2007-02-23 through 25

Mick and I arose at our usual off-season hour, made our Morning Offering and finished packing our traps and we were off to Nebraska in Stanley Outback, who was enjoying having brand new tires and a good check-up and wheel alignment. The day was blissfully pretty, with a dramatic and ever-changing sky generous with sunshine and witty with very imaginable configuration of clouds, from the mackerel sky of the morning to the flock-of-sheep-dotting-the-sky look to sweeps of various larger layers of clouds shimmering with the sun behind in the later afternoon. And the sunset was simply sublime. We pulled in to our hotel in Columbia, MO, in good time and called Mom McCarty in Nebraska to check in.

For the second time this off-season, the weather conspired to keep us in Columbia an extra day. This time it was a blizzard blowing through Nebraska. We could not go further as the roads were closing out west of us. So Mick and I had a lovely day of pure vacation. Thankfully, the hotel had room enough for us to stay over, so we hived in and relaxed for the day and evening, visiting a near-by casino to inspect the rooms for possibly staying there next time, watching a movie and waxing amorous.

I-80 was still reported as closed the next morning, the Sabbath, but the sun was shining and it was clear all the way to Nebraska so we decided to trust the road crews and go for it. in the event, we had a perfect driving day, seeing ample evidence that, had we gone yesterday, we would perhaps have ended in the ditch, for there were literally hundreds of cars and trucks off the road, still not picked up and towed off, as we drove through Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, but free of any ice or snow now. The sunset today was unique, one huge swirl of storm cloud across the plains’ “Big Sky”, opening like a chambered nautilus against Sunday school rays piercing various layers of surrounding cumulus clouds and surmounted by the pinky-orange of the lower sky and the aqua of the higher ethers.

It was good to arrive in Lexington at last in the last of the twilight. Mom welcomed us with a good meal and we settled in, watching the Oscar Awards show with her. I mostly slept, hugging my hotpad, but awakening from time to time to enjoy Ellen Degeneres’s gentle humor. Of the comics around today, I believe she may be the most kindly-affectioned and gentle humorist we have.

Mick and I hope to accomplish some business for L/L Research during the next four days, while we visit with Mom, updating our basic list of instructions to the Board of Directors in case of our demise and working on other projects together. We shall see how much work gets done, and how much we are drawn into the joy of just goofing off! It’s a true temptation, as when we get back to Louisville, it will be time for Jim’s mowing season to start and time for me to get cracking on the Choice project.

We – speaking mostly for Jim and Mom, as I was exhausted and napped in my chair, mostly – stayed up quite late, watching the Awards show to the end and cheering on the worthy winners. We said good night around midnight.