room of Death