Monday, June 29, 2009

It Was Kind of a Dull Weekend

I had an extremely unfunny weekend. Friday night I drove from Apathy, Kansas, to Terre Haute, Indiana, to help a friend drywall his garage. I drove for 16 hours (round trip) to spend 18 hours taping, mudding, and sanding a large, three bay garage with 10 foot ceilings. It was an extremely unfunny weekend, save for two very brief moments.

When we crossed the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri, to East St. Louis, Illinois, we were met with a most unpleasant aroma blasting through the car vents. The air conditioner in our Camry is not working, so in order to remain somewhat comfortable in stifling heat we drove with the vents and windows open. Just like in the good ol' days.

"What is that smell?" General Mayhem exclaimed, the sole passenger in the car.

"Welcome to Illinois," I replied.

"Will the whole state smell this bad?" he asked.

"Pretty much."

A few minutes later he was sound asleep. He slept across the entire state and did not stir until I exited I70 in Terre Haute. He slept through Illinois on the return trip yesterday, too. I was jealous. Southern Illinois was far better in the dark than in the daylight, although it smelled about the same.

We were in the middle of Missouri, channel surfing on the radio, when we came across "Carry on Wayward Son."

"Oh, good song!" he said. "Some one sang that on the last day of school when we had the cherryoke contest."

"Cherryoke?" I asked. "Is that when somebody stands up and sings in front of an audience for the first time?"

"Huh?"

"I think you mean karaoke."

"Yeah, that was it!"

That about sums up my weekend.

4 comments:

Kathleen said...

You must be a REALLY good friend!

And your boy has good taste in music!

CrossView said...

Is it legal to listen to Kansas in any other state? First time or not... =P

I'm with Kathleen, you must be a REALLY good friend. I whine if I have to drive an hour....
By the way, we have a lot of projects that Guy would love to have help with. Want to be his friend??!!

Anonymous said...

WOW you win the Friend of the Year award! Man, I hope this friend at least helped you paint the shed that wonderful shade of red :)

Kathleen said...

Crossview asks a valid question. About Kansas that is. I'll stay out of the question about your friendship with Guy and whether its depth warrants a trip into the Great Peach State.