My Life

My wife and I arrived safely home this evening after a quick three-day trip to Oklahoma.

We left early on Friday morning, as soon as her all-night shift ended. After working a 10-hour overnight shift, my wife bravely and skillfully drove her Buick for six hours, while I followed in the Dodge. We arrived there at about 1:45 p.m. and my wife went straight to sleep.

She only napped about two hours or less, but felt much better.

(Copyright © 2010 by Wil C. Fry. All rights reserved.)

Before supper, we went over my sister’s house and loaded a spare washing machine into my Dad’s truck, and took it to my Granny Fry’s house, where we replaced her 18-year-old washer with a much newer one. My sister and I did most of the lifting, my Dad hooked the washer up, my wife entertained Granny in the meantime, and my sister and my Dad cleaned out the one that had been in storage, and then made sure it worked. It did.

We returned to my parents house where eight of us (my parents, my wife, my sister’s family, and I) ate dinner of cheese enchiladas, Spanish rice, and tacos, and then played games.

We played Password, first with just Marline and I paired up with my two nephews, and then with all eight of us. My parents won, though a few of the rest of us were close. It’s difficult to beat the kind of mind-meld that can occur after 41 years of happy marriage.

The next day, my two nephews returned to help me clear the trail, which was one of two reasons for me making the trip up there. Recent snow and ice storms have dropped limbs and trees across my parents’ half-mile trail in dozens of places, leaving it impassable.

With a little help from my Dad and his new chainsaw, we quickly got the first (and oldest) section of the trail cleared, and then I continued on with my nephews. We broke for lunch and then returned to work. It was cloudy and about 45 degrees — just perfect for this kind of work. By supper, we had gone the entire half mile and finished clearing this trail.

My parents treated my wife and me to dinner at San Remo’s, an Italian restaurant in Shawnee, which had delicious food and a unique atmosphere.

That evening, we played Skip-Bo and Clue with my parents, my sister, and one nephew. I won Skip-Bo and my Mom won Clue.

Sunday morning, while my wife went to the Catholic church in Seminole and my parents went to their Methodist church in Bowlegs, I did a couple of loads of laundry and read an article my Dad found in Popular Science (he’s always finding articles for me to read — usually they’re pretty good ones and I’m glad he found them).

Then, when my parents returned, we handed over the title to the Buick, so they can sell it for us. (As you may have read, we now have three cars, due to strange circumstances.) We made sure the car was cleaned out, and also gave my parents a folder full of service records.

My wife is going to miss that car quite a bit, mainly because it’s her first one. And unlike my first car, hers was an excellent machine. I do still miss my first good car, though (a 1974 Monte Carlo).

We took a couple of pictures and then drove home in the Dodge.

(Copyright © 2010 by Wil C. Fry. All rights reserved.)

ADDENDUM:
Driving up there, the Dodge got 33.5 miles per gallon. The next tank of gas, including some driving around in Seminole and part of the trip back, got us 31.3 miles per gallon.