We headed over home for the long weekend. This means making the drive on Friday night and arriving at my mom’s around 10 or 11pm.

I got to meet my new neice right away. I just realized that I never mentioned that my sister was pregnant, let alone that she had the baby. (she had her the day we were at Camden Park) So that was cool. In fact, it was so cool that I didn’t take a single picture of her. Lately I’ve been in total throwback mode. Everybody takes pictures of everything anymore…I’ve made a conscious effort to not pull the camera out constantly and (gasp!) just soak things in and enjoy the little moments in life and be happy with old fashioned memories. This was one of those times.

On Saturday we headed up to Erie for a stop at Waldameer and took my older neice (my sister’s older daughter) along with us. The park was packed and generally sucked. Ravine Flyer II was a solid ride. Little tree-lined paths are about as charming as a kick in the face when they’re filled shoulder-to-shoulder with people. The main parking lot was full and blocked off and the overfill lot was close to bursting at the seams by the time we left. Quite frankly, that little park couldn’t handle the crowd and we were gone in less than three hours after getting in a few rides. On the way out we stopped at the Tom Ridge thingy place across the street just to go up the observation tower and snap some pics of Ravine Flyer II. Then we left.

Spent Saturday evening doing the hanging out at Mom’s thing with everyone.

On Sunday we took everyone out for a belated 84th birthday lunch/early dinner for my Grandma. It was nice. My Grandma is cool in that she’s not all loopy like a lot of 84-year-olds can be. She’s completely ‘there’ and is still a joy to be around. This is the woman who took me to Cedar Point when I was 5 on a company trip. I’m pretty sure she’s partially responsible for the whole coaster thing in my life. That was the late 70′s and I was one of two or three grandchildren. She now has 8 great grandchildren. How crazy is that?

Grandma appreciates the little things and I think had a genuinely good time with everyone.

On the way back to Mom’s from the resaurant, we sidetracked and scored some sweet corn and cucumbers from one of those cool farmer, roadside carts. Always cheap and always of the highest quality. I don’t see that sort of thing in this neck of the woods too often, but back home there’s people everywhere selling produce along the roads. Deep down inside, I’m such a hick.

The kids blew the rest of the afternoon swimming until we pretty much physically forced them out of the pool. For dinner we did a couple of taco pizzas from a local place. (taco pizza is another back home staple that we can’t seem to find around here) No one delivers out to Mom’s so we offered to drive in town and pick it up.

I don’t know if I’ve changed or the town has, but Butler seems so depressing to me anymore. It’s very bittersweet. It’s still ‘home’ but it feels so run down and depressed with people working hard and getting nowhere. It almost makes me sad a little. Couple that with less and less reasons to go back (only a few family members left in the area and even fewer friends) and I start to realize how time has marched on. I often wonder if it’ll get to the point where going home isn’t quite home anymore.

Christ, that was depressing.

Spent the evening with more visiting and headed out Monday around noon.

Typical long weekend trip home. It was our first time back since the whole thing with my Dad and I don’t think it’ll ever be quite the same. We miss him.

We got back home and made a quick trip over to Meijer for a few groceries until we can make a ‘real’ grocery run. They installed more self-checkout lanes. There used to be just 4 ‘express’ lanes. They added 4 more ‘express’ lanes at the far end of the checkouts and also 4 ‘full’ lanes. I also noticed that they’re kind of trying to force people to use the self-checkout by manning less of the regular checkouts.

I don’t necessarily mind that expect for two things:

1. People are stupid
2. The technology isn’t quite perfected

So what should be a quick checkout turns into a hassle and that sucks. Progress, huh?

I spent tonight catching up on the internets after a weekend of mostly avoiding them and now I’m typing this at 3am.

That was my long holiday weekend in a nutshell.