~Sunday~ Robert arrived at close to 9:00 this morning, and we left my house at around 9:20. We rode for an hour-and-a-half to Greenville, where we met my sister, her husband, and my parents for lunch at Red Lobster.
My parents were late arriving, which is atypical enough that we started making phone calls when it got to be within a half-hour of their expected arrival. They’re usually at least an hour early.
As it turned out, they’d gotten a late start due to my father’s insistence on cleaning a pistol that he brought to give to my sister. A pistol, I might add, everyone handled with the trepidation that it might accidentally be loaded.
My mom had brought some antique glass bowls to give to my sister, some hand-me-downs from generations past that may or may not be valuable. In the category of, “You-might-be-gay if…” I was looking at the vintage glass bowls, while my sister was checking out her new gun. I’m just saying…
Lunch was enjoyable, and as usual my sister’s stories elicited a few laughing pig snorts by various members of the party. The image of her bringing her new-found pistol into a bar to add to her, “the-fuck-with-girlie-drinks-give-me-a-shot-of-Jack-Daniels” persona cracked up all of us.
I sat next to my dad, and at one point he leaned over to me and asked me if I’d been in touch with my brother. And what he said after I answered, just broke my heart. And that’s all I’m going to say about that, so please don’t ask. I’m just including the incident here for posterity.
As a bonus to the whole trip, my sister picked up the tab for lunch. Thanks, sis!
When we arrived back in Raleigh, Robert and I (okay, mostly Robert) worked on a fairly difficult Indy crossword puzzle. As is sometimes the case, what made it difficult was not being able to really “get” what the theme implied about the answers of the clues associated with it. The theme was, “Salud!”
At one point, we thought that in the answers to the associated clues there would be a “D” substituted where a “T” normally went. Then when we got an answer that we thought was right, but didn’t conform to that theory, we then thought it meant that they’d have any letter substituted for any other letter in the answer. Talking to nappy eventually won out over the desire to finish the puzzle.
Robert woke up at 6:30, and shortly after, he headed back to Durham.
I worked on my Saturday blog entry, until about 9:15, at which time I headed down to Flex for a little karaoke. For most of my time there, I talked with Al and Steve H., and spent a little time talking with Henry. Always a pleasure.
I left at 10:45.