I'm Back!

I haven't written in awhile because I was gallivanting around the country, not that they don't have internet connections in The Land of the Silos (as Cass would put it) but I just had too many other things to do and too little time to do it in.

I took the kids on a quick Grandma Run before being grounded by surgery (not mine) and we drove instead of flying. Vince & Cass travel pretty well, not a single "Are we there yet?" although there were a couple of "I wish we were there"s. Maybe that's a sign that they know their geography well enough to know where we were and it wasn't there.

I did my usual round of visiting well loved friends and family and, as usual, mourn missing a special few. (Next time!) Where else but Wisconsin would you find "Cheese Seafood" at a Chinese buffet? (Have you ever seen a cheese dish on a Chinese buffet? We're talking real cheese here not just that little bit of cream cheese in Crab Rangoon.) I sang my favorite hymn; had a bratwurst, some cheese curds and sauerkraut & dumplings (not all at once, although...) ; drank more coffee than I drink the whole rest of the year (Mom makes good coffee); and went to some thrift stores (I found a white, embroidered, cotton camisole that's light as air and a pair of stretchy black pants with rhinestones that would make Elvis blush) but this visit I also collected literary gems.

James Thurber did an essay entitled "What a Lovely Generalization!" from his book Thurber Country (which also happens to contain "My Own Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage" but that's for another post). Thurber "had decided that the collection of actual objects, of any kind, was too much of a strain, and [he] determined to devote [himself], instead to the impalpable and the intangible." With that in mind I present my own collection of souvenirs from this visit:

"All mall food is good."

"Turn around, don't drown!"

"Honey, lately your low self-esteem is just good common sense." (Cloris Leachman in the movie "Spanglish")

"Blood is very ordinary. Even people who are dirt poor have blood."

"Scooby-Doo can talk."

"Pessimists are always looking down. Optimists are always looking up. But optimists never find any money."

"He'll drive you crazy and charge you for the ride."

And lastly, one of Cass's car entertainments was to think up a poetic epitaph for her tombstone. After a few false starts, she settled on Haiku:

Cassandra Marie
Creative Superfly
Regrettably dead

Besides silos and the broad vistas in which to view them, Wisconsin has some great lakes and we took advantage of one of them.

The drive around Chicago was a delight both ways. (Not. Terrible back ups both times, once on the Skyway, once on the Tri-State and rain to boot on the drive home. But it's like my theory about dogs. If you tell him he is a good dog, he will be a good dog.)

Speaking of dogs, since my own dog is still at the babysitter's and the house does seem empty without him, here is a photo of sweet Buzz to tide us over.