skjam

My bus trip home got interrupted when the Jefferson Lines driver went into premature labor.

Good thing we were only one town from my destination! The nice folks at Tobies allowed me to use their phone to call my folks to come pick me up. (The replacement driver from the cities would have taken over an hour to arrive.)

Last I saw of the driver, she was doing okay as the ambulance took her off to Mora, the nearest city with a maternity ward. Hope all went well for her!

Thursday was dinner at Aunt Judy's house. The food was quite good, and I was happy to catch up with that side of the family.

Friday, I took the bus up to Sandstone, where my siblings and I had an early supper with our folks.

I picked up some more of my British comics collection for the Scans Daily community--hope you folks like 'em.

I also spent a lot of time on the Neopets site--on dial-up, Keyquest just won't work, so I played that a lot and even won a couple of times.

On Saturday, we visited Lena's Gift Shop in Askov, which features Scandinavian and local gifts--and is "the home of the rutabaga malt." I do not recommend the rutabaga malt, by the way, but if you're feeling adventurous... I got quite a bit of Christmas shopping done.

I did a fair bit of yakking with the folks too. Won one game of Dominoes, lost two.

Sunday, we went to brunch at the Audubon Center, one of only two times they'll be open this winter. (Last year had disappointing attendance, so they cut back.)

On the bus trip back to the city Sunday night, McDonalds was unable to fill my order in time, so they refunded my money.

Back home, I found that the folks at Wish List and Holiday Wishes had been quite enthusiastic about the prospect of getting a surprise from me, so I've got a fair backlog. Will need to concentrate on overseas delivery first, but with luck everyone will get their stuff by New Year's.

Hope your weekend was tasty!

My oldest niece Faith has graduated high school, and this last Saturday was her graduation party.

It was at her family home in Osseo, and I caught a ride with my brother's family to get there. It was a nice spread, hot dogs, minifranks, deli tray, popcorn and a keg of root beer. There was ice cream cake as well, but it only came out for a short time because the weather was making it melt very fast.

As is often the case, mostly it was relatives, so I got to catch up with some of them, and a handful of Faith's school buddies.

Faith is going to start massage therapy training in the fall, on her way to becoming a full-fledged physical therapist.

My parents had come up from Sandstone, but parked in Wyoming and had nephew Terran drive them the rest of the way up to avoid the big city traffic. Terran (who is thankfully back in full-time employment with the National Guard, but not being shipped overseas) drove us to Wyoming later in the afternoon.

Once out of Wyoming, we took Highway 61 rather than the freeway; it's a teensy slower overall, but doesn't have the bunching problem, and the scenery is nicer.

It's good to visit with the folks every once in a while.

The next day was Father's Day, with my birthday celebration tossed in, and my brother's anniversary. My family tends to clump celebrations together--Faith was lucky to get her graduation separate!

My middle niece is apparently starved for soda pop (it's a special treat at her house) and bogarted the private stash I'd brought along to drink on the trip back to the cities. Hint: If it's a brand no one else in the family is familiar with, it's probably Uncle Scott's.

Dad got a big book of Disney art, and my brother and his wife got a picture holder in cameo size.

I received an encyclopedia of the little people, a throw pillow, some African tea, a new fancy mug (says "Happy Birthday" on it) and one of my dad's carvings. A satyr/gargoyle wall mask with bulging green eyes made from railroad reflectors. I've hung the last one in my cubicle at work.

We had leftovers from the graduation party and chocolate cake with little candy bars in the frosting. The littler nieces naturally wanted the candy bits, which I'm sure I did at their age too. But was I really that blatant about it?

So that I could stay a couple extra hours with my parents, I went online and purchased a bus ticket rather than catch a ride with a sibling. However, I was not aware that the Jefferson Lines website sets the default date on "tomorrow" and simply assumed that Sunday was the 22nd. It was not until about an hour before the scheduled departure that I realized my mistake. I went online to reschedule the ticket only to learn that "no route is scheduled" for Sunday. I tried calling the convenience store that is Sandstone's bus stop, but the phone number listed on the website was out of service.

So we had to rush up to the store, where the clerk assured me that the bus did indeed run on Sunday, and would stop in Sandstone even if no one had bought a ticket for that day. And I could just pay the bus driver when I got on. (I wasn't too keen on that last bit, as I was already out one bus fare--Jefferson Lines is no refunds.)

Fortunately, when the bus arrived, the driver took one look at my boarding pass and waved me on. I suspect the date mixup happens a lot. The bus was not overcrowded. The overhead lights weren't working, but the outside light didn't fade until just before the Cities, so I was able to read fine.