Mighty OR-EE-GUN!

Subtitle: The Day Suzanne Tried to Kill Grammy and Bampa...

My folks are great. Any time I need them, they are right there for me. Like Saturday. Greg & Kirk wanted to go a University of Oregon football and I actually got invited this year. Normally they do a father/son sort of a deal, but Greg is getting the idea that I need to get out more. Anyway, he worked it out with Mom & Dad so that they would come up for Labor Day weekend and stay with Suzanne while we went to the UofO game on Saturday.

This was an absolutely great idea...quality time with the grandparents, blah blah...until you really started to look at the logistics. My parents are in their 70s (not decrepit of course, but the warranty is starting to wear out). I have a house with stairs and Mom has bad knees. And Suzanne is...well...Suzanne!

To show you how desperate I am, I thought through all of this and then erased it from my mind the second we got in the car to leave that morning. The idea of spending a sunny day at Autzen Stadium with my son and his rather intense Duck alum father was just more than I could pass up. So off we went, with the legions of UofO fans who reside in the Portland metro area, down to Eugene to watch PAC 10 football.

My apologies to Barbara--the Ducks beat the University of Houston 48 to 27. Your guys probably played a better game, but this was game of quantity over quality.

Anyway, there is nothing like college football to bring out the crazies. This guy for example. Kirk took this picture from the backseat of the truck--you only see the front of his RV, the back has a backside shot of Donald and a few other choice words.

The problem with having green and yellow school colors is that you get a whole lotta ugly going on at the pregame party. Mr. Tie-Dye was the worst I think. Not only was it the standard yellow and green, he was obviously a Eugene resident as he had the hippie thing going on as well. I thought my eyes were going to start bleeding...

I managed to make it through with the help of a lovely pregame libation (or two). See, you have to get a buzz on before you go into the stadium, just in case the Ducks do their Jekyll and Hyde thing and win the game for the other team.

All in all it was a fine day and when we got home my parents were still amongst the living, although just barely. Suzanne did her best to run them ragged, but in the end it was still two against one. I have to hand it to Dad, he did something that he rarely does. He danced with Suzanne all day long. He danced more on Saturday than he has in his entire life and he's finally found someone who can deal with his...uh, quirky...sense of rhythm. I think he knows all the words to "Wheels on the Bus" now, too! Gotta love a guy like that!

They left this morning to go home. They didn't exactly run out of the door (who can run after the weekend they've had) but they did hustle a bit. Mom said it was because they needed to get to the dog kennel to get Albert, but I'm pretty sure they wanted to go home and rest up before Thanksgiving. We're coming...with Suzanne...and she'll have new tricks to pull by then!