Friends and Madness

It was good to come back to our hometown despite the fact that the underlying reason was tests and appointments.  We were invited to Jay and Chris’, our very good friends for some pizza, hoagies, and valiant attempts to empty their whiskey bottles. Another couple that we are very close to, Tom and Cheryl, joined in the taste testing.  We shared stories of our journey the past two months and relished in the fact that the sun shone on our shoulders almost every day.  I had taken that for granted until we arrived to temps in the low 40’s and seeing the mercury dip below freezing in the wee hours. Tom, a retired police sergeant is now working part time at the local casino.  He imparted that I would love the job and he would be able to get me work there as well upon our return from North Dakota this fall.  Well, I didn’t want to ballyhoo his help and I appreciated him thinking about me but my plans are not to winter again here in Pennsylvania.  In fact, after our son’s wedding in October, my plans are to head to Vegas for some R&R and then decide upon which route we take South from there.  Today we shall return again to our friends as Terry and Jackie are smoking three roasters (chickens) and Chris and Jay have invited us for dinner again.  I could grow accustomed to this very easily. As for now, I’m preparing to hopefully watch Pitt do in Xavier and make the trip to the Sweet Sixteen go one step further than they did in last year’s March madness.