The Calm Before The Storm

Des Moines International Airport.......waiting.

I had a long weekend. Not by choice, and it was weird, and it was good in the end. Things happen for a reason, I guess, and several things came together in a way that they wouldn't have otherwise.

So, to kick things off I had to fetch my wife back from her trip to see her family and arrange and attend her father's funeral. She was flying in to Des Moines, the kids had the day off from school by chance, and so we were all there to greet her. That was great.

Then the Trans Iowa t-shirts were finished, so my friend Sam had them ferried by bicycle from the printer to his establishment, Tacopocalypse. It just so happened that Mrs. Guitar Ted came in at about 1:00pm, so we went to Tacopocalypse for a late lunch and to pick up the t-shirts. Bonus: Sam met us down there and we all got a chance to chat with him. Sam even helped load the boxes into our car. Thanks Sam!

None of the above was "planned", necessarily, but it all came together in a way that was better than we could have planned it. Draw your own conclusions........

Of course, there was a long trip home and then we settled in to have something to eat- leftovers, so Mrs Guitar Ted wouldn't have to cook, and we cashed it in for the night then.

I did manage to mount the Terrene Honali's on the Gen I Fargo before bed Friday night. 

Friday afternoon I got a text from Mike Johnson, who had the cues printed for T.I.v13, and he wanted to know if I wanted to meet at a local restaurant to eat and then have our "cue sheet stuffing party". I agreed to meet him and so at 7:00am I found myself sat at the table ordering up breakfast and staring at a job which entailed collating and bagging 280 sets of cue sheets. By hand...... In a busy restaurant. 

A crab apple tree in bloom. Image taken while on a ride with my son in Waterloo

We finished in a little over two hours, but the middle set of cues had one bag with a mixed up set of pages. We knew this because we were short one page for the last set and had a duplicate page left over. So, I left a hefty tip for tying up that table for so long and went home to sort through 96 bags to find the one with the messed up set of cues. Of course, I had to sort through most of them before I found the one, but I found it. With about 35 bags to go! I and my daughter went ahead and inspected all the bags anyway, so we know we are spot on now.

That was it for Trans Iowa work, and I spent the rest of the weekend with the family. Next weekend I will be gone the entire time except for late Sunday. So, I wanted to invest my time wisely by spending it with my family now. I cycled with my son a couple of times, barbecued, took a couple of walks, and generally just hung out with them. It was nice and fairly peaceful, never mind the drive-by shooting Sunday morning and the SUV that caught on fire down on the corner. All just part of living in the 'Loo.

So, now four days till "go time". It is all coming together for another go-round with this Trans Iowa deal. The weather is looking rather on the wet side. There will be wind of some sort. It should be a scene. I'll get to hang with my gravel family Friday night and then it'll be myself and MG squirreled away in a Suby for 30-ish hours. Stay tuned, it'll be something to share, as it always is.

The calm before the storm was good, but now I am ready. Let's get this over with........