I headed south for the weekend and my first stop was to visit Jeff’s brother for dinner. And of course I hit traffic in Columbus. There was an accident on 270 – which is only to be expected for rush hour. Then construction split the lanes of traffic right down the middle. I gritted my teeth, followed the signs, swore several times, and managed to navigate through the mess to reach the restaurant. Really, who came up with the plan of “Let’s start in the middle of the lanes!”?
Anyway, I actually got to the restaurant before he did – even though he was only minutes away. There was another traffic accident that he couldn’t avoid between where he works and the restaurant – so, I busied myself with a little paper folding until he arrived.
We talked for a bit and enjoyed our meals at the bar. He brought up the apartment deposit and I downplayed that a bit. I was cranky about that for a while, but I’m pretty much over it. We talked a little about how his family is doing and had a few sad moments when we talked about Jeff’s car and about taking his ashes to the beach to be scattered from the pier.
I didn’t stay too late since I had another hour to drive so we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch.
I continued on my way to my sister’s place to see her and my brother-in-law. The next day my folks came to visit as well and we all had fun hanging out with my niece – who has named me “untul”. That’s as close as she can get at the moment to Uncle – and I’ll gladly answer to it. We had Chipotle for lunch (except for Dad, who strangely doesn’t like it) and just had a nice time together. I crashed early that night with a bad headache that wanted to be a migraine when it grew up, but was much better the next day.
We had lunch together before we headed out and made some tentative plans for our next visit.
When I got home, my neighbor was out in his yard and invited me over to his fire pit. We sat back there for a while and talked about the neighborhood. I went in because it was getting buggy and called it an early night.
It was a good weekend and I had fun – even though it was pretty laid back. Looking forward to getting back to the pool – I’m at 50 miles for the year so far – and maybe doing a little yard work when I get home.