At a Time in Life When Other Men Prosper, I Find Myself in Cleveland.
So Friday, myself, moonshadowed, Thomas and Georgia, plus Tracy's mom and Aunt Donna, all piled into my minivan for a trip to Cleveland so Tracy could meet with a couple of online friends and run in a local half-marathon.
Things happened thusly:
1. About halfway down the PA Turnpike [1] my minivan jerked to the right a couple of times. My best guess at the time was that since we were going through a relatively high and rocky section that it was wind. Turned out it was my left rear tire about to blow out.
At 75mph
On the fucking turnpike.
Fortunately after the initial THUMPthudthudthudthud I was able to pull off safely onto the shoulder and change the tire, which was completely shredded. Doubly luckily a cop came along less than five minutes later to keep traffic from smashing me while I changed the time (and for once the time shop hadn't tightened on the nuts so hard I couldn't undo them myself).
2. Finally got to the hotel around 4:30pm to find it being rapidly occupied by a fish fancier convention. I didn't even know you could have conventions about that. Though if you're going to have it anywhere I guess Cleveland is the place.
3. First night of sleep didn't actually happen due to a variety of circumstances. Fortunately I managed to nap in the morning while Tracy dragged the kids to the hotel's swimming pool.
4. Saturday (after my nap) we picked up Tracy's race packet and visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only saw the first floor of exhibits, due to Tom going into sensory overload and Tracy's mom feeling ragged out and annoyed because they didn't have an items related to a really obscure rocker she wanted to see.
5. Sunday was Race Day. Most long races Tracy has done started at 7am or so, for some stupid reason this one began at 9am, which meant I had to drop her off and rush back to help her mom and Aunt pack up and check out before returning to the race course with them. I left them in the car with the kids while I met Tracy, since it was a half-mile walk from the parking lot to the race course.
6. Despite having the flu earlier in the week and still getting over a case of bronchitis, Tracy managed to finish with a time of 3:07 and ahead of at least nine people in a field of a thousand.
7. Then it was time to drive home. Didn't get back to our house until about 8:30pm after dropping off Grandmom and Aunt Donna. Thomas started losing his biscuit the last couple of hours, but given how much driving we'd done over the past three days I wasn't going to blame him.
8. Back to worrrrrrrk.
[1] And who's idea was it to make a state so damned large?
Things happened thusly:
1. About halfway down the PA Turnpike [1] my minivan jerked to the right a couple of times. My best guess at the time was that since we were going through a relatively high and rocky section that it was wind. Turned out it was my left rear tire about to blow out.
At 75mph
On the fucking turnpike.
Fortunately after the initial THUMPthudthudthudthud I was able to pull off safely onto the shoulder and change the tire, which was completely shredded. Doubly luckily a cop came along less than five minutes later to keep traffic from smashing me while I changed the time (and for once the time shop hadn't tightened on the nuts so hard I couldn't undo them myself).
2. Finally got to the hotel around 4:30pm to find it being rapidly occupied by a fish fancier convention. I didn't even know you could have conventions about that. Though if you're going to have it anywhere I guess Cleveland is the place.
3. First night of sleep didn't actually happen due to a variety of circumstances. Fortunately I managed to nap in the morning while Tracy dragged the kids to the hotel's swimming pool.
4. Saturday (after my nap) we picked up Tracy's race packet and visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only saw the first floor of exhibits, due to Tom going into sensory overload and Tracy's mom feeling ragged out and annoyed because they didn't have an items related to a really obscure rocker she wanted to see.
5. Sunday was Race Day. Most long races Tracy has done started at 7am or so, for some stupid reason this one began at 9am, which meant I had to drop her off and rush back to help her mom and Aunt pack up and check out before returning to the race course with them. I left them in the car with the kids while I met Tracy, since it was a half-mile walk from the parking lot to the race course.
6. Despite having the flu earlier in the week and still getting over a case of bronchitis, Tracy managed to finish with a time of 3:07 and ahead of at least nine people in a field of a thousand.
7. Then it was time to drive home. Didn't get back to our house until about 8:30pm after dropping off Grandmom and Aunt Donna. Thomas started losing his biscuit the last couple of hours, but given how much driving we'd done over the past three days I wasn't going to blame him.
8. Back to worrrrrrrk.
[1] And who's idea was it to make a state so damned large?