Flight Day

Night before: Pack, dress, get completely ready...

Fall asleep in the recliner. George in the bed.

Wake up at 4:20 a.m. and head for the airport. Get standby tickets, go through security: shoes, cape, vest, suitcase, tote through security machine roller deal, I go through with no problem. Redress and head for the gate. Find the gate, get on the flight, get seated with carryaboards in the bins above our heads and the tote in front of the seat in front of us.

6 a.m. take off time.

Motors rev up, security video on tvs, all of sudden a scratchy grinding LOUD noise behind us, and electricity goes off. darkness. After a bit the lights go back on, the front motors begin again, and then: same loud horrible noise.

Captain tells us he won't be flying this plane anywhere today, and we are told to deplane (is that a word?) So off we get.

Because of the glut of passengers waiting to be rerouted to their destinations, we call John and he picks us up to come back to his place and try again later. I go to bed for a 3 hour nap!!!

At four we go through security again, we get on the plane, no further problems. Wahoo.

Back to Fargo at 10 p. m., drive home by midnight. Hit the sack.

One of the best parts of the trip was that John is only 5 minutes drive from Reagan Airport. Also, because I had been kind to the poor woman doing the re-routing, she remembered us and gave us tickets on first class! We got a fruit plate with cheese. Yummy.

A big adventure. We loved our trip.

Take care.

Home again, Home again, hippety hop

Of course, we had a marvelous time in Alexandria, VA! Our trip out went without a hitch. George walked Matthew to school each day, and I played a tickle robot with him. I make a superlative robot as some of you know. Grandpa Joe was there, too, so we had a great time.

Saturday we celebrated Beth's birthday. The 7th. That's the date, not her age! We had some debate over her age. But we finally settled on the right year.

What with a visit to the Torpedo Factory Art Center I had a lollapaloosa of a time.. We got home on Saturday night at midnight. There is a whole long tail of that flight which I will tell you next blog. Always fun to go, and great to get back home.

Take care.

Hi Ho

Hey, cuties! I will be in Alexandria VA for a couple of weeks instead of Alexandria MN. How about that! I look forward to trying to take a trip on the buses and the metro now that I supposedly know how to use them. Wahoo.

Hope our trip goes smooth (smoothly?). We are planning on getting in to Reagan Air Port tonight, which is just five minutes from John and Beth's house. The big deal, of course, is getting to hug Matt, and then pretend to scare him. We have a good time!

We had book club yesterday. Read a good book: Waiting for White Horses by Nathan Jorgenson. We are meeting for lunch, now, and as usual had super tasty food. Then a great discussion about this book which is set near Walker, Minnesota. We found it compelling reading.

Now we are gearing up for the big discussion of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand In December. Hopefully our poor weary eyes will manage to make it to the end of this small print LARGE book. I am getting interested in it, now, and even managing to read the small print without the magnifying deal.

Take care.

Oofta

I realize I have been most remiss in writing this blog. I told Karen W I didn't have anything to say, and she just laughed! So I will try.

Today is a sunny, cold and windy day. The trees are dancing as are the bird feeders. We have had a marauding couple of squirrels who have discovered how to crawl the pole and jump onto the bird feeder. They manage to hang on for quite a long time, and then lose their balance and fall to the ground... always landing on their feet, of course. I complained to George, and he said, well, the squirrels need to eat, too. Now they have begun to eat the seeds that have fallen to the ground. One little chipmunk joins them there, too. Cute.

We have pileated woodpeckers as well as downys (downies?) and several othe types of woodpeckers... then TONs of sparrows and several chickadees and nut hatches. A pair of blue jays have visited off and on, as well. They are so much fun to watch.

I am starting out on a long path, reading "Atlas Shrugged." It is an enormous book in extremely small print. I cut my paperback edition in two, and opened it in the way we learned in grade school to open a new book. Remember? Starting from the outside, slowly press down equal pages from the outside in. If you can't remember that, ask me to show you the next time we get together.

I have a reading board with an elastic band that holds the pages open, and a Barnes and Noble magnifying page to help. The print is very tiny. Hmm. I will let you know how it goes. We are going to discuss this book on December 17.

I will try to be more consistent with my blogs, but I find it more and more difficult to figure out some of these new requirements. I will continue to try!

Take care!

What were your aspirations when you were 8 or 9?

When we were flying home for furlough in the U. S. John was 8 or 9 years old. We were flying Varig which is one of the Brazilian airlines. We were served our dinner with real china, linen napkins, and lots of attention from the steward. George asked him if John could possibly visit the cabin. The people in the cabin said, "sure" so he proceeded to go there and stay for TWO hours. When he returned to his seat he told us he had decided to be a pilot.

Now, all those years later, he is a pilot. And his son Matthew just had an opportunity to fly in a glider. I will soon be visiting him again, so I will have to ask him what his plans are.

Someone once told me that whatever you are when you are 9 is what is the true you. Does that seem right to you? I was a feisty character who wouldn't let anyone pick on me without a fight.
How about you?

Back Home

We had a wonderful time in Alexandria, Virginia. Learned how to take the dash bus to the Metro at the Pentagon and the yellow line to the Art museums. And then back again.

I couldn't make the computer cooperate with me to do a blog, though I managed to sneak through the first one. Go figure.

We got detailed directions to go to Barnes and Noble (heaven) from John, but I wasn't so great at following the directions back. So we wandered a bit until I was able to get the GPS to working! I love the voice of the GPS system. "Make an immediate U turn as soon as possible"... and then when you have gone a bit trying to find a suitable place to make a U turn, she says"I am recalculating your directions." Soon she gave us new directions. We finally got home. Thank you dominatrix voice!

We were driving John's Pick up truck which everyone else is careful not to tangle with.

I actually painted a picture! First one in 1 1/2 years. It is hanging on the wall next to Matthew's bedroom. The next time we go out I will take the fixative, since it is watercolor on canvas and needs Durland's Wax. I am definitely feeling like my old self! Whoopee!

take care.

Wow

We're here. We have gone on the metro. We have driven. (Thank God that John and Beth have a GPS.) I visited a museum! I visited Barnes and Noble and racked up a respectable bill. I have been painting.

Also, because of the many different levels of John and Beth's house I have become a much better stair climber and going downer. My legs are stronger by the day!

Both John and Beth are good chefs, although Beth seems to be doing the most chef-ing this time. We are eating magnificent meals. It was Matt's 8th birthday and he got his requested cake: a brownie filled with chocolate chips. Cut it in half so as to make a two layer brownie cake like structure filled and covered with chocolate frosting filled with chocolate chips. Wow! A cake to die for (really).

I have been feeling much more myself and I'm having a wonderful time. I didn't get to watch much tennis as they don't have the tennis channel here. Oh, well, there is always HGTV.

Take care.