Playing Games with the 'Whether'

Statutory Disclaimer: Extreme use of ones creative senses urged. No photographs available to supplement the bad writing. The autheticity of the text is still disputed in Geneva and Not anywhere else which is a great relief to many.

Whether I wanted to do it, did it or did i not was never the question, It was always a question of whats the weather out there. But before I digress, the question had to be answered before i tried matching my ambition with the wind(Chill Factor literally..)
Summer and good sunny weather here is like a 3 day weekend that starts its mean countdown before saturday ends..Then the agonising seconds surge ahead and before you know it its Fall or Winter or whatever..All I know is that I cant get out without feeling like an astronaut.
Thats when the weekend of Thanksgiving happened...Last year, i had been to my uncle's place in Troy, Michigan where all the friends and family amounted to one huge gathering of wine and turkey consumers around a fireplace so warm. Those 3 days could be cruel to genetically disadvantaged lot like me who could accumulate as much as 10 pounds out of nowhere. This time, i decided to be careful and as i whimsically draw in my tummy to seat the laptop better, i realise that the genes got the better of me again this time...Damn Damn!
Atleast the trip was less gastronomic...I took a early morning flight into Chicago where a very friendly minus 10 degrees celcius awaited me. Nobody knew what lay ahead as the plane swivelled around the great lakes and shook itself on its way into the oHare airport(Children, Which is called the Windy City? Chorus: Chicago Ma'am). People with shorts and tShirts were sipping coffee and laughing away as they warmed themselves into a great thanksgiving weekend ahead..Clear weather and sunny skies and the thermostat controlled temparature inside made for some great times. It didnt hit when i picked the empty checkin baggage(that simply existed to accumulate the shopping friday sale) and walked into the exit..My friend Ajay was supposed to pick me up and i thought i'll step outside to enjoy the Chicago sun. And then it hit..I seemed like a ice-cold steel sword just struck right through all my veins at one go! This set the tone for the next 3 days as we spent the thanksgiving night at his brother's party devouring some great wine and turkey and a tired audience shook a weary leg at some late night 80s dance tracks courtesy Wined out DJ Blorrior's finely blended and aged iPod classics! Ajay's bro practically owned a mini cellar full of choicest wines from the merlots to the chardonnays to the now sideways inspired Pinot blancs. All his travelling into Europe has done his collection some good indeed. Sadly my knowledge of wine couldnt keep up with the pace of the conversation which is where i wished I had the winely-wise 'Commander of a Thousand wineries' for company who would have slam-dunked every conversation with a swish of his (now copyrighted) raising arm!
The next day, ajay and me set out for a 6 hour drive into Troy Michigan. We had to beat a snow storm that was almost chasing us around the great lakes..We had great fun doing the road trip stopping at times to grab a quick hot coffee and downing a corn cake or two. I love these road trips..Seems like i'm born for the road..Being on the road gives me a high nothing else can ever give..the only other high i get is from being on top of a mountain watching the world below.
I must have probably re-incarnated from an automobile that must have stood on one wheel and undertoom rigorous penance to attain a human form in the next birth..and like in the famed Amar Chitra Katha tales, a celestial being with silken robes and non matching ornaments lands up and grants the wish, but he also puts forth a condition. And so here I am on the road again with the condition that it'll end soon, just like the Whitesnake track, just like the weekend trekking chembra, just like the fuel in the Nissan Altima, Just like the good ol times.. No..I cant let it happen. The good times will never end..The good times will only end when the end comes and then it'll be the end.
And then the snow flakes started falling and it accelerated into a mild storm, we knew that we were being followed..by UFOs..Unidentifed Flakey Objects..darn i needed another coffee then..that was our last pit stop before Troy where i imagined I'll meet Helen and i'll match her dalliance with denial. Before dreams and wooden crafts took wing, my aunt met me with a confused mix of anger and euphoria. It was midnight and it was her nephew! So she heated some dinner that we devoured like black holes in human forms and graciously went off to sleep in the warmest quilt bed that i'd ever slept in. (Other accounts describe that Ajay apparently left home that night and drove 23 miles to his friends place in Lansing(not sparta), partied late, had coffee and then came back to my aut's place just in time for beakfast). Anyways, we had breakfast the next morning and set out shopping..We arrived with all fury and we found out that all prices have been marked up by 100 percent and then there was a 75 percent discount on it and people were buying goods like flies rushing into a flame..I was disappointed and we returned with just some necessities..We stopped by at a French Cafe in Troy where people were conversing in German and there was a football match between Romania and Latvia..This was the first time in the US that I ever saw something like this.
With such miracles that we encountered rested aside, Arthur and Gilligan went to a south Indian joint run by a friend and had some masala dosa, bru coffee and vada sambar...Sooper Dah!
Later that evening, i caught up with my cousin sis who drove in with her hubby all the way from phily and we chatted till i realised that we were running late and so adieus 20 miles away, we were seen driving into a rest area to re-fuel and as usual, nobody wanted to drive back..As observed on journeys with the Aeromaniac as well, eager and ambitious male drivers suddenly lose heart, hope and manhood when it comes to driving back..(Women I belive need to skip this process and get to the next step) . So 2 impotent drivers were left fighting as to who would bear the drudgery of getting behind the wheel and after a spin of the coin, I took the wheel and as usual, completed the drive aided by some great songs from Priest, Rockmachine, Induscreed, Phish, Sepultura, Pantera, Kishori Amonkar, some Buddha Bar, Some more coffee, some wayside conversations...
The next day was all running to get to the airport just in time for the flight that got late anyways and then after the wait, it dawned unto me that the whether had gotten the better of the weather.