In my younger years, I used to be able to drive from DC to Michigan (12 hours one way) with maybe 3 or 4 stops to get gas and use a bathroom, and I wasn't tired one bit. But now, it seems, once you reach your 40's, that isn't so easy to do anymore. I have been exhausted all week long.
Florence and I drove up to Rochester so that she could visit with her niece and to also get a facial at her niece's salon. I joked on the way back, during a rather treacherous BLIZZARD I might add, that we would next be driving out to Los Angeles for a pedicure and then to Florida for a manicure. I also joked with Florence that if she FORGETS this little excursion and ever says to me, "It's been YEARS since I've had a facial," I'm going to beat her with a wet noodle.
Yeah, the blizzard on the way home sucked donkey dick, to put it bluntly. Silly me, I was driving along at about 70 miles an hour at one point, no snow or ice to be seen, and I looked out to the left and saw some idiot sitting way down in this ditch, and I said out loud to Florence, "Huh, I wonder why that guy is sitting down there like that?" And as soon as I said it, I lost control of the wheel, and black ice reached up and bit us right square on the butt, causing me to panic for a moment........luckily, though, driving a Mercedes has its perks. It's a heavy car, so of course my Michigan training of "turn INTO the skid" paid off, and we were back on track without any mishap. But my heart felt like it had been pounded into a pancake.
We were slap happy the rest of the way home, giggling like school girls about silly things, just to break the tension. My knuckles and hands HURT like a BE-OTCH the next day, though. Thank God for a bottle of ALEVE. That's all I'm sayin'. That stuff works wonders. I don't know if you've ever had the chance to drive through Erie Pennsylvania, but if you haven't, just DON'T. It is like going through the Bermuda Triangle. Every time you go through there, it's either raining, sleeting, icy or snowy. No matter what time of year! Middle of summer, it's a flood. Middle of spring, it's hailing with the sun shining. Middle of winter, forget it, pull over and stay at one of their plentiful hotels. I joked with Florence, as we drove through, that they must have some mad scientist who controls the weather there, and owns all the hotels so that tourists like us passing through have no choice but to make him rich by being stranded overnight in a storm.
I also joked with her and said they probably sell t-shirts that say, "I survived the Erie PA blizzard of 2009 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." When the truckers on the highway are pulling off the road with their hazard lights blinking, you KNOW something ain't right, so I pay attention to those guys and do whatever they signal me to do. People were in the ditch left and right, tow trucks and snow plows (on the OTHER side of the highway of course) were everywhere, but we didn't see ONE snow plow on OUR side of the highway the whole time!!
Yeah so I'm looking out the window right now here in Pittsburgh and it's snowing for the first time so far this year. Ain't life grand. Just in time for me to get into the car AGAIN and drive my fat carcass up to TOLEDO OHIO to pick up my mom next Friday for a two week visit!! ARGH!! I told my mom and sister that if the weather and roads were bad, we would stay overnight somewhere in Toledo and drive back the next morning. We are taking no chances.
Ah well....I got back from Baltimore on Sunday afternoon, just in time to go pick up the free piano that I got from Freecycle. If you've ever seen that old movie with Laurel and Hardy, delivering a piano up a huge staircase, you'll get some idea of what it was like for us. Now, granted, it didn't slide back DOWN the staircase over and over like it did in that movie, (which is friggin' hilarious by the way), but it was no easy feat to get that thing into this house. Poor Nate and Pete both had back aches afterwards. I swear it weighs about 400 pounds. I'm waiting for it to crash through the floor into the basement any day now. But until then, I'm playing it!!
Well, the word "playing" really isn't quite accurate yet, but I'm "tinkering" on it a bit. Doing the scales I still remember, and the chords, etc., noticing that more than two keys are sticking, and thumbing through the books that the lady gave us to learn how to play the darned thing. She gave us an awesome Simon and Garfunkel piano book too, so I want to learn how to play some of those tunes at some point. We have Christmas music too, so that is what I'm trying now.
Anyway, I helped Barbara paint three rooms in one day, and let me tell ya, that was not easy either. Two coats on all three rooms, as a matter of fact. But it does look very nice now. Her little house is so cute, and she did very well with the bank and the payments, and getting things fixed, etc., so that she can move in next weekend. I'm very proud of her for achieving her goal. In a way, I was rather feeling a twinge sad for myself, having had the same exact goal for many years, thinking I could eventually do what she did on my own....but, instead, I turned 40 and found Pete and moved away before that goal could be reached.
Ah well, I like the house we are living in now, it's just turning out to be smaller than we thought. Especially with wedding stuff clogging up space, I've now been storing things in our attic instead. I made centerpieces for 25 tables, for instance, and where the HECK am I supposed to put 25 vases full of flowers?! Up in a box in the attic, that's where. But I have a lot of work to do to clear out more space before my mom comes, and I also want to paint a bit too.
So, I guess I'd better go for now. Pete is having his dress rehearsal tonight for the play he's in this weekend. We are going on Sunday afternoon to see it. He is playing Santa Claus! I get to sit on his lap and whisper naughty things in his ear...hehehehe...but then again, I do that every day, so it's really not a special occasion for me. LOL
Oh, last night we watched the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert that took place in October, and oh my GAWD, the guy named Sam from Sam and Dave was on there, he must be in his 80's, but he ROCKED!! He was jammin' and singin', and dancing around like he was 25...it was amazing...that was the COOLEST concert I've ever seen....I mean, when a member of ZZ Top comes out and plays with Jeff Beck, singing Jimmy Hendrix's "Foxy Lady," that is just beyond friggin' COOL AS HELL....ya know? I was lovin' it. Bruce Springsteen brought out Billy Joel and they had a blast playing together, and it was just a major music love fest the whole time!!
Now, if Sam of Sam and Dave can get up there on that stage, shakin' his booty at 80 years old, and if Etta James can still rock out in her 70's, then why the HELL can't Steve Perry get off his young 60 year old duff and do the same thing once and awhile?! I mean, DAMMIT MAN, throw us a BONE will ya?! Come on, you lazy ass boneheaded man-that-I-love, USE that God-given talent of yours, and get up there again, at least ONE MORE TIME before you croak....we're all DYIN' out here!!! Have you been HEARING the CRAP they try to pass off as MUSIC nowadays?! Why are you torturing us like that?! We love you man, so get off that long-haired sexy carcass of yours, and give us a little more happy musical goodness!!
THAT is what I'm going to wish to Santa Claus this year.
Bye for now.
Love, Becky
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