Afterglow 2012 - Day 8 Saturday

It's hard to spend a week in the greatest place in the world and then return back home. But dreams only last for so long and sooner or later you need to wake up. Since I was living here at the Mothership I wake up here every morning. I was back home. Gracie looked at me for a second but then ran into Mom's arms. My Mom loves that dog and the feeling is definitely mutual. These are my roommates. And even though this is not Afterglow, it was still good to be home. It's the 2nd best place in the world to be.

There was one roommate that I hugged before I left on a trip and immediately upon my return for about 6 years - Coach Gordon Bombay. These pictures were taken less than a month before he died on August 21st. Looking at them now I can see that he was in poor health just by how frail he looked. But he never acted like anything was wrong until the day he passed. He was my BFF and my good luck charm. I hope that cats get to go to heaven too so I can see my pal again someday. Of course that is contingent on me getting there as well. But I have a couple of people up there who have hopefully put in a good word for me. I'll see you all someday.

We always stop for lunch on the way home and every year I see a sign for a KFC that has a lunch buffet. We have yet to go there until now because it is a couple miles in the wrong direction that we are traveling. But I kind of got fed up with always seeing the sign but not being able to go there so I convinced Mom to let us stop. And it was delicious. All you can eat chicken, mashed potatoes, cole slaw and the other usual KFC fare. I was in heaven, but when I also found out they had ice cream that really sealed the deal for me. Jenny got a vanilla cone and I went with the Oreo crumbles over vanilla in a dish. I can this becoming a new tradition for the ride back home.

Home

It's a very boring drive back home so I don't blame Mom and Jenny for falling asleep in the car. There's not much to see on the highways of Central Wisconsin so it's easy to doze off if you don't have a reason to stay awake. I wish that I could have done the same.  A week at Afterglow is exhausting. But I did have a reason to stay awake - to get us all back home safe and sound.

There really wasn't anything special about Afterglow 2012. 2010 was the last one with Timmy and 2011 was when everyone rallied together to make it more about fun and less about sadness. There was no way this past year was going to come close to either of those or any year prior. But even though this one was kind of a down week, a week up at Afterglow is a million times better than a week anywhere else. But that's just my opinion. This website is the world as I see it through my perspective. I could be wrong. But this is the story of my life and I'm doing my best. I shouldn't whine about doing my best. That's what losers do. I'll stop whining. I'm no loser.