Talladega Day

Note: Tyler is my special guest blogger today! He helped write the following entry. Thanks Ty!

Tyler kept telling me he “wants to go fast” (from the movie Talladega Nights) so we found an indoor go cart track to play on today. This track was fast. He hit the wall a couple of times and spun out a couple of other times. Once he hit the wall and thought the go cart was going to flip. Another quote from the movie came to mind, “I’m flying through the air… This is not good!” He recovered nicely, but even after his ride was over, he was a bit shaky.
We also hit Dave and Busters. One game was Wheel of Fortune. A giant wheel rotates and when you press the stop button the wheel stops on ticket values. Most of the values are 3 inches wide with 10 or 20 tickets as the prize, except there is one 1000 space about an inch wide on the wheel, so you try to land on that one. Tyler stepped up and the first spin hit one to the right of the 1000 ticket space. He went again and it stopped one to the left of the 1000 ticket space. The third time he hit the 1000 ticket space! It was so exciting. The machine actually counts out 1000 tickets, one at a time. One, two, three, four, five, etc.
I played Deal or No Deal. You pick one suitcase from 16 suitcases with values ranging from 2 to 300 tickets. You want to pick the 300 ticket suitcase to win. Deals are made in the process of opening the suitcases you didn’t pick, trying to convince you to settle for less tickets, but I was feeling lucky and said, “no deal” throughout. I picked the 300 ticket suitcase and won!
By now Tyler wasn’t so shaky anymore and offered to drive us both home. Right, like that’s gonna happen. Better stick to the track instead of the highway!

The Other Boy

Tyler flew up from Austin to visit me this week. His flight was delayed, which turned out to be a good thing. Construction on the turnpike was down to one open lane, but then a truck caught fire which closed the turnpike for over an hour. I was pretty sure Tyler would welcome the chance to run loose on the streets of Kansas City, causing mayhem and chaos in his wake. But when he did call me, he was still sitting on the ground in Dallas. Weather had cleared there, but the backup of planes trying to take off was causing delays. Whew! I met his plane with plenty of time to spare, thus beginning the fun and joviality.
We went to Schlitterbaun Waterpark. This is the third Schlitterbaun Tyler has been to. I’m told this one isn’t as big as the one by his house, but bigger than the one he visited last week. He likes all the rides and slides. The lazy rivers are all different. One is a real river with rocks and trees; one is a concrete walking path with a current pushing you along; and the one we went to yesterday had two lazy rivers. They were both the concrete path type with a current, but one of them also had giant waves every 15 seconds that added a bit of nausea to your floating experience, especially if you just ate.
We ended our day at Tyler’s pick, Olive Garden. We got our fill of salad and bread sticks, so we brought home the pizza to reheat for breakfast. I asked the waitress to take our picture with my camera phone, but I can’t find it. There is no proof that the boy got here, or that I’m feeding him. Perhaps when he gets home the proof will have to be his sunburn and dirty laundry.

My Brother's Keeper (And Their Aunt's Too!)

While in OK, the nephews and I swam. They wanted to wrestle in the pool. I told them the rule was they couldn’t hold the other underwater because they would die. After watching for a bit I gave them one more rule: no hitting in the face or anywhere else that Cheryl could see a bruise because they weren’t wearing head gear. They agreed to the rules and wrestled. They were really wrestling, not just hitting whatever they could reach. They both had great moves and were very good. I think I had more fun watching them than they had playing in the water.
We all returned to our respective homes today. When unloading the car, I discovered something one of my nephews left in my car and texted Cheryl to tell her I’d send it on. Shortly thereafter Cheryl texted me. She found something I left in her car. Seems I need a keeper too, but I'm in good company!

Celebrations

Today is my brothers’ birthday! Yep, you read that correctly – brothers’, not brother’s. My brothers were born four years apart on the same day. And with my twin sister, mom always boasted that 4 kids and 2 birthdays was her version of Planned Parenthood.
Anyway, Glen is working today, but the rest of his family and I are visiting my sister in Oklahoma. Tyler was at wrestling camp at OSU all week. Cheryl and Dillon came up a couple of days early to pick him up, and I came down to crash the party. We saw Tyler wrestle, we swam, we played cards, we played glow in the dark miniature golf, and ate lots of pizza. We even saw some miniature horses at Sue’s neighbor’s. I don’t know how Glen celebrated his birthday today, but the rest of his family had a wicked fun day!

Red, White, Blue, and Rainy

The annual bike race was this weekend. All ages and all bikes were there. The kids bike races were fun to watch. All the bikes were decorated with stars and stripes in red, white, and blue. No one puts playing cards on their spokes with clothespins the way we did when I was a kid. Instead, more attention to what they are wearing is given. One kid dressed up as Elvis – sideburns and white silk jumpsuit. Most had the statue of liberty hats on. All had flags. Some parents ran alongside their kid during the race. The three year old winner of the 50 meter race just smiled and nodded to the crowd from his Big Wheel. Minutes later, the five year old winner of his age group’s race was asked his secret to the win – intense training, a good breakfast, family support? “My bike is just fast” was all he said.
It’s pouring down rain now so most everyone has gotten out of the rain and is watching the fireworks display on the local TV station from the dryness of their sofas. But if we were still downtown, we would be eating barbecued meats with all the usual side dishes, singing The Star Spangled Banner:
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light…
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave…
PLAY BALL!