I'm not a boy scout.

I'm not a boy scout.

How do I make this long story short? I can't.

We went to Eufaula this weekend for my family reunion. We aren't from there, it's just where we lodge for four-five days of the year. And actually, we stay in Florence, Georgia which you hometowners will know is there on your Eufaula borders. So, same difference I guess.

We had planned to meet Rich and Jessica around 9 on Thursday night. I left the information at home. I knew the street but not the exact address. We got to town after nine. I thought I knew which house was Rich's but I didn't see any Florida tags. We checked back a few times over the weekend. It wasn't until Saturday that I got out at that house and asked. I was right but they had left that afternoon. We really were looking forward to hanging out with old friends.

With the knowledge that my parent's cabin was going to be packed out I planned to stay at my aunt's cabin. She had offered awhile back and they would actually have extra beds. I told my mom this plan and she quickly began to fume. She had just told me when Connie was leaving but then claimed that she didn't know if she was getting a cabin. It was not the plan to not hang out with them, but just to sleep comfortably. However, my mom decided that we were trying to be offensive and from that decided to be short with us. So, obviously from that we didn't make a lot of effort to hang out. Besides that, everytime we did go over my btother was in trouble. Mostly, just for twelve year old stuff, but oh was it a big deal. Whenever things seemed intense (which was everytime) we made a lame excuse and left.

Me and Donna really enjoyed our stay with Aunt Connie's family. We sat up late with her and her husband Gary,and at different intersections, their kids. We drank coke and they drank beer, but that's all I have to say about that.

I'm really only writing this to hit the high notes. All the in-between was much more amusing. I don't want to write about that this morning. I will say that despite the tension of my immediate family we had a really good time this year.

Family drama I'm used to. The real fun began on the way home. Since we wrecked I pay more attention to the road than I ever have as a passenger. I sometimes get nervous at potential collisions. I can't help but imagine the possibilities. More and more I'm learning to take all the necessary precautions like I'm anal about being sure we don't lock the keys in. But as hard as one tries to cover his bases sometimes he misses a spot. The spot we missed this story is the need for a spare tire.

Listen to me. I will never again ride or drive a vehicle which does not have a spare.

Yeah, we apparently ran over something and it tore a big gash in the tire. We thought it seemed we'd run upon a flat. Thankfully, we were almost home. We turned into Wal-Mart to check it out. Yes indeed. I had high hopes that I could fix this flat, either by sealant, patches or plugs or some combination of those. Before we'd buy everything we had we tried the Fix-A-Flat. We knew the gash was too big to patch when all the sealant oozed from it. We'd have to leave the truck overnight.

I wanted to call a cab but didn't know the number. There wasn't a phone book in the booth and the operator told me I needed to call information. But I didn't have fifty cents. We thought "maybe if we just take it slow, we can get it home." We drove a couple miles and I asked if we could pull into a particular parking lot to see if it looked any worse. Yes indeed. It had torn from that gash to all around the tire. We still weren't driving on the rim, but I knew we'd have to walk.

Donna said it wouldn't be far. I believed her because I could see the Baskin-Robbins billboard that marks our turn. I thought that meant we were home free. I thought wrong. It turns out that the part after the turn was the longest part. It had to have been five miles.

It's amazing how people can just drive right past a couple obviously in need of a lift. I think God let me see this so that I could better understand exactly how evil we all are. We decided that when reasonable we will give needy people a ride.

We got to our apartment, without dying. Now we just have to get a cab, go to the truck, undo the tire, go to the tire people, have them put a new tire on that rim, go back and put that on the truck.

Then, we can go on about our day. Like we had planned.