Grandpa's Day 2006

Grandpa's Day is a more-or-less annual road trip I make with a special someone to recreate (in spirit) a trip I made with my Grandpa in 1983, two weeks before his death.

Today the whole family went to the cemetary to visit his grave and my Grandma's (whose tombstone I saw for the first time) then journeyed up to Sheboygan, some 57 miles north of Milwaukee, to look at houses.

Because of the great housing prices and quality of living there, we just wanted to get a feel for the city and view some of the houses we've seen for sale online, to see if they were worth our time at all.

Well, they were - it's a great small city of ~50,000.

I wish I could say the kids were great, but they weren't. They were whiny, noisy little complainers almost the whole time.

One house up for sale had a rummage sale going, so we took the opportunity to look around the house, and picked up a solid window air conditioner for $25. There were also two good used bookstores in town, at one of which I picked up a score of AA Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner's pen name) books for a mere $5.

Sweet.

We ended on a high note, stopping to eat at Subway. For those of you who don't know, the national chain now makes there own pizzas.

You heard me right. You would assume they suck, but on the contrary the two times I've eaten them they are downright delicious. Made to order, I love mine with lots of spinach and tomatoes, no meat.

One odd note: at the Subway I took middle child to the restroom. When I poked my head in, she was seated on the toilet licking  the handicapped rail.

I thought it best not to mention this tidbit to my fellow diners.

After getting a short nap in at home (the rest of the family slept on the way back) I took YaYa to see Superman Returns. She was ecstatic, thrilled that I had not only kept my promise (which I almost always do; God forbid she forget that I failed to get her into Narnia before it left the theater) but that we were going together.

She was an angel, quickly overcoming a few talkative moments in the first few minutes. The rest of the time she was quiet, or spoke only to ask pertinent questions (like what something in print said onscreen), and went to the restroom only once. For the last 1/2 hr of the movie she was curled up on my lap, throroughlyinto the story.

Two quotes: When Lex Luthor appeared onscreen: "He looks just like Daddy Warbucks!" and afterwards "That was a really great movie. I want to see it again - it was sooo much better than Cars"

After seeing a preview for Spiderman III she also made me promise to take her to that.

Then to wrap up the day we got a Happy Meal, complete with Polly Pocket toy, apple dippers, and milk.

Not a bad Grandpa's Day after all.

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BTW, Superman was an excellent movie. It was beautifully filmed, ably scripted and showed off some impressive effects.

Now I've always been a DC guy, even though Marvel's Spiderman has eternally been my favorite character. Of the two DC hero's, I prefer Batman to Superman in the comics, but hands down believe the Superman movies are superior.

I believe this is because Superman is, by definiton, a superhuman character. The scriptwriters have to work all the harder to make him vulnerable, physically and emotionally, and three times out of five they've pulled it off on film.

I also like that unlike Batman, the Superman writers don't feel it necessary to kill off the villian, leaving Lex around to do battle in the future.

Kudos, btw, to the filmakers for retaining the classic Superman theme music from the Reeve's films.

It's wonderfully inspiring, and a tad nostalgic now too. Those notes brought a grin to my face, and time after time when the music gave rise to another heroic act, I dang near teared up.

That is, if, you know, I cried at that sort of sappy Americana.

:)