Heading home from the auction yesterday, I asked the wife about a couple items that have been on the grocery list for a while.

Nothing urgent, mind you (like Smarties for the little maskless heeler's addiction since Hallowe'en). Was just wonderin', since we were driving right past the grocery store.

She turns in. "Be nice to go shopping with you, for once," she says.

So, we're barely started in the aisles (My list of two items quickly expanded to nearly a dozen. You know, "Since we were here.") when her phone rings. Or, more accurately, buzzes, since it was on vibrate for the auction.

It's youngest son.

He had called earlier in the week to let us know he'd be home Saturday night.

Not to visit us, mind you, but to see friends. (We were suspecting one female in particular, but apparently not.)

Anyway, he's in distress. His ride home has canceled. He wants us to drive 90-some miles to pick him up, then take him back the next day.

And oh, can he have the car Saturday night?

Maybe we shouldn't have, but we said yes. The fact that he had been desperate enough to call her cell eleven times in the past twenty minutes might have had something to do with it.

So, an hour later we're on the road, with his heeler. Watching the sun set behind us. Fortunately the forecasted scattered snowshowers didn't manifest themselves until we were headed back, and the roads were just wet, not the glare ice they would become in another hour or so.

Naturally, we had his company on the drive home, and that was about it. It was after four in the morning when he came home (allowing us to get a few hours of true, unworried sleep).

So, this afternoon after church, we hauled him back. And gave him the obligatory shopping trip to Wal-Mart (more for us than him... he has that place available whenever he wants).

Main thing we were after for him was meds. Looks like he's coming down with the flu, so it seems likely he brought it home for us to enjoy. Should know in a day or two.

Did get to see a bald eagle enjoying dinner on the drive home.

And the masked heeler, so happy to see her boy yesterday...

Is bummed again.