"Auntie Paula"

I don't really talk much about my family here...  We're the typical dysfunctional type and small in numbers...

The family

But this past week, we lost one of our own.  Suddenly and unexpectedly.

My "Auntie Paula" (as she signed all of my cards and emails) is my mom's only sister.  She has two daughter's both in their 20's.  Paula and the girls are very close.  While Paula lived in NC, the girls both got jobs in Tampa, FL.  Paula JUST bought a house down there and was making plans for her move there, as soon as she sold her place in NC.  But tragically, she was taken away before that day came.

Paula with her oldest daughter on her wedding day.

When you lose someone, you "remember" all kinds of things.  I remember when I was 14....  Paula lived in Jacksonville, FL.  She picked me up in VA, and took me to FL to hang out for a few weeks.  We went to St. Augustine, FL which is still one of my most favorite places because of that trip.  She also took me to Disney World for the first time, and as fate would have it, she couldn't ride a single ride with me as she had just found out she was pregnant with her first child!

She also made the best fudge ever.  She swears it's the recipe off of the cocoa can, but I KNOW she must have doctored it somehow.  It was something I looked forward to every single Christmas.  No matter where I was, she always made sure I had a container of fudge.

So beautiful, so classy, so loved!

She had a great sense of humor, and always sang a very off key rendition of happy birthday to me no matter where either of us were in our lives.

I do have many, many, many happy memories of her, and I'm very grateful for all them.

But honestly I'm so mad she was taken way too soon.  It's just not fair...

I'll miss her beyond words.

Rest in Peace, sweet Paula.

AMW

Omaha - Day 4, Part Two

And so the ugly begins....

We're sitting in the Omaha airport waiting for our plane that will take us to our connection in Detroit. The flight is scheduled to leave at 5:45, so we figured we'd be boarding about 5:15.

5:00 rolls around, and there's no plane there.

5:15 rolls around, and still no plane.

5:20 the plane comes to the gate, and folks are hurriedly departing.

We see folks doing inspections, and getting the plane cleaned up. But it's taking a while.......

Meanwhile, my mom calls, and tells me what I've been dreading. My grandmother had passed away that afternoon. I knew it was coming, but it was still really sad.

Somewhere around 6:00ish, they make an announcement that they were waiting on maintenance, since the plane took a bird in the engine on landing, and they need to check it out.

Sucked a bird in the engine!

So, out comes maintenance. Let me just paint the picture for you... This man was easily in his 70's and walked with a limp. He struggled to get the ladder out of his van alone. But he managed to get it out and set up to evaluate the engine. He climbed up. Looked. Climbed down. Went to get paper towels, climbed back up and removed the bird. Climbed back down, got a squirt bottle of some sort, and climbed back up. Squirted the stuff inside, then climbed back down. Got his scrub brush, and climbed back up. Scrubbed. Climbed back down to get paper towels again, and climbed back up to wipe everything down. Honestly. Certainly not the most efficient, but we were hoping for the best...

All this is happening as all the passengers are watching out the window. I even took some video, and if I could figure out how to rotate it, so you wouldn't have to turn your monitor sideways, I would post it.

They made an announcement that they didn't "think" there was any damage, and they would board shortly. Didn't "think". I guess they were waiting to see when we took off???? I kept hoping and praying that Captain Sully was going to show up in the Omaha airport to make sure we got to Detroit ok. No such luck.

By now, we are over an hour late leaving, knowing we only had a 50 minute layover. We were assured in Omaha that since this was a mechanical issue, if we missed our connection, we'd be put up in a hotel for the night, and given food vouchers.

So, we finally take off, and are flying without too much incident. Some turbulence, but at least the plane works. The pilot assures us that he's going to make up time in the air, and we should only be landing about 20 minutes late at 9:15pm. Our connection is at 9:45, so there's hope!

We actually land about 9:20. Still holding out hope.

We pull within 10 feet of the gate at 9:25. And sit there. And sit there. And sit there.

Until 9:35.

A plane with 54 people on it, and 45 have connecting flights within a half hour. And they sit there.

And we were at the BACK!

Needless to say, we got off of the plane, and RAN to our gate. I did mention that we came in at the opposite end of the terminal that we were departing from, didn't I? Oh, yeah, we did.

It was about 1/2 a mile. We ran, walked, ran, walked. And missed our plane by about 5 minutes.

We found a representative. She scanned our stuff, and we had been re-booked on a flight at 10:15 the next morning. A voucher printed out for a hotel room, but it was a $59.00 rate that we had to pay. We asked her why we had to pay, since we were told otherwise in Omaha, and she just said that's what printed out.

So off we go to catch a shuttle bus filled with other angry Delta passengers to try to get a couple hours of sleep at a hotel that we now have to pay for. Without our luggage, without toiletries, without clean clothes. UGH! We get there about 11:00pm. Good thing we ate something at 4:30! So, we had ice cream....

We were able to catch our flight the next morning without incident, and got home early afternoon on Saturday. Tired, hot and stinky, but home! And really glad this happened at the end of vacation instead of the beginning....

And, in case you are wondering, I DID call Delta to complain about the fact that we had to pay for a hotel that should have been taken care of. They said it was coded at weather related (last I checked, birds had as much control over the weather as I do), and said they aren't required to pay for weather related issues. When I mentioned the bird issue, and the video I had, they managed to find out that it was in fact a maintenance issue, and issued us both $75 vouchers for future flights. Not too bad, since we had only paid $59 for our room.

And that concludes our Good, Bad, and Ugly series of vacation...

AMW

The Bad...

Rest In Peace, Nannie! My grandmother passed away last week while I was away. She had been suffering, and is finally at peace. I'm glad I made it home in time for the funeral, which is today.

AMW

Great Horned Owl

While on a recent camping trip, I had the opportunity to see a Great Horned Owl.  Up close and personal.  This isn't something that happens everyday, so I was pretty excited.  

I was driving to one of the picnic shelters when I passed the pump house, and noticed him/her sitting in the open, on the ground, in the middle of the day.  I did a double take, turned around, looked again to make sure I was seeing right, and went to the ranger's office.  I let the head of the park know (who is a friend of mine) and he grabbed a couple of guys to check it out.  I went back to the camper to grab my camera, then headed back... 

This is what we saw:

As you can see, we were within feet of him/her.  The owl was obviously not healthy, as he/she could have clawed our eyes out simply for being too close.  It was lethargic, but did manage to watch us as we moved about.

The park officials called a rehabber that specializes in owls.  While waiting for the rehabber, they were able to drop a blanket over him/her, and put him/her into a box in the nature center to keep it secure.

Later that day, we got an update that the owl was a juvenile, probably born in January or February.  It was malnourished (so not hunting well) and was infested with "flat flies".  Several days later, it was determined the owl couldn't be saved.

Sad as it was, it was incredibly awesome to be able to see such an amazing creature up close.