We visited the storage facility this weekend to check on the spare emergency child. Everything was fine. I understand why the University of Illinois is such a good storage facility. It's too cold for anything to spoil. When we descended below the clouds on arrival looking out the window gave the appearance of landing in my freezer, except that there's no room for a runway in my freezer. I struggle to find room for a new carton of ice cream in my freezer. That is unless I throw away one of the old partially eaten cartons of ice cream with freezer burn. That would be a breach of family tradition, so I just continue to struggle.
Oh, back to landing in the freezer, the difference was that when we landed we found out that our freezer is actually warmer than it was that day in Illinois. The rental car started. Midwesterners clearly know more about winterizing a car than I do. Had it been my car we might have just waited till Spring.
We dropped our bags at the hotel and picked up Davis just outside the storage unit on the way to find something to eat. Davis had eaten but the rest of us were hungry. Just between us, I am the only member of our immediate family who is even remotely pleasant when hungry. I think the appropriate term for angry about being hungry is hangry.
When we parked at the restaurant we took the time to hug quickly and briefly before going inside(remember the temperature). Davis gave Marsha and Addie "pick up" hugs. It's been a while since little boy Davis was able to get a pick up hug so I stepped up. I wasn't able to bounce him or swing him like a few years ago and frankly my back might need some time before I step up again. Once inside we ate. We talked. We made sure Davis wasn't getting dusty or mildewed in storage. We checked Davis over for freezer burn, and we made plans for what all we'd do over the next two days before putting him back in storage for a few more weeks.
Guess what happened shortly after Davis finished throwing in the track meet. Even though I'm a technology guy, this kind of stuff still amazes me. We were sitting in the bleachers in Illinois and Benn called from Australia. While I talked to him on my phone we all started walking to a nearby stairwell and Marsha downloaded Skype to her i-phone. Once in the stairwell the whole family Skyped from opposite sides of the planet and a difference of roughly 70 degrees in temperature. I was afraid it wouldn't work at first, not because of the technology. I work with that stuff all the time and know that it's just magic. What I was afraid wouldn't work was fitting a majestic Fraker head into that itty bitty i-phone screen. Yes the kids are headsize gifted too. When the four of us stand together we look like Mt. Frakemore. On the plus side, Marsha never lacks for shade when she's with one of us. We just stood a little further from the phone and it all worked out.
We're home now and back in the routine. We miss Davis already and even with the magic of Skype we never really stopped missing Benn. It was great to spend time with Davis and have an awesome trans-global family talk except for those darn noisy birds in the tree Benn was under. We didn't have any problem with birds in the freezer. By the way Benn posted a new blog too at paddlinglife.net with some great pictures from Bailey.
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