honk if you honky tonk

In town today, I saw a truck with 'Honk if you honky tonk' emblazoned across the rear window. I mentioned this to my brother, and it turns out that it's actually a George Strait song. He went on about George Strait for awhile, and I asked him why he thought that he and I turned out so differently, since he likes trucks, country music, and beer, while I prefer foreign cars, techno music, and cosmopolitans. He thought about it for a minute, then quoted another song that says something like 'Born American...country by the grace of God'. Apparently the difference between us is that I wasn't blessed enough to like country music. I can live with that.

I actually went through the motions of blowdrying my hair for the first time in a few weeks. The occasion was a visit to our neighbors, Lorena and Ross; Lorena leads the talented and gifted program for the junior high/high school, and Ross is the Presbyterian minister, but they own land next to ours and I've known them my entire life. I've mentioned them here before; Lorena directed the town play that Katie and I saw several months ago, and Ross and Lorena were in the Peace Corps in Nigeria back in the '60s.

Anyway, I'd seen Lorena at the Round Barn Jubilee a couple of weeks ago, and I was too devastated by my fourth-place finish in the spelling bee to properly catch up, so we agreed to meet up today. She also wanted to see my photos from Scotland, since (like a good Presbyterian) she is in love with the place and had spent some time there about fifteen years ago. So I went over around two p.m. and ended up spending four hours there. She made almond scones, and she, Ross, their grandson Duncan, and I spent several hours talking about various travels, books, the Internet, etc. They also got waaay more pictures than they bargained for, since I showed them the highlights of India, Ireland, and Ukraine in addition to the Scottish photos they had requested. All in all, it was great fun; Katie and I have often talked about becoming eccentrics in our later years, and Lorena is generally held up as our model of entertaining eccentricity. With our respective careers in law and business, eccentricity is slowly slipping from our grasp, but I'm confident that we can reclaim it someday.

After visiting with Lorena, I came home, tormented/was tormented by my brother, and then the two of us drove into town to meet our parents for supper. I would recount the conversation, but my parents were making horrifying sexually suggestive remarks; I threatened to quote them, and my mother reminded me that our family friends in Cedar Rapids read this, to which I snapped that she should have thought of that before they started making jokes. But I'm making quick progress toward wiping the memory from my mind, so I won't quote them here.

We drove home through a v. interesting sunset and an oncoming thunderstorm; even though we saw some really awesome lightning when standing in our yard later (*not* the recommended location during severe weather), as well as some cloud formations that my dad decided were cold-air funnels, nothing really happened. Then I watched television (CBS, of course; Friday night is 'Numb3rs', which I enjoy), and now it's time for bed!