Birmingham Chronicles, Day 4

My higher-order life-liver sister Jilly got in one of her compulsive cleaning moods, which I firmly believe she does in order to keep time from standing still, cleaned the closets, washed some clothes, and packed all the while stopping to pet and bab talk Lloyd. I unloaded the dishwasher and put the coffee on, and watched another round of Family Feud and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with mom. We all played to our strengths.

I've been engrossed in a reading-for-pleasure endeavor...so in any lull times I've been enjoying a good read I picked up on my sister's recommendation while on our Tea of Tardiness (see yesterday's entry) at Barnes & Noble/Starbucks. It's about a guy who got left at the altar and went on the honeymoon with his brother (since it was all paid for) and consequently got a demotion at work (as did his brother) and they took a year off and travelled. It's really a lot like a hilariously funny blog.

We were able to get Mom to ride to the airport with us, too. She got up and at 'em for the 2nd straight day...and well...I wasn't fully truthful there. When Jilly and I asked if she wanted to come with us, mentioning the beautiful day and a chance to get out, she was less than enthusiastic, and our attitudes were more or less like, "Okay. We don't want you to get too tired or whatever, we just thought you'd like to go." Before we verbalized these feelings, Mom asked, "Can Lloyd go, too?" So, being fully truthful, Lloyd sealed the deal.

On the way back Mom was up for some Pete's Famous Hot Dogs. Again, not fully truthful. She was up for us stopping and her husband running in to get the greatest hot dog on the planet (not even open for debate...they were even noted in Newsweek as such, and I have a painting of said establishment on my office wall) while she sat in the car with me and Lloyd. It's cool going to a downtown hot dog stand.

I went to visit my nephew & neice and brother/sister in-laws for a bit. This time I got to watch my nephew play video games and we talked about the possibility of him coming to Texas to watch the Rangers play and his baseball team stuff. This is very cool to me. My neice really played hard with Lloyd. When I got there their cul-de-sac was laced with fire trucks...no kidding...one of their neighbor's houses was severely burned and pretty much everything valuable was gone. Over the next surreal hour neighbors and church folk had rallied.

Then I made a quick stop by the bowling alley. My mother-in-law was bowling with her league team...and she was doing great until I got there. I watched her bowl three frames and she got splits and missed a spare opportunity. It didn't bother her because I got Lloyd to come to the door and as people were exiting they introduced him to their friends as their "granddog" and told stories.

I'll be leaving later this morning...as will Lloyd.

My suspicion is that he'll be missed greatly. The jury is still out on whether or not it'll be more than they miss me.