Spring Forward

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Spring forward,  we were told this weekend. So I did. Boy am I tired today!

I rented a car for a trip to St. Louis. I love to rent cars, it makes me feel like I am on holiday.  Driving a new vehicle takes me out of my real world and sends me to a world that feels like magic.

My brother's birthday party was at a Pizza/Arcade place in St. Louis. I always rent a car when I have to drive any distance.  My old car is great and gets me where I need to go, but I am not inclined to put 300 miles on it in a day.   Much of my family was in attendance. We ate and talked, presents were opened,  then it was on to the arcade.

We each had handy plastic cards to swipe to play games.  My daughter and I spent a great deal of time playing skee ball.  I was really enjoying myself, and I am not usually very good at these sorts of games.  But, I kept hitting the 10,000 point hole.  I think I rolled the small white ball into that slots 5 different times!  After one game the tickets were coming out of the machine so long, i wasn't sure it would ever stop.  The other game I was doing well at was a wheel of fortune sort of thing, the lights would circle around and I had to push the stop button when I thought I would get a lot of tickets.  It was a day of fun and family.  My daughter and I turned all of our tickets over to my great niece who is 6.  She had fun spending them at the Big Top and we enjoyed watching her.

My dad enjoyed the madness of the whole event, because there were so many happy children in the building.  This place was packed.  There must have been 6 birthdays going concurrent with my brothers. And there were even more before that. 

We had a marvelous time and I got to see family that I don't get to see very often.  Then came the drive home.

The car I rented was a Toyota Prius.  I wasn't sure that I would like it, but it was so much fun to drive.  The gas mileage on the highway isn't much better than the Corolla or the Ford Focus. But the car is very entertaining to drive.  It is also the quietest car I have ever driven. So I would give it a thumbs up! The long drive home seemed more fun than usual.

The downside of  the weekend came after I returned home.  I lost an hour of sleep, I was feeling like I needed more time with my family, and regretting that I live so far away.  Years ago my sister and I did so much together.  I had tickets for a concert at Krannert Center on Sunday afternoon.   The concert was marvelous, but I didn't have much desire or energy to get anything else done on the weekend.  So I have a clutter house, that needs sweeping very badly, some dishes in the sink to get done, and loads of laundry to fold.  But that stuff can get done at my leisure, as I am the only one that has to look at it.

Time marches on, and I am doing my best to make the most of it.