Burn baby burn...

So this past weekend...

I went to visit Dad and Shelia in Alabama. Yes, for those of you who don't know, I AM a girl with southern roots.

Dad was raised in a little podunk town called Gurley, Alabama and I believe it is still the only town I am aware of that has the original whorehouse still standing.

The past 14 months have been a struggle for them, to say the least. My dad has been away for about a year, working at a nuclear plant in New Mexico, so he is rarely home :( Their house burnt to the ground over a year ago, and spent the next 4 months living in a trailer on their property while the house was being rebuilt. I must say, it was worth it though, because what they did was phenomenol. The house is bigger and better than it ever was.

I love going there to visit because my dad has a game room that would almost shame Dave and Buster's. We spend many an evening playing air hockey, pool, darts, cornhole, and MY personal fave, Karaoke. He has this massive system hooked up to a big flat screen tv, and next to it is the bar area and we just party like rock stars when we are there.

Of course, dad insists that SOMEONE do the Kenny and Dolly "Islands in the Stream", and when I visit, of course, it is me, even though I continue to protest I don'y know the song...barely even thr chorus...but it's my DAD - can't say no.

Lil man enjoys performing his renditions of Toby Keith, and this most recent time, Carrie Underwood. Of course I HAVE to sing with him, because he says he is too shy to do it alone, so ok, fine.

The FUNNIEST time ever, was when he and I had...what one might say, a little too much to drink (it's always a funny concept in itself getting smacked with your father)...and of course everyone had gone to bed, but us. We were up doing 'Piano Man', and Benny and the Jets, and December 1963 - Oh What a Night....and for the finale we grabbed the micorphone stands and renacted the music video to "Jump", by David Lee Roth.

No, we did not have the lycra spandex pants, although that MAY have made the whole thing that much better, but the both of us had seen that video so many times, we had it down!!!!
I believe dad even twirled the microphone stand around his body and did the classic scissor kick. Naturally, when he started gyrating like Elvis that was when I said, "Um, Dad, um....no. Just no"

You never want to see a middle aged man who thinks he can gyrate like Elvis, attempt to gyrate like Elvis. Especially when that gyrating Elvis-like man is your father....

So anyhow, the trip was GOOD! :)

It rained, BUT we played cornhole and I got my ass kicked pathetically.

I ate too much. They insist on feeding me huge southern breakfasts and I rarely ever eat breakfast, so the biscuits and gravy and sausage and eggs and bacon and hashbrowns did a number on my body. BUT the wings and the BBQ were SUPERB and that is 75% of the reason I go visit :)

I get home last night about 5pm, give them a call, telling them i made it back ok.

TODAY, they inform me that at 9pm last night, a fireman knocked on their door to tell them that their barn was in flames.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTF!?!?!?

IDK, I got nuthin.

It is difficult to watch people that you love suffer through life, especially when you are 500 miles away and can't do anything about it. Not that I could do anything about it if I was closer....

No one was hurt, and they seem to be in good spirits about it, which is really all you can do. Not sure what started the fire, and they arent sure if it is worth rebuilding yet...

Call me cruel, but hell, I am just glad the karaoke machine survived...

LMS