White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Once again, due to events well within my realm of control I've been distracted and have let my blogging fall silent. Sorry folks. Let me regale you with a dissertation of my recent activities and the awful shape it has left me in. It all started Thursday night. I had been invited to a YRMC (Young Republicans of Montgomery County) meeting. Now, before the hew and cry rises, one of the primary reasons I went is to feel out my sister organization and see who else is a party to this cause. A couple of my buds (Satish the lady Killer and Alex from pseudo) were also there and we would be comparing notes the following day. The meeting was held at a not-so-local bar which I had patronized before and found to be satisfactory for meeting my needs. There were some things I liked ... some people I adored ... and some statements that I did not want to hear. I suppose I'm a bit too pragmatic and find that if I'm going to compromise my beliefs and principals, it had better only under extreme duress. 'Nuff said about that. One interesting culture vulture accomplishment of the night: Raj from the Apprentice is apparently a member. I didn't talk to him, but I found a significant number of other rather interesting and talkative members. In the end, I drank a few too many vodka martini and glasses of Glenfiddich. The end results are as predictable as my drinking habits. It's a good thing that I no longer habitually use alcohol as a conversational lubricant. I got back to the Manor shortly after midnight. Due to this, I was not around to help the Mrs start packing for our eventual trip to the Haupertonian FOB in upstate NY.

The next morning, I felt the full weight of my sins pressing fully down upon my detox jittered brain. Fortunately, work was fully engaging in a perverse manner so as to distract me from my ills. The day zoomed by and I was on my way back to the Manor to help prepare for our trip to the Haupertonian FOB in upstate NY. One small hitch, the SuperSaturn is running on fumes. The local neighbors have been making a run on the gas stations in the area and we have been experiencing spot shortages all throughout the region. I stopped at one of my usual 'watering holes' only to find that they have been sucked dry of not only regular but plus as well. All that was left is premium at 500$/gal. Ok, not quite that high, but it might as well be. So I buy a couple gallons at 3.75$ and head off to a more secluded establishment that I know would be fully stocked. Actually, it's a car-wash that sells gasoline at lower prices near our day-care so I'll be able to pick up the kids and tank-up as well. I love it when circumstances work in my favor.

I chase after the kids and help the Mrs pack up the Family Tank. It takes a bit longer than normal, but that's fine since the local roads are all gummed up. We eventually get going at about 1900 hours. I deduced that it would be within my interests to take it slow and easy this time. No more than 65mph the whole way. Given that and the fact that we stopped three times for the kids to stretch their legs, it took 4.5 hours to go the whole 230 miles. One of our stops was at Gibson along Interstate 81 in NE Pennsyltucky where they were GIVING away gas. Ok .. not for free ... but for $3.15/gal which is just as good these days. Heh, days. Yeah. To see gasoline go from 2.15 to 3.50 overnight is just a bit shocking. I've been talking to the Mrs about buying yet another car for her so she doesn't have to drag her 100lb self about in that beast of a mini-van. It gets about 15 mph and she manages to burn through 30 gallons a week. Not acceptable. I'm thinking of getting her a nice used Mercedes Benz Diesel stationwagon of sorts. We'll see. I was hoping to wait till after I had her new car paid off but I don't think it'll do us any good to wait if she's going to be burning 100$/week on gasoline. But I digress. We got to the FOB at about 2330 hours and because the kids were all worked up, we did not get to bed till well after 0100 the next morning. Of course, we did have one disturbing incident on the way. No, not the crazy drivers or excessive traffic. This time, Jacob threw up just as we made it to Owego. Only 30 miles to go and it just too much for him. So be it. All the McDonalds frenchfries came up and we had a little bit of a mess ... looks like I'll have a bit of clean-up to do the next day. More of that in the next entry.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 1:22 PM