Weekend that was, Dec. 3

This was a few weekends ago but as the weekend was progressing, I thought… this would be a good “weekend recap” blog post.

 

Friday was unusual at it started out with a lot of strange objects in the sky. First, Evey and I saw two (what I think were) Blackhawk helicopters go over the house, LOW, around 4 pm. The Chinooks train in the area regularly, but they’re at a comfortable distance. The Blackhawks were low enough that, in my mind, they were just a few hundred feet off the ground. You could see the details of the copter very clearly. (I did snap a photo.)

 

That night, I was outside enjoying the HOJ when Adro pulled up late from work. It was dark out, maybe 6:30 or 7 pm. As I was chatting with her in the garage, I saw out of the corner of my eye a line in the sky. My first reaction was, “comet!” Then I looked closer and saw that there were about 25 balls of light in the sky, in a single line. STARLINK! We watched it for a full two minutes or so, then I went to the backyard deck to see if the view was better. At that point I lost them. They were in the southern sky, tracking northeast. 

 

An hour or two later Adrianne and I are sitting under the propane heater, the KU game was on (I was half-watching) and I was talking to her, facing the west (away from the house.) I saw another string of Starlink sattelites! I hollered for Adrianne to look and we both watched another string, real low in the western sky. I called Bub on the walkie this time (he was next door, having a sleepover) but this time it was only visible for maybe 30 seconds and it was gone. 

 

So that’s pretty cool, right? 

 

The next morning the whole family is starting a road trip to Joplin, Mo. We’re less than 5 minutes into the drive when Evey says, “Dad … are those jets?” I look to the west and we have four old military planes in a diamond formation, with a helicopter following. The planes flew directly overhead, then banked to the north and turned on the smoke. This is in the random northeast Kansas countryside! There was no football game about to kickoff anywhere that I know of. We first saw them while we were still on 1900^th Road, then we got on K-10 and they banked left to add to the show.

 

Crazy.

 

We were on our way to Adrianne’s Uncle Arlan’s funeral. He fought pancreatic cancer. Arlan was a lot of fun, he was kinda crazy and had no problem boozing and telling stories into the night. You knew a good time was going to be had if Arlan was there. He was just as good at listening to stories as he was at telling stories, which I admire. 

 

So we road tripped to Joplin. We stopped in… Carthage, Mo.? And were looking for food. We needed a spot to kill 45 minutes so we (I) was hopeful to avoid fast food. We drove around the downtown area and didn’t really see anything that looked too inviting. Then Evey worked some magic on her phone and said there was a beloved Mexican restaurant less than a half mile away. She counted down the distance as we neared it, turns out we were in a neighborhood right by it…

 

And it was really, really good! I got something called a Volcanita, it was a volcano of grilled chicken and ingredients in a large flour tortilla. I also got a house margarita and they served it to me in a giant flower pot! (You know that material they make flower pots out of? You know what I’m talking about. It’s kinda copper colored.)

 

From there we got on the road and went to Arlan’s service in Pierce City, Mo. 

 

We knew who would be there, and we were happy to represent. But you know how it’s kinda awkward right off the bat? I don’t know why, we know these people. I guess because maybe you don’t know how chit-chatty you should be. Maybe someone there is really struggling and you don’t want to be like, “hey let me tell you how awesome my kids are!” But after about 30 minutes of warm-up we got there and were chatting with Adrianne’s Uncle Aaron and Aunt Cindy, and his girls, and other family. Arlan’s son Wes. 

 

Arlan’s girlfriend spotted Adrianne and said, “there’s a sympathetic face” and bonded and cried with her over the loss of Arlan (this is why you don’t lead with the ‘let me tell you how awesome the kids are,’ right there. Good job Adro.) 

 

Alan and Di couldn’t make it so I did some photography and by then everyone knew everyone. The nicest thing, I think, was when a waitress from the local Chinese restaurant came by to pay her respects and told everyone how friendly Arlan was. We all knew, but it was cool to see someone who was like, I didn’t KNOW this guy but I knew him and I’ll miss him.

 

So then we drove home. By then we were outta gas… but we just had to get home. We tried to get Whataburger in Lee’s Summit (there may have been tears, me or Boyd, I won’t say who) but then, eventually… we got home.

 

It was a drag because the next morning I had to pack and get on a flight to Orlando for a week’s worth of work (back-to-back Summits). But it was still a memorable weekend with the family. And cheers to Uncle Arlan.