Starry Night

(I did not actually take this picture.)
What a nice little vacation I just had! I went to a friend’s daughter’s wedding in Kentucky (my home for my first fifty years), and I saw people I had been longing to see forever! And family, of course. I spent four whole days there. Poor ScottieDog had to stay home, and I missed him, but it was still fun.

Over the long weekend I managed to knock off Goal 79 – Drive out into the country on a clear night and look at the stars. It was awesome! Nothing like getting away from the New York Metro Area to get a little star action. Of the actual star variety, not the celebrity kind--and not just the major planets which is all we can usually see, unless there’s a humongous blackout which happens once in a blue moon.

I had a reservation to rent a little car to get around in, but when the shuttle from the airport let me off, there was this really nice black convertible sitting in front of the rental office. So I went in and jokingly asked, “Could I have that one?” And they said, yes, I could have that one for sixty dollars more (for the whole four-day weekend), and I said “I'll take it!” It was a Volvo hard-top convertible, and boy, was it swanky!

(I’m kind of addicted to convertibles now, ScottieDog having bought one last year over my strenuous objections. Scott was so proud of me for upgrading! I wish I'd thought to have somebody take a picture of me with it. This one is one I took at the rental office; the nice lady coming up on the left is going to show me how to put the top up and down.)

So I promptly went out (literally I drove right to a mall from Enterprise) and bought a nice black suit to match the car. I had in fact been going to buy something to wear to the wedding because the stupid dull green silk matronly outfit I brought with me, which was the only thing I owned that was halfway appropriate, was depressing. And it would have looked really stupid with the convertible.

My daughters were all proud of me for looking so soignée at the wedding, and they sure got a kick out of watching the top go up and down on the car. It was like a Transformer or something.

The effect was somewhat modified (not for the worse, I don’t think) by my carrying the adorable Baby Jack around all the time, because his mother and her sisters were all of them wedding attendants and I offered to do the grandmother thing and look after him. And indeed, I have a lot to learn yet about being a grandmother. For instance, these are not grandmother shoes:

I soaked my feet that night in very warm water and then in very cold water and they hardly hurt at all the next day, but my biceps and quads were KILLING ME for two days. Carrying Baby Jack around is like carrying a cannonball. I think it’s safe to say that he is thriving.

Baby Jack and his mother and aunt left for New York the next day, but I stayed behind with my middle daughter Sylvia (who is hilarious as well as beautiful, BTW). We spent the next twenty-four hours having a Kentucky Experience. We visited the farm and saw my parents and sister and grand-niece, we sat out on the deck and traded memories, we had a mini-recital, we went to Lexington and had a late dinner downtown at a really cool bistro, and then (this was worth the whole extra sixty dollars) drove out with the top down way into the country towards the Kentucky River, and looked at the stars. “Venus looks like a porch light!” Sylvia expostulated.

At one point we stopped by a big field, and Sylvia made me turn the lights off and climb over the gate so we could get out from under the trees and get a better view of the night sky. (The ticklish part was the cow-catcher grate on the other side of the fence. It was constructed so as to “catch” grandmothers, too, though I don’t think that was the intent. I’m lucky I didn’t break my leg.) I let Sylvia drive on the way back so I could lean back and do the star-gazing. It was almost more impressive from that point of view than out in the field. It was pretty damn coolish by that time, but rather than put the top up we turned on the seat warmers full blast. No fools, we.

*Sigh* Can't wait to go back! We're supposed to go for Thanksgiving. I wondered aloud to ScottieDog if they would still have the same car and if so could we rent it, but he sagely pointed out that it would likely be too cold in late November to make getting a convertible worth it. (No fool, he. :-P )