We left the mouse's house behind this morning and headed 20 miles or so away to St. Cloud. Now, granted, I'm not Catholic. But I did attend mass regularly for a number of years and I do consider myself to be knowledgeable in a number of arcane fields (not cane fields, arcane fields), but I can't even begin to guess what St. Cloud is the patron saint of.
Weather would be the obvious choice, but I digress.
We started out by making an appearance at a local grade school where we celebrated 5 women fighting or lost to cancer. That was a good stop, the kids were great and we had fun with them, but it had potential... They pulled us onto the grass near an outdoor classroom. Now these trucks don't weigh as much as regular, working vehicles, but they're still a lot heavier than a car. We sank into the ground about an inch which was a lot less than I thought we would when we pulled in. They originally wanted to pull the town's tower ladder in, but we suggested they re-think that plan.
The remainder of the day was spent at two other schools including the one where this picture was taken -
Here we see Jay Holt chatting with a survivor, charming her with his easy Texas drawl. It's distinctly different from John Rhyne's Okie or even Vickkkkki's South Texas drawl, but I'm not sure how to describe the differences. I'll have to work on that.
After lunch (The Catfish Place, that's right I said the Catfish Place) where we were treated wonderfully (their motto is "we fry everything") and had an awesome meal with more food than we could eat (that's not really their motto) we went to a florist (don't ask, I don't know) where we met Kaitlin. Kaitlin has retinal blastoma and, consequently, is blind. But she's sweet as can be and is a very smart, very precocious two year-old. Kaitlin's Mom is signing for her here-
Leaving the school we went on to a local home improvement store where everything is orange. You know the place, they're everywhere. What I want to now is, why can't I buy these at my local place???
$99 bucks marked down from $149! What the hell? Oh sure, they'll be long dead by February 1st in northern Illinois, but they'd look great in the summer.
Maybe.
I'd probably kill them either way.
So as we're standing in the parking lot, talking to folks, I see a guy walking towards me wearing an AFFI shirt (Associated fire Fighters of Illinois for the uninitiated) so, of course, I asked him where he was from.
"Chicago" he says "where are you from?"
"Downers Grove" I tell him
"Do you now Jerry ********?" he says
"He's my partner" I tell him "I love that guy"
4 million (slight exaggeration for emphasis) miles from home in a parking lot in St. Cloud Florida and I meet a guy that knows, like, 6 guys I know!
What are the odds?
I don't know.
It was just a figure of speech.
You say "what are the odds" to explain...
Oh never mind.
Tomorrow we're back in St. Cloud for a 5k run/walk (yes, I know it's a week day. I don't know why, it's not my 5k) and then a home visit or two, I think another school and then a big block party downtown. After that we drive two hours south to our next town. Hopefully we'll be at our next hotel by midnight.
Did I mention that it gets a little warm and slightly humid here in central Florida this time of year? No? Check the weather channel if you don't believe me.
Life on the road.
Pink Heals!
Peace
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