To Tucson and Back

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Tucson to pick up Carrie and Tyler and bring them, along with their stuff and their two cats back to Southern Illinois to the family compound.

We don't actually have a family compound, but the Kennedys do, and since we've managed to stick around as long as the Kennedys, I think it's time for us to have a compound. I hope we don't have to actually give it a name, because naming your home (or your compound, in this case) seems silly and pretentious to me. Also we're less likely to be found yachting and more likely to be found mowing at our compound.

Anyway...tomorrow is the big day, and I'm a little nervous. I know I'm feeling some time pressure, because last night I dreamed that Congress decided the 24 hour days were too long, and that henceforth we'd begin having 6 hour days...four per each 24 hour period. And I was worried, "Does this mean I'll have to be back to work in a day and a half? What does it mean?"

I'm acutely aware that my time scenario will be fine as long as nothing goes wrong. But stuff always goes wrong on a big project like this, so I'm sort of thinking about what that could be and how damage control might be achieved.

My goal is to get to Dallas tomorrow, Deming, NM on Thursday, and Tucson on Friday. I think I'll pretty much have time to hug the kids, admonish Robbie to call once in a while even if there IS no Maternal Holiday coming up, grab the stuff and head home. To the Compound.

Lori and her frittered hand won't be joining me, which is both sad AND ironic. The sad part is that she's an excellent travelling companion and I'd like her company on this long drive. The ironic part is that she asked for this week off and was denied because her office is too short handed. So here she is, stuck at home for a week with her burn, and she's not working anyway...and they're somehow managing to survive without her.

I'm going to take the camera and upload pictures onto the laptop on the trip...if there are any interesting pictures to take. I'm not interested in a hundred pictures of hot and dry Texas and New Mexico. I AM interested in a live armadillo, since we have a pretty large community of dead ones in Missouri. Also any good roadside attractions, and maybe the Parakeet Grave behind the truckstop in Pecos, TX where we buried Lucy on the trip out here. It was a lovely ceremony involving a shallow grave dug with a trowel, followed by a two minute memorial service, and then back in the truck.

I'll also try to sneak a picture of Robbie, since I'm beginning to forget what he looks like and beginning to think Ryan the ER tech might make a good backup son.