The Adventures of Uncle Lucy

It's Sunday, the last day of rest on a greatly needed long holiday weekend. Work has been intensely frustrating ever since Queen Lauren got tapped on the shoulder, so I am definitely taking delight in any time spend enjoying the little things. And while this extended weekend might've had some bumps here and there, it was overall quite refreshing and interesting. Thanksgiving was good - nothing very notable there. Just good dinner with the family and lots of football. But the day after...

I don't shop on Black Friday - I avoid going out like the plague, but I did find good reason to at least leave the house. I drove down to Hughesville (yes - on purpose!) to visit my awesome friend from school and TKD, Hayley. She also had her adorable daughter around, so that made for good fun. I walked in, doled out hugs to all the Heaths, then joined Hayley and Misha in the living room... to watch Diego. Now, Diego isn't quite as bad as his female equivalent, Dora, but it's the same style. Anywho, this episode, "Underwater Mystery," featured a spotted whale named Lucy. And since I never introduced myself to Miss Misha, her brain went to the "recent new names" catalog and pulled out... Lucy. And with her mother reinforcing this (at great amusement), I am likely going to be remembered as Uncle Lucy, despite my efforts otherwise.

We get to a stopping point in Diego and decide to stop out and pick up Ledo's for lunch. So Hayley, Misha and I load up and head over to put in our order. Since we passed a Wal-Mart on the way, we decide to double back and do some quick browsing while lunch gets made. Apparently, the power in the entire store had crashed not 2 mins before we pulled in. We're talking BLACK. The only light is from scattered emergency lights and the sunlight up front. And there are lots of people, all with confused expressions, some bordering on anger and panic. In an attempt to go out the way we came in we are halted by a very ill-tempered employee in a motorized wheelchair. She was old and cranky... and needed to have chocks thrown in front of her wheels. But we got out okay and headed back to Ledo's.

Then we realized the extent of the outage since Ledo's and other nearby stops had lost power as well. Fortunately, they lost power after our meals had finished. So we grab it and go. It took us about 10 mins to get thru one intersection when a state trooper couldn't figure out that his parked cruiser was actually causing more of a blockage. Brilliant.

We get home, we eat, Misha goes up for a nap. So we throw on a movie, which frequently upset the very temperamental DVD player (which is why we stopped at Wal-Mart in the first place). We get thru half of the movie and the kid comes back down, needing a snack. So Hayley grabs her a pack or two of fruit snacks and she chows down. But she leaves all the purple and orange and yellow ones. "Clearly," I think, "we have the same taste, and she's weeding out what she doesn't want." Not wanting them to get sat on or go to waste, I finish off the unwanteds while a bathroom break is being taken. I was wrong. They were wanted. I ate a little girl's fruit snacks. Yup - now I'm THAT guy. So, of course, Uncle Lucy gets teased and ribbed again for a while, but I guess I had it coming.

It was a very pleasant visit, and I'm so happy that I got to spend time with my friends. And Misha must have forgiven me because she gave me a big hug and waved me goodbye. She might have addressed her farewell to Lucy, but she's cute enough to let it slide. It was quite an adventurous day.