Father’s Day…

I had the best Father’s Day this year, and I’m not even a father.

David and I got up and went to church. Five people gave short talks on what Father’s Day meant to them. One of them was a real tear jerker, the kind where you really don’t want to start blubbering in public, so you try to hold it back and all that does is make your neck muscles hurt and your mouth move all on its own, you don’t have a tissue, so you don’t want the tears to start falling and you try to blink, blink, blink them back. Good stories! We were going to stay and practice a song with our fellow Quivering Quartet singers, but our organist had to get home and finish packing, because he was heading to the airport for a month long trip to Sweden. He plays organ for a Swedish group of singers and as they were going there to perform, he sort of had to go along…gee, tough huh? I hope he has a wonderful time. I suggested going out to lunch, because I didn’t think our only child left at home would have planned anything to do with his father, and David was pondering this, but he wanted to stop at home first. We took the long way home and drove through some of the worst hit areas of the recent tornado. All I can say is, WOW!

I happened to be driving and as we got closer to home, I wanted to stop at my Mom’s and pick up her Sunday newspaper. She was at the cabin and she specifically asked if I would pick up her and her neighbors mail and newspapers. As we were approaching my Mom’s house, we noticed a car in her driveway, a black car, a black Nissan Altima to be exact. My thought was, OMG, there is a car in her driveway…who can that be?…should I go in?…why would there be a strange car in her driveway?…wouldn’t that be cool if it was Andy’s car?…maybe Gorm parked her car there and got a ride to the cabin. I Never for once thought it could really be Andy, because he was in Cincinnati working. We were planning to go for a visit this weekend and he asked if we could come the following weekend because he had some food thing going on and would be working the whole weekend, so we decided we would be all packed and ready to go so we could just hop in the car and start driving as soon as the Jethro Tull concert ended on Saturday the 25th. It takes approximately 12ish hours to drive there and we wanted to get there by noonish. So, you can see why I didn’t give a second thought to a black Nissan Altima parked in my Mom’s driveway as possibly belonging to my son. David just said, I’ll come get the paper later, let’s just go home. (Little did I know, he, Ethan and Ray all knew Andy was planning on coming for a visit and they kept it secret from me. They almost succeeded in keeping it secret from his friends too, but someone spilled the beans).

So we get home, leave the car in the driveway, as we were going to leave again, walk into the house and who should saunter down the hall but Andy…I kind of just stood there and thought…huh, Andy’s home, weird! It took a bit to actually register in my thick confused brain. I gave him a big hug (and he actually hugged back), and then it was sort of like he’d never left. It’s so strange when the kids come to visit, how after just a minute, it seems normal for them to be standing there. He had to see my new car and test it out a bit, so we drove back to my Mom’s and picked up the black Nissan Altima that really was my sons’ and I drove his back and he tested mine out a bit more. It seems there are a few envious people out there drooling over my new baby. I like her more every day!

We got his car unpacked, gazed at his golf clubs, all the different kinds of beer and a 13 yr old Bourbon in the trunk, chatted a bit and left him to try and take a little nap while we made a Cub run for hamburger, buns, cheese, chips, coleslaw, pickles, corn, baked beans and soda. Trying to eat up a little more time for him to nap, we also stopped off at Bachman’s to get a Clematis for David from Ethan. I could have sworn I saw an email stating that all perennials were 50% off (they were not) but we bought them anyway.

Andy put together the hamburger, adding: salt, pepper, garlic, garlic salt, onion, hot pepper flakes, A-1 Steak Sauce, Lowry’s Seasoning and a few other things. They grilled them up, added the cheese, toasted the buns while I got the other stuff all ready. Andy’s friend Ray made an appearance while we were preparing and when all was ready, we loaded up our plates with excellent food, carried them on the cool vintage trays I recently purchased and ate on the patio.  Yummy!  I always wonder why my burgers are boring, well, I just don’t take the time to add the right ingredients because it’s just too much trouble. Ha! I really should remember this next time I try to cut corners.

They started talking about golfing and decided to go to Centerbrook Golf Course, a Par 3 close to us. I got left behind to clean up and weed the flagstones, but it sounds like they had a great time, and I didn’t mind staying home, this was guy’s time.  David got a birdie and Ethan did really well for his first time ever golfing.

Now it was time for Andy to see all his other friends and the next destination was Psycho Suzie’s and I got to go along. We sat out on their new patio overlooking the Mississippi River and ended up with 14 or 15 people gathered around three tables. All the boys were drooling over our waitress, Theresa. I didn’t see the attraction, but I’m not a boy. She reminded me a little of Megan Fox, (well I just went to IMDB and looked her up, and I guess she looks a Whole lot like Megan Fox), Yeah, now I guess I can see why they were drooling. Anyway…A whole lot of alcohol was consumed and a little food was eaten and the noise just from our table was…LOUD! Janelle, Matt Schleppenbach’s fiancé was just amazed that our waitress was able to remember everyone's name. Poor Janelle, she was pretty amusing, the more she drinks, the more she talks, and she was doing a lot really fast talking. It seemed like we all had a lot of fun though, and I keep thinking that I would never in my life have gone out with a bunch of my friends and had my Mom and Dad along too. So a big Thank-you goes out to Andy and Ethan’s friends for making us old folk feel welcome. They have done this on more than one occasion and I think it is so cool. Actually, the friends of all my children and very nice and accepting. No one is into anything bad, they are polite, and I can honestly say I like them all.

Since we have a new patio and a built in fire pit, the logical next stop was our house, complete with fire, more alcohol and lots of really LOUD talking. I was getting a little nervous that the neighbors would call in the authorities, but thankfully no one did.  I’ll have to admit that they even did a fairly good job of keeping their mess contained, no one accidentally let a cat out and they made sure Annie wasn’t out to get her tail burned. I’m assuming they all made it home in one piece, I haven’t heard otherwise yet, and I know a bunch of them (the ones that could get a day off work) are together again, eating, drinking, and catching up with their lives.

So, I had a really great day and I’m so glad that David had the best Father’s Day yet.

Didn’t get a good picture of Andy, so I guess this one will have to do. this is right after we ate the wonderful burgers and before they went golfing. He’s soooo tired, but he just wasn’t able to sleep. He’s still got another nine or so hours to stay awake.