notes on the trip

Random jotted-down stuff:

~ Oh, Friday night — the day before we were hitting the road — the driver’s side door of the car decided to be a brat and just not open. Pushing, pulling, praying, cajoling, weeping — none of these did any good. We couldn’t get it fixed in time. Took it to Hai, the Vietnamese lady that runs the auto shop we use, and she said, “Oh. Two hunn-ed dollar just to look. Take ’bout 5 hour.” MB, already annoyed about the trip on so many levels that I won’t enumerate here, just said, “Forget it. No way. I’ll just crawl over the passenger seat.”

“But we’ll have to fix it eventually.”

“Not now.”

“Do you want me to drive?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“YES.”

Jeez, Peaches, calm down. Now he crawls over the seat, all 6-foot-3, quite proud of himself for perfecting this totally gay-looking technique, quoting from Singin’ in the Rain every time, “Dignity. Always dignity.”

~ The road from SD to Zion, Utah is basically a deadly drenching bath of steaming air. Temperatures averaged around 112. The air is so heavy, almost lumpy, like grandma’s bad turkey gravy. At one rest stop, I climbed out of the car and died. MB was sad, but he’s moving on, crawling over the car seat, dignified in grief.

~ My sister S told me on the phone that when she and her husband were discussing the car arrangements (they caravaned here with my brother’s family), Piper said, “Will I be in the car with (The Banshee)?”

S said, “Well, honey, we don’t know yet.”

Apparently, there was a pause, then Piper said, “Well …. it’s okay if I’m not.”

So helpful. Hahahahaha. That girl is no dummy, despite my family trying to pin certain labels on her. She knows what’s up with people.

More notes later …..