By The Way

Oh, and by the way, I'm back. 

The holidays are, mostly, over.  The craziness has finally settled down and I am back in the home office, in my jammies and slippers, typing away madly.  After all the water problems and Christmas preparation craziness, we flew off to Texas for a week to spend the Christmas holiday with the in-laws, who live outside of Fort Worth.  I have pictures of longhorns to prove it.

Our flight back yesterday was fine until the pilot came on and told us that they'd closed the airport here because of bad visibility.  We circled.  Then we circled some more.  Then they wanted us to circle even longer, but we were running out of gas, so we diverted to Des Moines for more (and where they wouldn't let us off the bloody plane), and then flew back up to the Twin Cities, where we were finally allowed to land---three hours late.  It could have been worse, I suppose, and an airport full of angry, frustrated travelers does much to make you choke down your bitterness over the whole business as you avoid tripping over the stranded multitudes as you make your way to baggage claim.  At least we weren't too close to the kids on the plane, who screamed as the pressure changes bothered their poor little ears; they were just background noise as we were seated directly over the wing and the engine noise reduced their volume. 

And all this was because of one bloody inch of snow.  That's right.  One inch of snow that was blowing across the runways in a horrible fashion.  It screwed the proverbial pooch. 

Despite the cold, despite the snow, despite the absolute lack of humidity, I'm glad to be home.  Regular blogging will resume shortly. 

Just as soon as I've got the laundry done.