We all piled into the car yesterday morning and headed north to the ancestral manse of O to visit my Mom, far away in the snow-covered lands of Waupaca County. Until today’s visit, Mom hadn’t seen the Seanster in over a year, I think, probably not since the summer before last when he came to stay at the cabin in June, so we set aside some time to motor on up there and visit while he was here.

Mom prepared a lovely roast and served it with taters, both pan-fried and oven-baked. After cleaning our plates we all leaned back to pat our bellies and make happy burping noises bubble up from deep inside, or at least I like to think I wasn’t the only one who did. Mom poured coffee and set a plate of freshly-made sugar cookies on the table and we slowly ate every single one of them while we caught up on each other’s lives and debated the problems of the world.

Everyone seemed to have such a fine time that I wished we could have stayed late into the night, but if driving in the dark is as bad as combing your hair with a salad fork, and I happen to think it is, then driving in the dark while tired is worse than shaving with a cheese grater. Sorry, fresh out of good similes. I got up from the table at around five o’clock and announced final call for the privvy. When I came back, Mom was giving out hugs so I lined up for mine, and got a sugar cookie to go. Then we said our good-byes, piled into the car, lit the engine and started the long trip home.