For various reasons it had been all too many years since I attending a Brooks-Stroud family gathering. So, today was the day!
The picnic was in Sunnyvale, which is usually a three and a half to four hour drive (depending on traffic). Well, today — thanks to traffic, detours, and a grass fire along 580 — it took closer to six.
I enjoyed a couple of hours connecting with Dad, siblings, aunts and uncle, and also getting reacquainted with a number of cousins. But since the friend with whom I was planning to spend the night came down with COVID 😱, I decided to go ahead and drive back home.
Lots less traffic and a dinner break along the way with another friend both helped a lot. But I was definitely getting a little tired about halfway through.
Thank goodness I happened to throw a couple of CDs into the car when I left!
Between the high energy Irish music of Orla & the Gas Men (my Irish friends from way back when) on their Minding Mice at Crossroads CD and the high energy singing of Ella Fitzgerald (“Newport Jazz Festival, Live At Carnegie Hall“), I was able to stay engaged and alert all the way home!