Don’t Know Why There’s No Sun Up In The Sky

Two posts in one day? Madness! In defense of my sanity, the post "Unwept, unhonour’d, uninterr’d he lies!" was very nearly finished when I saved it early last week. All it needed was a bit of spit and polish and...voila! Now, this has the potential to be a bit of a blogging week (as I will explain below), so I figured it is best to try and keep as current as possible. So, without further ado...The Memorial Day Weekend!

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I was going camping with a bunch of friends at Skydive Chicago. This is the second year in a row for me and the third year for some. I don't know if it yet counts as a tradition or is just something we kinda do. In any event, that's not important.

THURSDAY
I half-heartedly cleaned my apartment (for reasons that will become clear in a while), washed the clothes that I knew I was taking and packed.

FRIDAY
I decided earlier in the week that I would make every effort to be on the road by 2:30pm (EDT). I was mostly successful, having gone to K-Mart at lunch to pick-up some additional supplies (sandals, snacks, 2 cases of bottled water and some OFF! insect repellent). The only thing that prevented me from making my self-imposed starting time was the fact I needed to get my oil changed. Oh well, 25 minutes and $33 later I was on my way. Now normally, when going to Chicago, I will take 1-70 into Indy and then I-65 towards Chicago. As I like to say, the drive to Chicago would be fine except for the part in Indiana. I-65 is nothing but fields on either side of a relatively straight highway. This tends to get a bit monotonous after about 15 minutes. Anyway, instead of I-65, I took I-74 out of Indy. This route had several things going for it...I drove right past the Speedway (you know where the Indy 500 is run) which I had never seen, it was a faster route to Skydive Chicago than actually traveling through Chicago and it was brand new boring. It was basically the same as traveling I-65 (straight and fields to the left and right), but I've never traveled that interstate (at least that I recall).

While I was driving, Stacey called not once, but twice to remind me to pick up firewood. I'm driving through the middle of corn and soy fields - where the F*** am I going to get firewood? The answer? The IGA in El Paso, IL. Who even knew that there was an El Paso, IL? There is also a Paw Paw, but that comes in later in the story.

I arrived at the campsite about 8:30pm (CDT) and we pitched the tents, started the fire, and basically sat around catching up. We finally drifted off to our tents about 12:30/1:00am. That night it got a wee bit chilly - somewhere in the mid-40s. I usually borrow my father's sleeping bag since he only uses it when he takes his annual fishing vacation in Canada. But because I didn't go anywhere near my parent's house, all I had was a flat sheet and a blanket. As I stated before, I rarely get cold. Stacey and Jeremy each put on about 14 layers of clothes in preparation for the night, I put on a pair of thin house pants and a tee-shirt. This would have been fine, except for the fact that I kept waking myself having to go to the bathroom. Our campsite was about 300 yards from the pavilion where the bathrooms are, but I kept rolling over and trying to go back to sleep, only to wake up a little bit later. I finally had enough, put on my shoes and made the trip. I would have selected a local tree, but other campers had come in after dark and I wasn't exactly sure where they were and didn't want to end up relieving myself on a bush that they had backed their tent up against.

SATURDAY
We got up around 8:30am or so. After some general dilly-dallying around the campsite and Stacey making about 42 calls to various family members, who were going to join us in the afternoon and evening for the Serilian show. Oh, did I ever mention that this is basically the reason that we go camping at Skydive? Yep, Serilian has played there the past three Memorial Saturday's as part of some deal-o that Skydive does. There is a whole story about Kevin, Stacey's brother and bassist for Serilian, but you have to know him for it to be funny. Let's just say that in the morning he was complaining of Ebola infection or something but come the afternoon he was fine and ready to start drinking. After the morning calls were all made, Stacey, Jeremy and I went in search of more firewood, having burned through (literally) the four bundles I brought the night before. We managed to stockpile a nice stash and then went to the Wal-Mart for some additional supplies. I purchased a sleeping bag and a queen size air mattress. I didn't really need the air mattress for this trip, but I didn't have one should anyone actually visit me in Dayton and they were right there next to the sleeping bags.

When we got back from the store, the family had started to arrive and arrive and arrive. There are a lot of people in Stacey's family. Also joining us were our friends Greer and Lana. After the Serilian show, which had all the drunks up and dancing, I headed back to the camp to get the bonfire going. Only, there was a bit of a problem. The wind was really brisk. Okay, it seemed to gust upwards or 30 miles an hour or more. This makes building a fire a bit tricky. I was able to get it going, but the combination of the wind and the fact that the wood we collected was a bit damp, really took the edge off the whole bonfire. Much drinking and merriment ensued! I finally hit the tent about 4am or so.

SUNDAY
Right around 5:45am or so (at least according to Stacey, who apparently was still carousing) it started to rain. It wasn't until a particularly violent thunderclap at about 7:00am that I actually was aware of the rain. If you didn't know, I can sleep through nearly anything. Once I was spending the night at some friends condo and there was a fire right across the street from the bedroom where I was sleeping. According to them the next morning, the fire trucks came down the street with sirens ablarin' and didn't make any attempt to be particularly quiet. They were amazed that I didn't hear a thing. What can I say, I sleep the sleep of the dead. Anyway, it rained on and off most of the morning and so we decided to break camp and head home a day early.

The rest of Sunday was spent at my parent's house doing very little, though I did see Kill Bill, Vol. 1 - which I'm going to have to see at least 2 or 3 more times to begin to pick up on some of the references that Tarintino has put in there. However, I can see Kill Bill, Vol 2. and wait for the Special Edition DVD with both movies on it.

MONDAY
Went by Erika & Nathan's (my sister and brother-in-law) house and hung out and played with my niece. A couple of weeks ago, my sister sent me the following e-mail:

Natalie seems very excited to see you. She asked me on Sunday if Uncle Chris was coming to Natalie’s house tonight. Then yesterday she heard a noise and said “Uncle Chris is here?” She is a pretty funny little girl!

Talk about heart breakers, especially when it was going to be 10 days before I saw her. Leaving everyone else behind in Chicago was nothing compared to not being around as Natalie goes through her toddler years. I still see her every time I go back, but it is not nearly enough. Of course, add to that that I will again be an uncle in November, I'm really ripe for a full on depressive bout.

TUESDAY (Today)
When I moved to Dayton, I asked my sister to return my cable box to the Comcast office in Lisle since they were closed on Saturday. She agreed, but due to the fact she couldn't manage to get both Natalie and the cable box into the office simultaneously, she turned the responsibility over to my father. Mind you, I moved to Dayton in late July, so it is nearly a year ago. I finally returned the box today. The Comcast people were very kind and didn't blink an eye. They simply took it back, asked me to sign a receipt and I was out the door. Then it was off to my Aunt Josephine's for a quick visit and ducking of all the stuff that she offers. My Aunt Josephine is about half a rung beneath Mother Teresa, I kid you not. She is about as saintly a person as you could hope to meet. However, she is a little baffled by the distinction between "brand new" and "never been used". When I went to grad school, she gave me a set of "brand new" plateware that, most likely, had not be manufactured since the late 70's. There is also the Diet 7-Up incident, but that's a story for another time.

I finally hit the open road for Dayton about 10:40am (CDT) and arrived at my apartment about 4:30 EDT - one of the fastest times that I've ever made the trip. There was only one thing left to do...call my Uncle Bob. You see, Erika works from home 2 days a week and so Nathan bought her a new set of office furniture. I'd been eyeing her old desk for some time and so she asked if I wanted it. Because my Aunt & Uncle were going to Chicago for the weekend for a wedding, they agreed to bring it back for me. My Uncle Bob drove it up to my apartment this evening (which explains why I needed to clean the apartment - bet you didn't think that I would ever explain that didya?) and I am typing away on it this very second.

Okay, couple of things..

No, I didn't jump out of an airplane. It was $180 and I could justify spending that much money right now.

Watch this space in the next day or so for another exciting installment. I don't want to give too much away, but let me just leave you with this...two cute, young women are involved.

Until then.....