May is racing - literally and figuratively

It's a big month at Chez Reed.

  • The Captain is officially retired (though he does have a consulting project and pending offers to consider)
  • Alison turned 22 on Cinqo de Mayo
  • She graduates from Purdue University on Friday afternoon
  • Rachael Weir's (Jaime's daughter; Donna's granddaughter) college graduation party is Friday night
  • We'll move Alison and her pick-up load full of anime figures and other belongings out of West Lafayette to await their next move to Orlando where she will attend grad school at the University of Central Florida.
  • Sunday is Mother's Day
  • Team Tokash's annual Race Day party is May 27  (if we're still invited)
  • Lake Day with Team Vielee is May 28 (if we're still invited)
  • Sometime before most of that, I need to get invitations out for a combo party to celebrate Jeff & Ali on June 10 in our back yard. Please consider yourself invited in the good chances I don't get to the formal invitation-making.

All of the above items are good things. Great things, really. It just seems like life is speeding up lately and I'm slowing down. 

We're still dealing with the sewer line dig that's turned the front yard into a muddy pit with a mud pile running through most of it. It has declined from the 4-feet, jagged pile of dirt and chards of clay pipe it had begun as. It's wider now and speckled here and there with dandelions and the occasional misplaced flower. Still hideous; just differently hideous. 

Jeff goes out there dutifully to stuff the garden hose into it in what we've been told is the correct way to melt it back from whence it came. It's a long haul kind of deal. Super frustrating to look at. but on the bright side, I love it when it rains and don't worry that we'll have sewer backup downstairs.

Someone the other day said something about surviving May as school activities and sports converge on final games for the season and then gatherings to mark the season along with graduations and the like. I can barely keep up and I only have one kid. I can't imagine what people - or single parents - do with more than that.

But to start the month of fun activities, Ali's birthday was a whirl of her coming home, opening gifts and having dinner before she jetted off to Becca's in anticipation of a day of cosplaying at an Indianapolis conference. She came home for dinner Saturday, we hung out a bit Sunday morning and it was back to West Lafayette for her final week there. It was super fun, albeit brief.

We'll see her this weekend and have her home for a while and then we'll all go on a trip that will take Jeff and me to Louisville with friends and then the three of  us to Washington State then Maine. Lots of time to get sick of each other. :)

We have a good travel record, though, so I'm not worried.

Your most important takeaway: June 10. Our house. Burgers, brats, beverages and cake. Lots of cake for the graduate and the retiree.

See you there! If you can avoid looking at the front yard as you come through, I'd appreciate it.





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