Family

And so we come to the time of the week where I notice I've not written anything here. That is not to say that I have not been writing this week. In fact, I've written quite a bit in the last week, just not here.

I've written about sewing machines (1846 models cost $125 at a time when the average yearly income was $500, making them a co-op purchase). I've written about Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning and found they never lived in Portugal, but Portuguese was a pet name Robert gave to his wife. I've written about tanks and their first use in WWI, not all that spectacular to start, but they eventually "took off" with speeds today 20 times faster than the original version. I've written about the Hoover Dam that irked FDR so much he changed it back to Boulder Dam which never was correct as it was built across Black Canyon. I've written about Wheel of Fortune and found that Vanna claps her hands 28,000 times per season, all while dressed spectacularly. And I wrote about a patriot who had only one life to give for his country and was astounded to learn Nathan Hale was only 21 when he died in service to his Commander-in-Chief.

I've also written a little piece about surviving a not-tornado. (I fully intend to return to the writing of my family stories on my webpage.) I've survived tornados that caused less damage than the one that wasn't. I have the pictures to prove the devastating effects of high winds regardless of their classification.

I've also printed out my sister adventure story. I was shocked, and I do mean shocked, to learn how much blabbing I did. There are pictures included, but still. The printout was 50 pages long. Not about 50. Not nearly 50. Exactly 50. And I didn't even write up the whole thing. I could have extended the saga immensely by including the first week and a half when we packed, sorted, and held a garage sale with such scope we had to have departments and ancillary sites to hold items for sale.

Instead, I began the tale of travel when we actually began travelling. Although I did continue it until my own departure. I apologize to anyone actually living in Kansas, if there are any people living there, but I never need to drive through Kansas again. It was the most tedious and boring state, partly because of the length of time and mostly because there was absolutely nothing to do there except stare out the window. And worry about running out of gas.

Everyone expects Texas to be huge and take a lot of time to drive through. Texas also has a few things to do. We visited the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. It was beautiful and there was a whole display of life sized bronze statues surrounding the cross telling the story of the Passion of Christ. There was a gift shop as well. It was the one place I would have spent money for professional grade pictures and they sold none. Astounding. They took donations and they sold other holy type stuff, but no simple books of postcard style pictures. I would have thought it was a no-brainer. Each of the stops with the bronzes as a separate picture as well as the huge cross in the middle. But, they didn't offer to take my money in the one place I would have given it to them.

Of course, I wrote this in bits and pieces and have not even proofread the whole thing. But, part of the fun of this type of writing is that it's informal. I'm sure there are typos, misspelled words, and sentences that are – at best – not quite right. I wrote in the early morning or late evening and didn't spend much time on balanced composition. All I wanted to do was get down the fun we were having. The stories we were making. The love we shared.

It might have worked.