White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Okay then, let's rooooollll this way back to Friday. It was a fairly stressful one. Mostly work related. Fortunately, I had a lunch with some old Infonautics friends scheduled so I could at least kick back with a plate of ginger shrimp, wan-ton soup and a nice bathtub of Glenfiddich scotch. Ten dollars worth. Initially, when the bartender brought me the drink, he sloshed a bit out and it got on my hand ... he then proclaimed 'One Dolla'h off!' with a heavy Chinese accent which prompted myself and my Rock-Star co-worker to blurt out 'One Dollah!' in faux accent. We looked at each other and all laughed fairly hard. Strange minds under stress do very peculiar things.

Saturday started out mild, but quickly picked up into a kiddy-fest-o-rama. It starts out with me making the standard breakfast for the family. Omelets with cheese, Bacon, Sausage, toast, beverages. You know, the usual. I always forget to make my coffee though and end up with a caffeine withdrawal head-ache. While the kids swim, I run off to tank up the SuperSaturn, which was running on fumes by the weekend. Much like myself. In any event, I went to the AAA gas finder for our area and was pleasantly surprised to find some of the least expensive gas could be found at the new Wawa on Gassiteria row. At the time, it was a rockin' 2.65 for commoner-grade unleaded which was nearly the lowest in the area. There was a carwash that sold it for the same price, but it was cash-only and it was doubtful that the price was presented could be for those who did not want their car cleaned of road-grit. I managed to fill the SuperSaturn, the two 5 gallon tanks I brought along and then zip back to the swim club just as the lesson was ending. I'd rather spend that 30 minutes reading a book, but it's best that I take care of this now instead of wasting everyone else's time. With that, we hearded the kids back to the car and started home. Before we got too far, we spotted a man pruning back the bamboo grove that we admire every weekend as we drive past. I pull over and leap from the car trying to catch the man's attention. It turns out, it is the owner of the property and I introduce myself as an interested observer. After a brief talk, we discuss the aspects of the grove and he mentions that it is the running bamboo instead of the clumping variety. Of course, both varieties cost about 50$ a bucket so his offer to me of free runners was too much to pass up. We were on our way home, but I promised to stop by on Sunday after church services to collect some. When I mentioned the Tyrannical Twins, he was intrigued and insisted that we bring them along to see his chickens, ducks and geese. Sounds like a plan. How could I say no to either party? In any event, the gentleman (Mr Wilson) was rather pleased that I actually asked before trespassing. He noted that he has seen people leap out of their cars, rip clumps from the ground and then drive off with little attention to property rights. I can sympathize.

The gas station on the corner down the street from us has been closed for a few years now. It's in a rather difficult location so I'm guessing it was not that selling the property was difficult, it was the buried tanks that kept the eye-sore in place for so long. Finally, Commerce bank bought the land and threw up a branch office. It took about a month to extract the tanks, demolish the old building and throw up the new one. So, in traditional bank CRA mode, they had a big fair. Clowns, stilt walkers, raffles, balloons, food and, of course, Elvis. Guts filled and crooning liberally applied, we left with shaped balloons and bags of chachkies. It's nearly 1100 hours and we have one more stop to make. Yet another Open House at a fire company. This time, it's the Huntingdon Valley crew. We managed to get there a few moments before they started closing down the tail end of Red Lion Road and managed to park right behind the building next to the police station. Sweet, just a hop-skip and jump away from the garage and not a rain-drop in sight. We rolled through the activities quickly since we were the only ones there and Jacob was beside himself. They had a remote-controlled fire-engine with a talking 'Sparky Firedog' that would squirt you with a fire-hose. It was the center of attention till the REAL dalmation fire-dog arrived. My little ones are certain that all dalmations are 'Pongo-Old-Boy' from 101 dalmations and asserted his name was thus to all within range of their declaration. The kids were also finger-printed by one of the police officers so we could save their prints in a safe (just in case) and then off to the ladder truck where we got to ride up in the cherry-picker and see all of Lower Moreland from 40 feet up. The wait for the ladder was long, but immediately after we disembarked they pleaded for another ride. No, we had to now. We had to go home and prepare for our final activity for the day.

Joyce has a few relatives in the North Jersey Suburbs. Some are closer than others. Her Grandmother has a sister who has a son. This would be considered a second cousin but due to hierarchal honor rankings in the traditional Chinese familial society, he would be an Uncle. We split the difference and denote him as a cousin. He and his wife (married about a year now) have recently moved into a new condo up in Orange NJ and have finally managed to get an house-warming party together. Good thing, we were starting to feel guilty about having them drive all the way down to our place every time we were to see each-other. Yes, of course, it's easier to traverse the NJ Throughway without kids in tow, but the guilt was still there. It did not take us long to put the 100 mile distance behind us. A mere 90 minutes to get there. All of the available relatives where there and since the space was limited, so where the attendees. I prefer smaller, more intimate gatherings anyways. The kids were on their best behavior to boot. Odd. They ate quite well and we let them dive into the various chocolate cheese-cakes, cookies, chips and other sundry verboten food-stuffs. We left at about 2030 and were making really good time till we were within miles of our designated exit ... then tragedy struck. Congestion ... at 2130 hours. Argh. It was not as bad as it could have been, but it still cost us 30 minutes of discussing with Jacob that the car is not actually broken. We did not get home till about 2200 and by then an evening bath for the kids was right out of the picture. Not due to the hour, but mostly to the sheer exhaustion of the Mrs and I. I do not think we could fathom the destruction the Twin Tyrants would do if we even attempted to bath them when we are not at 100%. Nope, just carry them off to bed and let them doze till the next day. Such angels when they are sleeping, you know?