Grandpa's driving.....A Survivor's Tale

The whole purpose of me driving to Grandpa's house yesterday was so that I could drive us to this wake we had to go to in South County, NOT for him to insist on driving. The man is a maniac on wheels. The trip started out ok, we went and picked up Uncle Jimmy and immediately they argued about the best route to take to get to the highway (these are the same two that have the Reggie Jackson argument-the fam knows what I'm talking about). I just sat in the back seat shaking my head and muttering under my breath a lot (Uncle Jimmy could hear me and would laugh, Grandpa had no clue, and really, I wanted him to concentrate on the road). I swear to God it took us an hour and a half to get to South County (from NoCoMo it is seriously a day trip...especially with rush hour traffic). At one point he got on the topic of actuaries (DT, I swear I have no idea how that happened!) and how those in the actuarial world are probably pretty pissed at him (his words, not mine) because he's outlived their life expectations. This is when I informed him that he was probably gonna outlive most of us, so that would REALLY piss off the actuaries......Grandpa is a hot mess, people. The wake was as expected-sad, but it was good to see Rich and I know he appreciated us being there (and he has always been entertained by Grandpa, so I'm sure his presence was a real treat for him). After we paid our respects and spent some time catching up with Rich, Grandpa decided he needed dinner. Now you should know something about my Grandpa-when he decides he's hungry, he has to eat RIGHT THEN (right Aunt Jan???). :) So we stopped to eat at none other than....Denny's (because, where else besides Bob Evans does an 80 year old man like to eat?). Eating dinner with my Grandpa in public is always a challenge-he's a bit feisty and speaks his mind. I immediately felt bad for our waitress, when she brought him his coffee, he insisted that she send it back because it was too full ("well, I don't have room for my creamer"). He was dead serious and sent the poor girl to dump some of it out (I made eye contact with her, silently apologizing for this crazy old man's behavior. Then again, she works at Denny's so I'm sure she's used to crazy old people). After dinner, we finally headed back to North County, Grandpa discussed several topics (I'm pretty sure he brought up actuaries again) and at one point, Uncle Jimmy pointed out that there was a chair in the road-not in our lane, thank God, but in the lane next to us. Well Gramps totally didn't even see it, but started turning around to look at it as we passed it....and yes, was NOT watching the road. In that moment I was pretty convinced we were spending our last night on Earth.......Good news, we made it home alive and well and then I headed on into the city..........

When I arrived home (and mind you, it is now 9:30pm), I saw that my building and several of the surrounding buildings were all dark. Strange, I thought. So, I stumble inside (you try climbing the stairs in total darkness) and quickly get that the power is out. Totally for reasons unknown since there were no storms (and typically, even when we do have storms, my part of the street never loses power). I called AmerenUE who only confirmed what I already knew to be true. My only option at that point was to go to bed. So, I tried, but YOU try lying there when it's hot and stuffy and DEAD SILENT. I couldn't do it. So I was totally still awake when my fan kicked on at around 2:30am, power restored, thank God. What a hot mess.

So, today I'm quite sleep deprived, but still managed to drag my butt out of bed and come to work early so I could work out with Amy. Working out is SO much easier when you have someone else doing it with you. We powered through the Forest Trail on the treadmill this morning-HOLLA! We're pretty much bad ass.