Bonus Holiday

When I went home for Christmas my plan was to arrive on Friday evening, relatively early (about 8pm) in comparison with the 10ish that I used to get home from St. Louis, and stay until midday on Wednesday. I didn't really want to get back but now that I have limited vacation days I tend to kinda hoard them for fun stuff. So Wednesday morning came and we went shopping and grabbed a shrimp po-boy (one of my favorite things to have) and spent some time together before I got around to packing and getting ready. My brother and I were trying to figure out if he would still be at the truck stop and if I could get over there to see him.

Chris' Shrimp PoBoy: AKA the best sandwich ever

As I am slowly watching the clock get later and later I realize that I had better get it together or I wouldn't get home until midnight. So I get my stuff together and get everything in the car and change into something comfy for the drive. To recap at this point everything is in the car, including the dog, and I am standing there hugging my parents goodbye. I reach in to start the car so that it can warm up before the drive... and it doesn't start. I try a few more time and realize that my car is not starting. Eventually we go inside and I have a small meltdown and threaten my bank account with buying a new car. As I calm down we determine that it is the battery and now we have to decide what are we going to do.

I realize that even if we left at this moment I would not be able to get home until really really late (1-2AM) and that I should just spend the night and leave the next day. Now that I realize that I am going to get a bonus day at home with my parents I try and decide what are we going to do for fun. We ended up going out to dinner at Deano's Pizza. If you have ever been to Lafayette you know it is amazing, if you haven't ever had it you should. We opted for the T-Rex pizza, which is similar to a meat lovers but a little different. Some of my parents friends from years ago were driving through town and it was a real blessing for me to get to see them and relate to people I hadn't seen in years.

After dinner my dad put in the new battery that we had grabbed on the way home from dinner. It was a great chance for him to use the new toy I gave him for Christmas... a grill light. It is essentially a light on a flexible linker to a clamp so it allowed us to see in the engine when it was dark!

Putting in the new battery

The next morning dawned really nice and it was starting to warm up. We made breakfast and enjoyed another meal together before I had to leave. Early that morning we had taken my car to my dad's mechanic to make sure that nothing else was wrong so we had a few hours to kill before the car came back.

After breakfast we spent most of the morning playing Pig Mania, which you could read more about the Wikipedia article here. We have been playing this game for years, there are two pigs and you shake them in a cup and toss them onto the table and how they land determines your score. I had a wonderful time playing this with my parents. All too soon it was time to get ready and get back in the car.

Pig Mania.. this is worth 1 point

My car was given a clean bill of health from a trusted mechanic. I know mostly trust that my car is going to get me from point A to point B without me having to call AAA or my brother. I got a chance to see one of my very best friends when our visits overlapped by about 30 minutes. All in all the bonus day was a wonderful gift that I didn't know that I needed. Have you ever gotten a bonus day and what did you do with it?