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.