Okies.

Yesterday my mom and I drove down to see two of my uncles and their families. One, I was not so excited to see. As my mom always says, "He's perfect. Just ask him." I was rather miffed by his dissing the cover art on my mom's book (naturally, his son could have done so much better) and by his asking how my brother got into the army with his record. I guess my uncle has blocked out of his memory the fact that his own son, who is also in the army, narrowly escaped three felony charges for making an explosive out of newspaper and powder and lighting it. You can't join the military if you have felonies on your record. Conceited man.

My other uncle and aunt I've always like visiting. We sat and talked with them for hours. Subjects ranged from advice to anecdotes to religion. My uncle even gave me a book about the Creation and the theory of organic evolution. I think he was rather thrilled to hear that I am studying English. He talked about it for quite some time, decrying newspapers for their horrible grammar and apparent lack of editing. It made me chuckle.

It gently snowed all of yesterday, and we left probably later than we should have. It was dark out when we finally hit the road. The wipers on our car are none too impressive and the switch for the front washer fluid doesn't work, so we had to go really slow because the dirty sludge hitting our windshield was oily and the wipers weren't helping. It took more than twice as long to get home than it did to get down there.

My relatives never cease to amaze me. But I suppose that's what you get when your extended family was raised by an "Okie from Muskogee."

Listening to: "The Ballad of Jed Clampett"
Reading: Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners by Josephine Ross