7/29/10

Pop quiz, hotshots - What would be the first thing to go through my mind at 11am today when I rolled out of bed and went to take a piss?  If you mentioned any form of relief that my phone had yet to ring, or something referencing the fact that I still was in bed at 11am, then you've passed the quiz.  For the rest of you - extra homework.  Go back and read the posts for the last week or so and write a 200-word paragraph by tomorrow.

I thought that my no-car-having status would get me out of a little family dinner at my parents' house tonight.  My aunt and uncle are in town from Florida.  My father invites them over for a fish fry once a year or so and ole Uncle Jim goes hog wild on the perch and walleye.  I would have been content to sit at home on my last day off before a long weekend of work, so I offered my lack of transportation as an excuse.  Mom called my bluff and offered to pick me up this afternoon, since she too had the day off.  Win some, lose some.

It wasn't too bad hanging around with the folks, I suppose.  My sister's kids are behaving better as the years go by, so it was good to get a chance to visit with them for a while.  My uncle sat outside drinking beers with my father instead of getting on my nerves, as he's been known to do during past visits.  This was helpful.  (My aunt has always been a more pleasant guest.)  I wound up hanging around and watching Boondock Saints with my brother before I took off.  Another of those flicks that you can see hundreds of times and still enjoy watching.  Shockingly enough, my little brother had never seen it.  Now he'll have to check out the sequel and he'll be back on track.

Then it was time to head on homeward.  The more curious among you may be inclined to wonder how this part of the night was handled, given that my car is in some shop on the other side of town.  When I tell you folks that I seem to lead a charmed life, I'm not kidding.  I can't find a reason for it, but things just somehow tend to fall into place for me.  My parents are heading out for their annual hillbilly family reunion this weekend.  My sister (an airline employee) has arranged for the travel.  The flight to Knoxville will be free for her and the kids.  My parents also fly free, as I understand it.  My brother gets a buddy pass and pays something like $100.  My sister's husband is dropping everyone off at the airport in the morning, since he has to stay home and not work all... rest of his life, or whatever.

The net result of the deal is that Mom's SUV, Dad's truck, and my little brother's car are all sitting in Lincoln Park this weekend with nobody driving them.  Pretty good weekend for a fella to be one car short, eh?  I can't explain it.  This stuff just happens.  Ergo I deserve to be duly chastened whenever I slip up and start whining about the little things that don't go my way from time to time.  I really do know better.  In any case, Mom handed me her spare keys before she went to bed, so I guess the SUV is my assigned transpo for the weekend.

The weekend dispatcher was working at Quickway tonight for some reason.  He called and gave me tomorrow's assignment (Brighton, Flint, and Livonia stores), then told me that I was almost certain to have a second run.  There still were several loads to be sorted out when he called.  My pull time is 6pm, so it would behoove me to stay up pretty late tonight.  If I do catch a second run, then I'll most likely be working well into Saturday morning.  This means that I should sleep late tomorrow.  There's only one way to make that happen, so I'm gonna try and burn the midnight oil for a while here.  The risk would be that they end up pulling me in early again and I've only had a few hours of sleep, but I'm under the impression that the manpower is more lacking on the late shift this time around.  I'll play the odds.

Speaking of odds - and I'm just asking here - what are the odds that your resident Whitey would be given a pass for this one?  Per usual, I think I know what The One™ was trying to say here.  I'm not going to start some sort of fake moral crusade or anything.  His point was simply poorly expressed.  I just ask for a little consistency.  The rest of us don't have teleprompters at the ready, so maybe we should be forgiven once in a while if the words don't come out quite right.  That's fair enough, isn't it?  Haven't we seen enough people crying in front of a television camera and apologizing for racist statements that they never actually made?  I say yes.  We've seen enough.

I'm enjoying a few beers to round out the night here and I started to get a little hungry.  I didn't really want to cook anything.  A little snack just seemed like it would be nice.  So... I just found a bag of peppered beef nuggets that I bought last week and then forgot about.  They were on top of the fridge, behind my buddy's box of cereal.  When I tell you folks that I seem to lead a charmed life, I'm not kidding. I can't find a reason for it, but things just somehow tend to fall into place for me.