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Fresh air and chewing tobacco
By juliezavala in My Turn
February 15, 2011

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When I got home from work yesterday Dad was in a grouchy mood. I made him some coffee and tried to get him to sit outside on the patio with me but he didn't want to. He sat down in his chair in the living room and refused to budge. I went ahead and drank my coffee outside.

After a while I went back inside. Dad had finished his coffee and as I took his coffee cup to the sink he said, "Say, do I have any tobacco?" I told him I didn't think I'd seen any for a while (I usually hide his chewing tobacco in a little drawer in the bathroom but it wasn't there when I looked last time). He looked a little down-in-the-dumps so I told him, "I tell you what, daddy, we can go for a drive and get some fresh air." He said he was too tired to move. I tried another tactic. "Hey, we can stop off at the store and pick up some more chewing tobacco for you..." At that he brightened up and said that sounded just fine.

We drove to the corner Speedy Stop and I grabbed a package of Red Man chewing tobacco and two large bottles of water. He was all smiles as we headed down the road. I plugged my iPod into the car stereo and we listened to music with the windows rolled down and the wind blowing in.

I stopped off at McDonald's to grab something to eat. I was a little worried that the coffee and tobacco he had had might make him shaky and dizzy. I got daddy a Quarter-pounder, Dr.Pepper and fries and got a fish sandwich for myself. We parked and ate in the parking lot, music still playing. Daddy kept commenting on the clouds, the flocks of birds in the sky, the nice looking black cars passing by.

Just as we were finishing our meal I heard a train horn off in the distance. Perfect timing! I glanced at the clock -- 4:06 pm. I made a mental note of the time; if the train has any type of real schedule it might go by at the same time on the following day. One could hope...

We managed to get to a RR crossing in time to watch the train roar by. As usual, daddy called out little bits of info about the train like, "KCS...pretty long train...must be a powerful engine to be pulling this long of a train...probably has another engine at the other end of the train to help haul this load...he's moving pretty fast..."

After the train was gone we went to Dairy Queen to get two mini-blizzards and then drove out to one of our favorite parks, Saxet Lakes. When we first found Saxet Lakes last summer, everything was green and lush. Now the trees were bare and the grass was dull and brown. Still, the sky was gorgeous with a variety of different clouds moving across the blue sky. It made an elegant backdrop to the skeletal trees. I took several pictures.

Dad said, "You know, some people don't get outside. They don't know what they're missing! You gotta' get outside and see the world!" I smiled and told him he was so-o-o right.