Swiss Days — Redux
Well, we atoned for our day out, Friday; we schlepped the kids up to Swiss Days, and convinced my sister-in-law and her husband that they, too, wanted to experience Swiss Days. With a herd of kids.
I got to get my leather-bound book; we got to eat more <ahem> “Swiss” food; and the kids got to spend their September allowance on bags of marbles at the hand-made games booth (I don’t think any of them had the cash in their hands longer than twenty seconds, some literally two seconds—from my hand to theirs, to the booth-keeper’s). No one died; there were no kids lost in the making of the expedition (although two crashed and fell asleep towards the end); and some of the kids learned to bus surf on the way back to the parking lot.
While the kids were picking out their marbles (I’m just waiting for an excuse to say, “What? You’ve lost your marbles?”), my DX-obsessed friend called to tell me
“Japan is on fourteen-two-sixty!”
“Oh thanks … I’m an hour away from my radio.”
“It’s Japan; the guy’s just calling CQ, not even calling CQ for a contest. He has a booming signal. I got him first try!”
“How nice. But I’m still at least an hour away from my radio.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at Swiss Days, up in Midway.”
“Uh… OK. Well, I just wanted you to know.”
“Thank you for thinking of me; you’re very considerate. Which reminds me, I meant to call you: I didn’t work Bogotá (Columbia), Jamaica, or Japan on Friday. Are you proud of me?”
“… Did you say you did not work them?”
“Yup, not a one. I tried but couldn’t break the pile-ups. I thought you might be impressed by my non-successes. Very cool that you got Japan, though. Maybe he’ll still be on when I get back.”
…
Not a bad day, all things considered. (I am glad we had a day to ourselves first, though.) I did manage to snag YV1RDX right before we headed off for a double-date with our Aussie neighbors; I called to tell my buddy where to find him on 20. Gotta love a good DX buddy to feed you personal spots. Even if your sweetheart is hissing at you that it’s time to go. 
Anyway, now the kids are downstairs, inventing their own rules for the game of marbles. As long as no one swallows any (“Where’s the baby?!”), and none of the marbles become air-born projectiles I guess all is well.
Tags: banner, brother-in-law, bus surfing, dxing, failure, family, food, hand-made, marbles, midway, notable qso, quality time, sister-in-law, spots, sweetie, swiss days, travel, wish you were here
September 2nd, 2007 at 18.32 -0600
Aunt Julie said she saw you at Swiss Days but she said you were alone with Michelle. What had you done with the kids? Shoved them up a tree?
Bus surf? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BLOOMIN’ MIND? Well, before I become indsnr you better tell me exactly what bus surfing is. I am picturing them hanging onto the back bumper and sliding down the street. You do know that is how Grandpa Rasmussen broke his arm (and never got it set so it healed crooked) don’t you?
September 2nd, 2007 at 18.32 -0600
Oops, that word is supposed to be “insane,” not “indsnr”
September 2nd, 2007 at 19.46 -0600
OK, even with MS/Internet Exploiter you should see that “bus surf” was in italics. Now what you may not have noticed is that I hide stuff in my posts. You never know where I’m going to hide an Easter-egg note. Many of them get marked as italic or underlined, but some don’t.