Surprises

Agnes is still asleep and the hotel around us here in Pittsburgh is quiet as I tap out this short placeholder of a post. We need to be up and ready to go soon, as it's going to be a very busy day.

Actually, the day started getting busy last night.

We drove up here on Friday afternoon (through the worst traffic we've ever seen between DC and Pittsburgh - the normal four-hour drive took five-and-a-half) to visit my Dad and my brother and sister. Last evening we took Dad out for dinner...he said he'd been hungry for wings, so we went to the wonderfully-named Quaker Steak and Lube out near the airport. The wings were great, although I admit to passing on the ones so hot they make you sign a waiver before serving you...anything with a Scoville Heat Unit count in six digits is tempting fate. After dinner we took Dad home, then rendesvous'd back at the hotel with my sister and her family to relax in the hot tub for a while. After suitably scalding ourselves, we all went back up to our room to do some more catching up, and at about 10:30 my sister's cell phone rang...she said it was her son (my nephew) dropping by to see us after his date. She gave him the room number, and two minutes later when we opened the door to a knock, there stood my son and his family from Ohio! They'd driven all the way over to surprise us and see the Munchkins' great-grandfather!

So...

In a short while, we'll be meeting for breakfast, then heading up to a family picnic and mini-reunion up in the bucolic town of Franklin, Pennsylvania...where Dad will get to be as flabbergasted at the surprise as I was last night.

Life is, indeed, good, despite the best efforts of Republicans, Democrats, and assorted political, social, and religious ass-clowns to screw it up.

We're off to the races!

Have a good day and a safe and happy holiday weekend. More thoughts (and, probably, pictures) tomorrow.

Bilbo