RANDOM OBSERVATIONS FROM THE ROAD

I recently drove home to visit family along the Gulf Coast. DROVE home, mind you. Roughly 15 hours each way.

And though there is not much to see on the way down and back, here are a few things I discovered:

- The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is stimulating something, even if it's only my ire. I think every county in every state in the union is doing road work, funded by the stimulus plan. I’m all for better roads. Sure I would prefer more money be invested in high-speed rail, but smoother roads are nice. However, one lane traffic and slower speed limits every 25 miles is enough to drive me crazy when I’m trying to make good time.

- Missouri has money to burn. Why else would the state invest in half-mile markers, in addition to mile markers. Between the little green mile marker signs that read, for instance, 18 and 19, in Missouri you will find an 18.5. I guess it’s for the stupid people who get lost on a straight stretch of interstate between markers 18 and 19. Or maybe for the people too impatient to wait nearly a mile to see how close they are to their exit. In any event, the "Show Me State" showed me something new.

- Why did I read "Children of the Corn" the night before I drove through rural Illinois? Seriously, if I had blown a tire or had to stop and ask directions from a red-haired kid named Malichi, I would have been a little freaked out.

- I love fresh seafood. I don’t miss the heat down south, or the bad roads or smell of the local paper mill. But I miss being able to eat fresh seafood whenever I want. I had a shrimp poboy, crab claws, crawfish bisque, grouper, etc. It was great. I have a co-worker, who we will call "Mr. B", who doesn’t understand why I deprive myself of seafood while in the Midwest; doesn’t understand why I don’t just go to Red Lobster or something. Mr. B has an irrational hatred of my seafood snobbery. Irrational, I say!!! But the simple truth is I distinguish a difference between fresh and frozen. And I’m a snob about so few things, I feel my prejudice should be forgiven.

- The Midwest has great summers. I do not miss sweating like a pig for five/six months out of the year. The heat and humidity is the main qualm I would have about returning home.

- I don’t really miss having pets. Two weeks later, and I still have cat hair on my clothes.

- Satellite radio is the best thing ever when you’re on the road.

- The Ford Focus must be the new official car of the mob. You could fit two, maybe three bodies in the back of the one I rented!

SILLY MOMENTS

Amy was trying to distract the baby on Wednesday. It was still quite some time till his next bottle. But he was getting fussy, sitting in his bouncey chair.

Amy turned on some music. It was "Break Out", by Swing Out Sister, a band that described its music as "sophistipop", because... well, we're still trying to figure that out.

Anyway, she's doing some remarkably 80's dance moves that fit the song. Alex starts twirling like a ballerina in her Easter dress (which she will almost certainly want to wear past Labor Day). And I bust in with Da Butt, made popular by one-hit-wonder band, E.U. I mean, we had to have looked like the reject line for The Gong Show.

But it worked. A.J. stopped crying and just stared at us, probably dazzled by our dancing talents. And we all had a great time.

Nearly 24 hours before, I learned I am lymphoma free. My doctor told me the scan showed no signs of cancer. And I think a silly moment with my family was the perfect way to celebrate. It's moments like these I want to be a part of for a long time.