Ride to the occasion

After a fun Saturday of my dad and Tom helping me rip up and sanitizing parts of my basement bathroom after a rather messy plumbing catastrophe last week, we spent today at Kennywood in mostly drizzling rain. When I reached the top of the Pitt Fall (How did they take this promo picture, which I pilfered from their web site?), I thought, "Well, I just transformed myself into the biggest lightning rod in Western Pennsylvania."


First ride: The Jackrabbit



First meal: The Stroller


I went with Tom and his kids, Aimee and her kid and boyfriend, and of course my own rugrats. And in spite of the weather, and the spats and constant bathroom breaks and snack runs and she's-breathing-on-me moments, we really did have a good time. Jacob rode his first carousel, and while at first he was concerned -- MUSIC, LIGHTS, PLASTIC HORSES, SPINNING -- his skepticism turned to glee by the time the ride was over.

It was my company picnic, and Joe made an appearance at the park around dinner time. I can think of no other reason why that man would show up at Kennywood, driving from Carnegie to West Mifflin for a park so out of his comfort zone, than to check out what new thing I have going on. I'm sure he's heard something at work about Tom, and I have to say, getting Joe out of the house to do anything but run errands that suit his needs is like trying to scrub down an elephant. It's tough.

I was telling my dad about all this tonight, and he seemed particularly interested in the Joe part, since Joe wouldn't let Jacob come to Zoe's birthday party, yet he prearranged a meeting on my weekend. AND I LET HIM. My dad was appalled. "You need to treat an ignorant bastard like an ignorant bastard."

HIGH ROAD, I told him. HIGH ROAD.

"I hope a judge can see what an asshole he is," he told me. "I knew in the first five minutes of meeting him. I can always tell in the first five minutes."

After talking about this, and the Steelers game, and how bad the Browns suck, we hung up... and I thought about our conversation and called him back moments later. "Dad, so I'm not hearing six months from now how you knew right off the bat Tom was a jerk, do you like him?"

"Ahhhhhhhhh... I can usually tell right away, but I need more time with this one."

"So you haven't found anything wrong with him?"

"Not yet."

"Or are you just surprised I picked a good one this time?"

"Oh yeah. That's totally throwing me off."