Thanksgiving
Worked in Miami on Monday and Tuesday and on Wednesday I headed to the airport. Caught a plane to Jacksonville and met Teresa in the lobby. We were able to have lunch and hang out for an hour or two before I had to go back inside to catch my flight to Pittsburgh. She showed up with a new suitcase full of clean clothes. She’s always so thoughtful. I thought I was just going to have to wash my old ones when I got to Pennsylvania. Not much of an eventful trip up there. I arrived later than scheduled but earlier than expected. I’m always stuck on delayed flights around Thanksgiving. Everyone is on delayed flights when you fly around Thanksgiving.
Got up there around 11pm and it was snowing hard. The snow storm was impressive. As we came in for landing, I was looking out the window and as the wind kept tossing us around, I would swear that our right wing almost tipped the ground. It was actually a pretty scary landing. I honestly thought we’d clip something. I walked out into the parking lot with snow raining down on me like a waterfall. It was beautiful to see. The drive back to Sigel was ugly. The snow just kept coming and the roads were getting worse. I loved it. I woke up this morning just off the beach, it was 82degree by 9am and I’ll go to sleep in 2′ of snow and it will be below zero.
Aside from a guard-rail swipe, we didn’t see any wrecks until the last leg of the trip. Only a few miles from the house, we saw a few patrol cars by an upside-down Jeep in the ditch. I guess it’s true, most accidents happen within a few miles of home. They just didn’t specify whose home. And that’s a bad statistic anyway. Most of your driving is within a few miles of your home. Almost every trip you take has a beginning and ending at your home, wouldn’t you think that the roads within a few miles of your home should constitute the vast majority of your driving time? So to say that most accidents happen within a few miles of your home is like saying that most accidents involve motor vehicles. Sure, occasionally you’ll see two people on foot crash into one another at top speed but for the most part, they’re in cars or their not called accidents… Maybe I’ve had too much coffee today.
I had a great visit. Visited with relatives and had a lot of fun. I actually rode a toboggan down a hill and into the woods. I haven’t done that in years. I wish I had more time up here. Now I’m in the airport headed home. Delay, delay, delay. Yeah, I know. Hartsfield Airport sucks. Had we been held up in Pittsburgh, I wouldn’t be so upset but we made it out just in time before the weather hit so now that we’re away from the weather, why can’t I get a flight to Jacksonville? Freaking schedules and planes coming in from the north, I just want to get home!
The flight from Atlanta to Jax was cool. We skirted by a lightning storm. I hadn’t seen one in the air before. The whole sky lights up in these beautiful hues of orange and pink. The lightning bounces between the clouds and you don’t hear a thing. I arrived in Jacksonville at 12:30am. Teresa picked me up and we were at the house by 1am. By 6am I was awake and out the door to catch my next flight to Miami. I’ll be home Wednesday night and Larry wants me in Melbourne on Thursday. I told him that I was available to go to Melbourne on Monday but I am staying in Jacksonville until then. “My family is more important than this job and if I have to lose one of them, it’s no a no contest decision.” He seemed to understand and assigned me to “local inventory” for Thursday and Friday. He really is a good boss to work for, it’s just become a job that means travel and that doesn’t fit me very well.
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