My day yesterday
14/10/23 02:38
Today’s journal might be a bit boring. It is simply a report of my day yesterday. If you are reading for some fresh theological insight or a witty commentary on the state of our society, this might be one you want to skip.
Saying Good bye: After a fun morning of playing, we had an early lunch and prepared to head to the airport. Our grandson was kept home from school because he has a cough and that meant that we got a bit of bonus time with him. It probably also made it a bit easier to say good bye because it wasn’t rushed as he was leaving for school. Our son in law was able to get off of work at lunch to take us to the airport. The four year old, however, was in tears as we got into the pickup. I’m pretty sure I saw a few tears in grandma’s eyes, too. It was a bit challenging to drive off seeing him in his mother’s arms and sobbing. It is hard for the little ones. They don’t really know what it means for us to leave. It is hard for them to tell how long it will be before he sees us again. We’ll be sure to Skype with him sometime today, but that is not the same as being there.
The good bye reminded me of a trip we took to Tucson, Arizona when his mother was about the age he is now. We found some bargain rate tickets that got us to Arizona to visit my sister by traveling on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. After the late night Christmas Eve services, we got up early on Christmas Day and caught our flight to Tucson with a plane change in Las Vegas. We had a wonderful week. My mother was visiting my sister as well, so we had family Christmas celebrations, took a trip to Nogales and walked across the border to shop in the stalls and stands in Mexico, hiked among the saguaro cacti, and played with our children in the warm weather. Little did I realize that the mid-winter change in climate would have me feeling cold for a couple of weeks after we returned to Idaho. When it was time for us to return home, we said our good byes to my sister and her husband an my mother. Our daughter was heartbroken and sobbing as we checked in at the airport. It being New Year’s Day and the flight heading to Las Vegas, her tears were a contrast to the party crowd on the airplane. I think Elvis was on that flight, as well as a host of show girls and other revelers. She cried most of the way to Las Vegas.
A Concern: As we were driving to Charleston, which is about two hours from our daughter’s home in Dalzell, I received a text message from United Airlines: “Flight UA674 from Charleston to Denver is delayed because an earlier delay impacted your plane’s arrival. It now departs at 6:45pm.” That got me worried because the delay was 2 hours and 40 minutes. I didn’t think we would be able to make the connection in Denver. We decided to go ahead and get dropped off at the airport and go to the United Desk and see what rebooking would fit our schedule. It didn’t seem right to have our Son in Law, who had already committed to 4 hours of driving to get us to the airport to have to take us back and return the next day. We figured that the worst case scenario is that we would have to stay overnight in Denver.
An Unexpected Turn: As we were getting out of the pickup at the airport my phone rang. It was United Airlines who informed me that they had rebooked us on an Alaska flight that was scheduled to depart shortly after our original flight time. The Alaska flight was direct to SeaTac Airport, so we would arrive 3 hours earlier than our original schedule. I was delighted to accept the change. We proceeded to the Alaska counter to get our boarding passes and check our bags.
An Inconvenience: While we were delighted in the change, we discovered that the only seats that were available were not together and we both would have center seats. We are used to traveling together with one of us in a window seat and the one in the middle seat being able to lean towards the one in the window seat. However, on this flight, we would be 5 hours apart from each other and sitting straight in the middle hoping not to encroach on the space of our seat mates. It seemed to us that the inconvenience was minor compared to the convenience of getting to Seattle early.
A Surprise: It turned out that my window seat mate slept for most of the trip, leaning against the window with the shade closed. Although I couldn’t see out the window, which I enjoy when flying, I had plenty of space on that side. In the aisle seat was a 16 year old who was traveling with a group. I don’t know if it was a church group or a school group, but suspect a church group because there weren’t many teens in the group. He was so tall that he couldn’t sit straight in the seat without his knees bumping the seat in front of him. He was very polite, but every chance he got, he stretched his legs out into the aisle, where they easily reached to the other side. I’m at an age where sitting for five hours makes me a bit stiff and uncomfortable, but I didn’t have it as bad as that tall young man. At least he has youth on his side.
We have taken two airline trips since the pandemic. That isn’t much compared with many of our friends. But we have had exceptionally pleasant travel experiences. Although there are some hassles with travel that still bother us such as long lines at airport security, we have been able to travel across the country without undue delay and so far we have arrived earlier than scheduled on most legs of our journey.
Today we’ll head home and check in with our son and his family. We already know all is well with our house because our son has been checking on it. And who knows, it might not take us too many days to readjust our schedule to our usual time zone.
Saying Good bye: After a fun morning of playing, we had an early lunch and prepared to head to the airport. Our grandson was kept home from school because he has a cough and that meant that we got a bit of bonus time with him. It probably also made it a bit easier to say good bye because it wasn’t rushed as he was leaving for school. Our son in law was able to get off of work at lunch to take us to the airport. The four year old, however, was in tears as we got into the pickup. I’m pretty sure I saw a few tears in grandma’s eyes, too. It was a bit challenging to drive off seeing him in his mother’s arms and sobbing. It is hard for the little ones. They don’t really know what it means for us to leave. It is hard for them to tell how long it will be before he sees us again. We’ll be sure to Skype with him sometime today, but that is not the same as being there.
The good bye reminded me of a trip we took to Tucson, Arizona when his mother was about the age he is now. We found some bargain rate tickets that got us to Arizona to visit my sister by traveling on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. After the late night Christmas Eve services, we got up early on Christmas Day and caught our flight to Tucson with a plane change in Las Vegas. We had a wonderful week. My mother was visiting my sister as well, so we had family Christmas celebrations, took a trip to Nogales and walked across the border to shop in the stalls and stands in Mexico, hiked among the saguaro cacti, and played with our children in the warm weather. Little did I realize that the mid-winter change in climate would have me feeling cold for a couple of weeks after we returned to Idaho. When it was time for us to return home, we said our good byes to my sister and her husband an my mother. Our daughter was heartbroken and sobbing as we checked in at the airport. It being New Year’s Day and the flight heading to Las Vegas, her tears were a contrast to the party crowd on the airplane. I think Elvis was on that flight, as well as a host of show girls and other revelers. She cried most of the way to Las Vegas.
A Concern: As we were driving to Charleston, which is about two hours from our daughter’s home in Dalzell, I received a text message from United Airlines: “Flight UA674 from Charleston to Denver is delayed because an earlier delay impacted your plane’s arrival. It now departs at 6:45pm.” That got me worried because the delay was 2 hours and 40 minutes. I didn’t think we would be able to make the connection in Denver. We decided to go ahead and get dropped off at the airport and go to the United Desk and see what rebooking would fit our schedule. It didn’t seem right to have our Son in Law, who had already committed to 4 hours of driving to get us to the airport to have to take us back and return the next day. We figured that the worst case scenario is that we would have to stay overnight in Denver.
An Unexpected Turn: As we were getting out of the pickup at the airport my phone rang. It was United Airlines who informed me that they had rebooked us on an Alaska flight that was scheduled to depart shortly after our original flight time. The Alaska flight was direct to SeaTac Airport, so we would arrive 3 hours earlier than our original schedule. I was delighted to accept the change. We proceeded to the Alaska counter to get our boarding passes and check our bags.
An Inconvenience: While we were delighted in the change, we discovered that the only seats that were available were not together and we both would have center seats. We are used to traveling together with one of us in a window seat and the one in the middle seat being able to lean towards the one in the window seat. However, on this flight, we would be 5 hours apart from each other and sitting straight in the middle hoping not to encroach on the space of our seat mates. It seemed to us that the inconvenience was minor compared to the convenience of getting to Seattle early.
A Surprise: It turned out that my window seat mate slept for most of the trip, leaning against the window with the shade closed. Although I couldn’t see out the window, which I enjoy when flying, I had plenty of space on that side. In the aisle seat was a 16 year old who was traveling with a group. I don’t know if it was a church group or a school group, but suspect a church group because there weren’t many teens in the group. He was so tall that he couldn’t sit straight in the seat without his knees bumping the seat in front of him. He was very polite, but every chance he got, he stretched his legs out into the aisle, where they easily reached to the other side. I’m at an age where sitting for five hours makes me a bit stiff and uncomfortable, but I didn’t have it as bad as that tall young man. At least he has youth on his side.
We have taken two airline trips since the pandemic. That isn’t much compared with many of our friends. But we have had exceptionally pleasant travel experiences. Although there are some hassles with travel that still bother us such as long lines at airport security, we have been able to travel across the country without undue delay and so far we have arrived earlier than scheduled on most legs of our journey.
Today we’ll head home and check in with our son and his family. We already know all is well with our house because our son has been checking on it. And who knows, it might not take us too many days to readjust our schedule to our usual time zone.
