March 24, 2018

This morning I woke up at eight o'clock, took a shower, and then went up to feed the dogs. Then I changed all the batteries in my Mom's smoke detectors, loaded up my car, set up the GPS, and headed out. I made a brief stop to get gas and then was on my way a little before 10:30AM.

I didn't need the GPS for awhile because the first part of the trip is a pretty straight shot, but it was on and then the battery died about half an hour into the trip. It charges with a USB cord but my car only has one USB port (first world problem) and I had my thumb drive plugged in so I could listen to an audiobook. I used my printed directions to make sure I took the correct exit and then stopped at the first gas station to use the restroom and buy an over-priced cigarette lighter USB charger. I think I would have been just fine with my printed directions, but better safe than sorry. And maybe I'll need the charger in the future. The rest of the trip was uneventful and I only made one wrong turn, right at the end of the journey when I got into my aunt's neighborhood and turned too early. It wouldn't be a road trip if I didn't make at least one turn too early.

My Mom hung out for a little bit and then she left to go meet a friend for lunch. My grandma and I sat and talked for awhile before eating a late lunch or random things. My grandma steamed some small potatoes and made cauliflower with cheese. There was also a plate of grapes, apples, and oranges.

After lunch I showed her my Chromebook because she's in the market for a new computer. I'm an advocate of Chromebooks for a lot of people, who don't really need a computer beyond checking their emails and getting online. They get the job done and they're relatively inexpensive, at least if you get the simple ones. We spent a lot of time talking about it and she seems to like the idea of it.

While showing her the computer I pulled up the Mister Rogers marathon and we ended up watching that for awhile. One of my best memories as a child was going over to her house and watching Mister Rogers. It was really cool being able to watch it with her and laugh. We talked about a bunch of random things after that, including politics (which went well because we both share a lot of common sense, beyond just party lines).

For dinner we made a homemade pizza, which is another throwback to my childhood when we would make pizza at her house. It had a modern twist with the toppings, which included green peppers, mozzarella cheese, and tater tots. I think it turned out pretty well.

After dinner we talked for awhile and then she called my aunt to get the address for the live stream tomorrow of my cousin singing at a church. They website leaves the previous week's stream on the website so I was able to hook my Chromebook up to the TV and make sure we would be able to watch the livestream in the morning.

It is now almost midnight, and I've been distracted by more Mister Rogers. It's a good distraction. Despite being really tired, I will probably stay up for at least one more episode so I can see Mr. McFeely's birthday.