Trip, lots o' burpees

Just got back from a pretty fabulous weekend up near Greenville, TX. I haven't seen Dad's side of the family for nearly 10 years, and it was absolutely wonderful to see them again. It was an easy trip up there, except that our little Monkey had to pee just about every mile or so, and we wanted to encourage him to 'listen to his body', so we took waaaaaay longer to get there than is usually required. Even so, it was a pleasant trip up, an easy ride back, and lots of laughter and family fun in between.

Ever thrown a cast net? I have, but it was many, many years ago. One of the family projects during our trip involved heading out to Uncle John's pond to catch some catfish. These were to be relocated into Aunt Sissy's pond. Seems like everyone has a pond out there. After a mud-drenched hike to get to the first pond (and taking time to push Uncle John's golf cart through the mud near the river) we threw food on the water in the hopes of attracting the huge fish. They handed me a cast net and told me to get to work.

Apparently, these fish are fairly smart. The silhouette of a dude on shore with a cast net in hand did nothing to reassure them, and they studiously ignored us for the rest of the day. I managed a few decent casts, but came up with nothing but some small fish that we threw back. Next time, I'm going in with a wetsuit, snorkel, and a ballpeen hammer, and I'm coming out with some danged fish.

Family time always means funny stories, and I've heard most of my Dad's tales many times. I usually know the end of them before he gets ten words into the story. But I still find them hilarious, and occasionally have to translate them for my wife, who can't understand him once he starts laughing at his own humor. The old man has a great sense of comedic timing, even if he doesn't know it.

He mentioned the last trip to Texas in which he drove my late Granny to see her family. Apparently, there was an issue with the opening of a package of brownies during the drive, and PING! one of his eyeteeth popped out of his dentures. He said he looked for it in the floorboards, but never found it. He went to the dentist in Angleton soon after, and the dentist asked Dad about the missing tooth.

"So, do you have the tooth, Mr. McClendon?"

"Naw."

"Any idea where it might be?"

"I think it's in the defroster somewhere."

And for some reason, that was the funniest thing I'd heard in quite awhile. I'm still chuckling about it.

Hats off to Mom for driving them all the way down from Indiana. After a 4 hour delay due to some car trouble, and another 1.5 hour delay because of construction, Mom and Dad came easing down the road to Aunt Sissy's at about 12:30am Saturday night. They'd been on the road for over 24 hours, and poor Mom had been pouring water on her head to stay awake for the last few hundred miles. They were asleep almost before they made it down the hall to their room, but they were safe and sound.

Anyway, it was a great visit, and I'll probably write more about it later. I was really wonderful to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins after being away so long.

And now, one last little pat on the back for me...

It was late Friday night, and I knew I wasn't getting another workout in until today because of the trip. I was waiting for the laundry to finish drying so I could switch loads, and I decided to do a quick 100 burpees to pass the time. My best time so far had been 7:20.

Amazingly, I did them in 6:20, and yes, I did count them correctly. I sounded very much like a wheezing hippo that needed to be put out of its misery, but other than that, I was quite pleased with my performance. Next time, I'm shooting for 6 minutes.