"The cow is of the bovine ilk. One end is moo, the other milk." - Ogden Nash

We're sitting in the Phoenix airport waiting for our flight back to Portland, and then the 2-hour drive south to home in Elmira. We've had a GREAT visit with the kids and grandkids. Some misc. and unrelated observations, in no order of any sort:

• We paid $1.79 for gas to fill up the rental car, a Mitsubishi Mirage. It had 1/4 of a tank and took 6.4 gallons. Yeah, the tank is as tiny as the car. Don't buy one. 
• Note: average price in Eugene right now is $2.28, but that's due in part to the fact you can't pump your own gas in Oregon. So the price goes up to pay the guy who takes his own sweet time coming over to your pump, and then disappears for the next 15 minutes. 
• On our way to the airport we stopped at the outlet mall so I could get a new pair of Nikes to wear for working out. That mall is right next door to the stadium where tonight's college football championship game will be played. The Nike store was full of men and I was the only one not wearing Clemson orange or 'Bama red. The streets around the mall were filled with cars flying window flags of one color or the other, and this at 9 hours before the game. We got in and out as quickly as possible.
• Phoenix weather is clearing up and warming up after three or four days of clouds and rain. The Eugene paper (online) says we might see the sun sometime next Saturday or Sunday, and the days in between will be wet. 
• Our kids are good, in every sense of that word. Each has surpassed their dad ( and/or FIL) in any number of categories. I've only ever been me; do other old dads worry they're patiently tolerated by their adult children? I think there may have been a stretch - about 15 minutes long sometime about a decade ago - when the teeter-totter was level as it shifted from being father and sons to adult men and out-of-touch old guy.
• Our grandkids are also something special, each in their own unique way. Megan (13) is becoming an impressive young lady who seems to have thus far escaped that disease known as teenage girl. She shows no tendencies towards being boy crazy, or celebrity obsessed, or fashion consumed. She's smart, gracious, and helpful. Her brother Caedon (10) is still a bundle of enthusiastic energy, but is stinking bright, inquisitive, and increasingly sensitive. He's gonna be something. Jason (3) is young enough that his course can't be discerned, but it's fun to watch him play, listen while books are read (the one about the firetruck seems to be a favorite), and throw the velcro balls at the fabric target - right or left handed. Emily (9 mo.s) is just a sweetheart who smiles a lot. And she loves to sing along in church! 

I am outclassed by the generations that follow. And that's a good thing.

In another six or seven hours we'll be back in MoHo, unpacked and ready for a good night's sleep. But a big part of us will remain here in Phoenix. The better part.