Nice Calm Week

This week was a drivable week. I was to be in Ames, Iowa Tuesday and Des Moines on Wednesday. I made reservations at a Hampton Inn in Ames for Monday and Tuesday night and planned to have dinner and a movie with my sister-in-law on Tuesday evening. I was barely out of KC on Monday when I had a call from the Ames facility that they needed to cancel my visit. I turned around and went home. I am sorry I missed seeing Debbie, but will be back in Ames in a few weeks so we can get together then.

I rescheduled my Thursday to Tuesday and planned to drive to Des Moines and back on Wednesday. The good news is that I ended up being able to be at home for 10 days in a row. In addition, my nephew and his wife had their baby yesterday, so I was able to visit them at the hospital today. Good scheduling!!

Tomorrow I am going back to St. Joe and will have lunch with a couple of good friends. A good week to have some down time.

Wrong Sex

This is just toooo good.

I have been aggressively crocheting an afghan for Hillary to give to a friend who was expecting a girl. It is PINK. The goal was for the afghan to be completed no later than when I headed out on Monday afternoon, the shower was on Tuesday. I was in great shape to meet the deadline.

Last evening Mira and I made vegetable soup. Hillary and Griffin arrived in the late afternoon to interact and share time together. I continued to crochet on the PINK afghan. At some point I asked Hillary if her friend had decided on the PINK/brown combination of colors, or if she (Hillary) just picked them out. She replied she didn't know for sure what the colors were.

The evening progressed and then Hil confessed. When I asked about the colors, she realized the friend was actually having a BOY!!!!! Guess she will need to purchase a gift after all.

Volume Adjustments

Typically I read whenever on an airplane. When I read, I can close out everything. This week I am crocheting the plane trying to complete a baby afghan for one of Hillary's friends.

On the flight from Cleveland to Chicago I was amazed at the noise. There were conversations going on all around me. I would listen to the different ones depending on which was the most interesting, and then I would just listen to the combination of sounds. Reminded me of a very busy happy hour.

I changed planes and flew from Chicago to St. Louis. That flight was so quiet you could have heard the proverbial 'pin' drop. Everyone was reading or sleeping.

Quiet

It's a quiet, routine week. I am so glad to be back to a 'normal' travel schedule. I was able to have family over for a cook-out, clean my house, organize some clutter, and do some shopping this week-end, The problem with NOT working all the time, is that I have more time to spend money, but it sure was fun.

I finally arrived home on Friday morning, in time to have a quick nap and head to St. Joe to take Mom to the doctor. The appointment was for 12:45. We saw the doctor for about 5 minutes at 2:15. I then headed to Albany to watch the installing of a deer stand. I wasn't quite dressed for the adventure, (sandals in the timber?) so I got to sit in the 'gator' and provide supervision. Wonder how I ended up with stick tights on my khaki pants. Saturday was spent in stores.

I didn't have to leave until Monday afternoon, and while the plane was about 20 minutes late leaving, Chicago traffic was light and the drive to Valparaiso uneventful.

At this point I am fascinated with hauling the miner's out of the mine. Hope I can force myself to go to sleep. I'm sure they won't be out until nearly morning and I can catch up on Good Morning, America.

Too Late

I successfully avoided Chicage O'Hare Airport for more than a year.

This week I spent several days in the central part of Illinois with the plan to end up Thursday evening at a building about 20 minutes from Chicago O'Hare airport. At the time I made the reservations, I considered flying Southwest into Midway, but would have headed for home at 7 PM and arrived back in Kansas City at 8:30'sh. I decided to fly American from O'Hare because I would be able to leave at 5:45 on Thursday and be home earlier. Since the client was estimated to be only about 20 minutes away from O'Hare, I figured I could leave by 3:45 or so and make it without a problem.

WRONG.

I left the Nursing Care Center about 3:45. Due to construction and traffic, I arrived at the Rental Care Return at 5 PM. The shuttle bus driver was wondferful and dropped me off at a curb side check-in to ensure my luggage would make it onto the plane. I suppose the luggage made it, but I am at a Marriott at O'Hare for the night as I did not make it through security in time to arrive at the gate and board the plane.

I would have been better served to have flown Southwest to Midway and traversed the extent of Chicago to the Midway airport.

Just Chillin'

The client I had scheduled for today called yesterday and canceled. They were having computer problems with the transition to the new system. I offered to come anyway and assist them to trouble shoot, but they were adamant they wanted to reschedule. I am in the middle of Illinois staying in Peoria. The plan had been to return from Taylorville, Illinois to Peoria (about a 1 1/2 hour drive), spend the night, see the Peoria client on Wednesday then drive 3 hours back to Chicago for the Thursday client.

I gave some thought to trying to move the Thursday client to Wednesday and changing my flight, but the logistics would not work, plus I could have ended up with both hotel and flight penalities. So I have had a day off in Illinois.

I slept in and puttered around in the hotel room. Drank hot tea and worked my e-mail. I checked out about 11:30 and made the 3 hour drive back to Chicago. Since I had the time and no deadlines I went to a movie. I saw 'Social Network' about the Facebook founder. It was great and I had wonderful popcorn.

I'm now watching the new Law and Order (Los Angeles) and catching up on reports. It has been a relaxing day.

Best Buy

This week I am in Illinois at multiple nursing homes in the central part of the state. I flew into Chicago on Sunday evening and drove to Peoria. From this central point I had scheduled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday evening I was to drive back to Chicago for the Thursday visit and fly out of O'Hare Thursday evening home. Yes, it was a four day week with travel on Sunday, but the plan was for this to be the end of Sunday travel.....and that is STILL the plan.



So what happened?



I realilzed, while sitting at the airport in Kansas City, I did not have the charger for my computer. Remember, I am traveling on Sunday. Since I arrived in Chicage around 5, I tried to find a store which might have a charger I could purchase. I found a Best Buy which was open until 7 PM. I asked about Dell products. They said they had them. When I went back to the computer section, the employee provided me with a product that contained several options and said it was compatabile with Dell. I asked if I could retrieve my computer to be certain it would work prior to purchasing and was told I would not be able to remove the product from the package prior to purchase. ............. Um........ If I purchase and if it doesn't work, I will return and Best Buy will refund my money. ........ They agreed they would. Sounds kinda crazy to me.

I went to the car and brought my computer into the store. I purchased the device. The store personnel removed the charger from the package and it did NOT work. They then re-packaged the item and processed my return. This is just TOO crazy.

I carefully used the remaining battery on Monday evening.

On Monday morning I called St. Louis and reported that my charger no longer was functional. I have had this computer for 3 and 1/2 years. Upon checking my registration numbers, the trouble shooter said that I was no longer in warranty and they needed to replace my computer (a good thing), but in the mean time they would overnight a charging cord to my hotel.

This is Tuesday and I have the replacement charger and am back in business.