ohio weekend
upon learning i'd been invited to spend a weekend with rotten's family celebrating his brother's college graduation, i was excited. we spend quite a bit of time with my family, and a break from the action here in lieu for other family time would be a nice break. little did i know... i would have to fly directly into columbus, ohio, home of every nittany lion's worst nightmare and source of dread and hatred...
ohio state. good news is, they can't sell the stuff at the airport, so it is all on sale. i thought once or twice about buying an ugly buckeye necklace to burn in effigy but decided it just wasn't worth the money, what with the high cost of fuel and food these days. luckily, i didn't have to cheer on a buckeye this weekend. we were en route to dayton, home of the wright brothers, myriad exceptional inventions, and the little miami river. no more buckeyes, at least until the layover on the return leg.
here in the backyard pond we tried our hand at catching some catfish or other life aquatic. all i caught was that little dog and strange bearded man to its right. since i regressed to my early-years' fear of hooking the worm, you can imagine my glee at NOT catching the five-foot (or so) long carp that came out trolling for veggies in the late afternoon. huge. vegetarian. ugly. monster.
on sunday we ventured out for a canoe adventure on the little miami river. swollen with the water from recent rains and some imaginably high quantities of fertilizer runoff, it still served as a great escape from the heat of the day. a couple of rope swings were tested out by the boys, we saw turtles too numerous to count, a couple of fearsome rapids were run, and all in all the day couldn't have been better spent.
sunday night we saw "the happening". i'll tell you what "happened". it "stunk". the post-movie thunderstorm viewing was much more enjoyable and riveting, front-row center to a storm rolling across the flat farm land. i'd go back for more of that any day. and, it was free.
speaking of free, the air force museum is located at wright-patterson air force base, conveniently located (for us, at least, last weekend) in dayton. above is a b-24 similar to what my grandfather piloted in world war II. after seeing the sheer size and unwieldiness of the beast i'm amazed at how he ever could have seen a single thing when flying it, trying to take off, or trying to land.
some pretty menacing-looking ICBM's call the museum home. good thing the air force didn't "accidentally" arm them... or so we think.
space FOOOOOD... perhaps more menacing than the missiles... and certainly much more egg-citing...
the air force labels every door so you can never get lost.
finally, it was time to head back east. we had booked a flight that was supposed to leave around 6pm or so. never book a flight that late in the summertime. it will be delayed for hours due to "weather" up and down the eastern seaboard. all the airline employees will blame the delays on a place called "philadelphia" and when you ask about the chances of your plane actually making it to "philadelphia" that night (your main concern being the ct scan and chemo scheduled for the next day, not actually that you want to return home) the same employees will give you a look of distant compassion but mostly the look says "aren't you stupid for living THERE?"...
redemption came in the way of watching Tiger win the open along with tens of other stranded passengers at the southwest gates. it was a nice little slice of humanity, wrapped up not in the everyday banter of politics, gas costs, food costs, and mortgages, but in a game... something as simple as getting the ball in the hole. it stole us away from the weather and the planes and put us all on the same page for a few minutes. it was nice, actually.
a few hours later we were on the flight home, toward ct scans and chemo and another trans-atlantic flight for the rotten. i tried to sleep but was watching the lightning to our south for most of the plane ride. it had been a fun weekend and as usual the return to the routine was looming. at least i escaped the land of the buckeye to live another day.
ohio state. good news is, they can't sell the stuff at the airport, so it is all on sale. i thought once or twice about buying an ugly buckeye necklace to burn in effigy but decided it just wasn't worth the money, what with the high cost of fuel and food these days. luckily, i didn't have to cheer on a buckeye this weekend. we were en route to dayton, home of the wright brothers, myriad exceptional inventions, and the little miami river. no more buckeyes, at least until the layover on the return leg. 
here in the backyard pond we tried our hand at catching some catfish or other life aquatic. all i caught was that little dog and strange bearded man to its right. since i regressed to my early-years' fear of hooking the worm, you can imagine my glee at NOT catching the five-foot (or so) long carp that came out trolling for veggies in the late afternoon. huge. vegetarian. ugly. monster.
on sunday we ventured out for a canoe adventure on the little miami river. swollen with the water from recent rains and some imaginably high quantities of fertilizer runoff, it still served as a great escape from the heat of the day. a couple of rope swings were tested out by the boys, we saw turtles too numerous to count, a couple of fearsome rapids were run, and all in all the day couldn't have been better spent. 
sunday night we saw "the happening". i'll tell you what "happened". it "stunk". the post-movie thunderstorm viewing was much more enjoyable and riveting, front-row center to a storm rolling across the flat farm land. i'd go back for more of that any day. and, it was free.
speaking of free, the air force museum is located at wright-patterson air force base, conveniently located (for us, at least, last weekend) in dayton. above is a b-24 similar to what my grandfather piloted in world war II. after seeing the sheer size and unwieldiness of the beast i'm amazed at how he ever could have seen a single thing when flying it, trying to take off, or trying to land.
some pretty menacing-looking ICBM's call the museum home. good thing the air force didn't "accidentally" arm them... or so we think.
space FOOOOOD... perhaps more menacing than the missiles... and certainly much more egg-citing...
the air force labels every door so you can never get lost.
finally, it was time to head back east. we had booked a flight that was supposed to leave around 6pm or so. never book a flight that late in the summertime. it will be delayed for hours due to "weather" up and down the eastern seaboard. all the airline employees will blame the delays on a place called "philadelphia" and when you ask about the chances of your plane actually making it to "philadelphia" that night (your main concern being the ct scan and chemo scheduled for the next day, not actually that you want to return home) the same employees will give you a look of distant compassion but mostly the look says "aren't you stupid for living THERE?"...redemption came in the way of watching Tiger win the open along with tens of other stranded passengers at the southwest gates. it was a nice little slice of humanity, wrapped up not in the everyday banter of politics, gas costs, food costs, and mortgages, but in a game... something as simple as getting the ball in the hole. it stole us away from the weather and the planes and put us all on the same page for a few minutes. it was nice, actually.
a few hours later we were on the flight home, toward ct scans and chemo and another trans-atlantic flight for the rotten. i tried to sleep but was watching the lightning to our south for most of the plane ride. it had been a fun weekend and as usual the return to the routine was looming. at least i escaped the land of the buckeye to live another day.
Comments
Your witty Ohio State cracks gave me a chuckle chartle. hardy har har!