For Memorial Day, Just Add Heat
Not all edges have to be complicated, mysterious, or hard to find. Sometimes an edge in life can come from simple and even obvious places.
During the last 48 hours, while relaxing (not really celebrating) the 2013 version of Memorial Day Weekend, Cindy and I had the opportunity to host five 19 to 21 year old college students at our home on Lake Chelan. Now I know what those who are my age might be thinking... "You call that an opportunity? That's no opportunity! That's a punishment that should be avoided like the electric chair."
Well that's not the way we saw it and it's not the way it worked out.
Instead, we felt incredibly fortunate that our daughter's wanted to join us for the weekend and that they felt good about bringing a few friends along. (One of the friends is Abby's boyfriend Trevor and it was my first chance to meet him.)
We had the chance to visit, laugh, and hang out discussing things like how their college live's compared with mine of forty years ago, to subjects like the pros and cons of polygamy (the next column Abby is writing for WSU's Daily Evergreen - "The More The Merrier").
And here's my tip about finding an edge that enables a weekend like the one I'm describing. It's all about the food. Load up with a simple menu of main course meats (our consisted of hot dogs, chicken breasts, and bratwurst). Add potato salad (purchased in tubs from WalMart or Safeway is fine), a few bags of your favorite chips, and lots of adult beverages. Make sure everyone knows the house rules and who, if needed, the designated driver is going to be. It all can come together as a memory making weekend and an edge that's a lot more memorable than memorial.
My job? Fire up the grill and just add heat to the meat. That and to be a dad who get's what it's like to be a Coug and appreciates having a short window into a handful of college student lives.
PS to the weathermen and women of central washington: You could have done a better job of "just adding heat" too. Just sayin'! Brrr!
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May. 27, 2013 You're absolutely right, Rod. You are incredibly lucky and blessed to have children want to spend time with you. Even cooler is, that they want to bring their friends with them. I often compare notes from our days in Cougland with my soon-to-be-a-senior Cougar son's experience today. Just glad we didn't have to pay the $ the kids do today. (We'd still be paying our student loans at 60.) Enjoy.