Hard Hats Men!

"Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men, the other 999 follow women" ~ Groucho Marx


Tiffany flies into Columbus in a few hours...we leave for Lakeside tomorrow...Amy has a shopping list about 18 feet long as well as plans to cook some of the family meals for the next week ahead of time...print out invitations for the wedding of some friends...perform or assign various other tasks associated with her parent's anniversary celebration...eat at the family's favorite pizza restaurant...and worship briefly at the altar of Starbucks. In other words - this would be a great day for me to hide.

Unfortunately that won't be an option. Instead I will ride shotgun as our "pre-vacation" moves into "primary vacation-mode" and I will do my best to keep from getting nicked by the tiny shards of emotion-charged-shrapnel that have already begun skidding about within the family dynamic.

I'm not really of much use in this phase except as someone who has the ability to sign traveler's checks - a quality that should not be underestimated by any means. I also can drive where ordered and periodically repeat the words, "It's okay...we don't have to get it all done today" and make them sound somewhat believable.

I was lucky enough to find a good book by Anne Lamott that I plan to use as both a bunker and perhaps armor during some of the lulls amidst the inevitable skirmishes this day will provoke.

Amy is up now and already ordering me to another computer so I will cut this short...at least Starbucks is the first stop.

Should we survive the day, I might try one final post before we hit the road tomorrow in the "little truck that might"...but once we've left these confines I'll be unable to write for a week or so...untempted by technology...unplugged.

Hopefully we'll also be able to unwind.