The Severed Cortex

April has found Robert and I hanging out quite a bit.

Haircut and the Zoo

I still haven't given up on getting my haircut in St. Louis. I know that's a silly thing but finding someone who is totally cool and cuts your hair the way you like it is hard to find. When you do find them it is tough to let go. And since she also cuts Nancy's hair and Nancy feels the same way, I don't feel so bad about hanging on to Pegg, even if that means driving 2 hours to get my hair cut. Yes, I know. Ridiculous.
April started with a haircut and I picked Robert up on the way. Robert's mom asked me if Pegg could cut Robert's hair too. I wasn't sure if she even knew how, but it turned out that Pegg kind of knew. She cut my chia pet hair first and despite Robert's reluctance to let her cut his, I insisted and she squared him up. After that we headed over to Blueberry Hill to eat burgers. I'm pretty sure Robert and I have been there before but he was amazed at all the old jukeboxes. I have no idea why.
I really didn't have a plan past getting a haircut and something to eat and we accomplished that. The day was so nice that it would have been a waste to spend it inside. It had been over a year since I visited the zoo and it just seemed like the perfect day for it. I floated this past Robert. As usual he didn't care so the zoo it was. Like I said, it was the perfect day for it, as witnessed by the 3.6 million other people in Forest Park. I pulled in the top lot of the Art Museum and got a parking spot immediately. Pure luck. Most people were stuck in traffic for a long time and I pull up just as someone is pulling out. Sweet.
Robert and I hoofed it over to the zoo and started the adventure. Bears, penguins, puffins, chimps, prarie dogs, sea lions, snake house (where we spend a lot of time making sure we find all the snakes in every aquarium), monkey house (Nancy can I have a lemur?), big cats, and finally ending up at the Children's Zoo. That was over 3 hours after we arrived. Robert wanted to go to the Children's Zoo so I forked over the extra couple of bucks. He tried to pet the guinea pigs but they were having no part of it. He did go in by himself and brush the goats, being ever so careful and brushing as many as he could. It was, well, sweet. He is really a very sweet boy and he always shows compassion for others. I hope he continues that.
It took us over 30 minutes to get out of the park and Robert was asleep long before we got out of the traffic.

The March

Most of you have already seen the pictures of Robert and I marching together. He's the one not wearing high heel shoes. We didn't want to run down Saturday morning and pick him up, drag him to the parade, then take him home. Instead I took a half day off on Friday, worked in the yard, then headed to pick him up in time for a rush hour showing of Monsters vs. Aliens. He picked monsters to win, I was left with aliens. I even tried to trick him into trading with me but he wasn't budging. We scarfed down a lot of buttered popcorn and Reese's pieces. The movie was good, don't get me wrong, but I was hyped up for something really big. It fell somewhat short of that. Still, it is one of the better kid movies I've seen. After the movie Robert wanted to eat Chinese food so we headed to Shangri-La in Edwardsville. Yes, that does seem a little out of the way but I had ulterior motives. The last bit of stuff from the move was still down there in the form of my boat. We were able to go pull it out of the barn just before dark and were on our way. An hour and a half later I've got the boat in the garage and Robert is waking up. We played Guitar Hero until it was time to go to bed.

Roller Skating

Today I actually roller skated. BBBS sponsored a roller skating event in Belleville, which by the way is a hella long way from our house via Alton. We took advantage. We also decided to take Robert's sister, who once again, is having mentor issues. Her previous Big fizzled out and left her hanging. This new one is just not a good match and apparently has issues. And besides, thirteen year old girls have an innate desire to roller skate. At least the ones I knew when I was that age did. Which, by the way, may be the last time I roller skated. I know we rented a skating rink for a lunch hour get together once when I worked at Frick, but I can't remember if I skated or not. I'm thinking I didn't. Which means it has been roughly 30 years since I slapped wheels to my feet.
The first 5 minutes were spent convincing myself it wouldn't hurt if I fell. I almost did fall about 20 times in that 5 minute span but I started to get the hang of it. The next 30 minutes or so were spent wondering if my shins would stop hurting some time within the next 7-10 weeks. I still almost fell a couple of times but despite my gangly exterior I was born with a fair amount of balance. And about an hour into it I'm skating along with this conversation in my head.

Me: Hey, you're skating pretty good.
Me: I know. I'm as surprised as you are.
Me: Maybe I shouldn't get cocky.
Me: Please. Have you forgotten who you are? You are so totally rocking this skating thing.

Kersplat. Within two seconds of feeling cocky I bit the hardwood floor. It hurt only a little or so I kept telling myself. As each minute rolled by I got better and better. Towards the end of the second hour I could skate on one skate, weave through traffic, and get a pretty good head of steam going. I did fall one more time though. A little girl fell right in front of me and my choice was to run her over or fall to avoid squashing her like a grape. I chose the latter and took a dive. My shoulder hurts a little because of it.
Robert skated with inline skates on and did pretty well. He said he only fell twice but after the first 30 minutes he didn't skate near as much as his sister or me. He seemed more interested in air hockey, which we played. Robert's sister is a pretty good skater, but she did fall a lot more. She's far more uncoordinated than the rest of us. Nancy wore roller skates. I'll comment no further on her.
We worked up a pretty good appetite from all that skating. Luckily, one of the thank you's in the gift basket provided from raising the most money last week was four free double steakburgers and milkshakes from Steak 'n Shake. Yes, we want fries with that.
Robert and his sister slept on the way home, roughly two minutes into the 45 minute drive back to Alton.