Sunday evening,  we made it home today.   But we hated to leave,  it was cool when we got to Florida but got warmer each day.   And Saturday and Saturday night were great,  and today should have been even nicer!   We all got some sun burn to take with us.  We had a great time having  Bev and Wally with us.  Ate, drank, laughed.   Showed them some of our favorite restaurants, walked the beach and did a little sight seeing.   Life is good.

It did not start out smoothly!  We had booked our flight out of Milwaukee, so left work around noon and drove down to catch our plane.  Drive was easy and were in the airport plenty early.   Got on the plane,  then they found a maintenance problem that was going to take 10 minutes, then an hour.   Then they brought us a new plane.   Wally had thought I was brave to leave a short time to change planes in Atlanta,  guess what?  Didn’t make it.

We had planned to meet in West Palm Beach around 10:30 pm.  I had the car rented and was going to take Bev and Wally to the condo.  Now we were in Milwaukee not going to get into West Palm, no other flights later into West Palm.  There was a flight to Fort Lauderdale  but the ticket agent doubted we would make it and should plan on an overnight in Atlanta and catch a morning flight to West Palm.  Well we told her to put us on the Fort Lauderdale and take our chances.   But Bev and Wally were leaving Chicago and would be in West Palm with no guidance!  Well MJ was off of school last week and had been at the condo.  I gave her a call and she was in Orlando but planning to head back to Fort Lauderdale.   So she agreed to take off right away and head to West Palm, and would take Bev and Wally to the condo!   So they were taken care of.

I tried calling Avis to transfer my car to Fort Lauderdale,  but when I said I wanted to return it to West Palm they said hey didn’t have cars they could book me with,  take my chances when we land!      Well we got out of Milwaukee,  landed in Atlanta when the other plane to Fort Lauderdale should have been taking off,  but a gate agent was waiting and directed some of us to the Fort Lauderdale planes gate and some people to a Tampa flight!  We ran up the conourse,  luckily the plane was close.  They had waited and boarded some of us from the Milwaukee flight and were also trying to book soem people from a late Rochester flight.   So we were on the plane!

We landed in Fort Lauderdale around 12:30 and then I was going to start hitting the rental car desks.  But when we came out of security there was Bev and Wally!  Wal had got on the computer and figured out what plane we would be on, and with some directions from Mary drove our car down to get us.   So we stayed up a few more hours talking and relaxing,  and so started our vacation!   Things went smoothly after that though!

The first couple of nights were cool,  but last night we had a late supper at an outside table at a local restaurant.   And sat out a little longer when we got back to the condo.   And today’s flights, even though I had booked even less time between flights,  were smooth and we were early arriving on both flights.   Now back to real life!

We did not plan this well when we were trying to find a common weekend for us, in that we missed Mom’s birthday yesterday, her 89th.   But we told her last weekend and will go down again this coming Saturday.   This Friday we help out at the parish fish fry.  In between a lot of work and sounds like a chance of snow.  We will just have to remember paradise!

We hope everyone is having a good day!   It was another long week but this one should be better.    My work was a little more under control this last week,  but not much.   Amazing how doing a bunch of new things can make it so hard to get caught up and develop a routine.   My work load seems very high right now, the good news from there is the plant’s workload is picking up.  Hopefully that trend can maintain itself through the year.   I will eventually get this figured out,  for now it is every day of putting out fires and hoping to keep the next one from starting.

More good news for us was that we had snow,  but not the snow Milwaukee, or the East Coast received.   So I had plenty of exercise moving snow  but it certainly was manageable.   The mornings have still been very cold though,  most of  last week was near zero or below.  This week they are predicting a little warmer weather,  staying well above that zero mark.

We are preparing the basement for a plumber to come in on Tuesday.  I broke down and hired someone to move our laundry tub and washer hook up.  I could do it but probably take more hours than needed.  And I have not had much extra time.   The most  time will be spent putting the drain pipe together to go into the unit our downstairs toilet sits on.  From there an ejector pump pumps it up so it can go out the sewer pipe.   One of those projects I have been thinking of and is getting closer to needing to be done.   And we will have the ejector pump replaced.  20 years of pumping shit up hill has to take its toll.  And as the plumber said,  it is much easier to replace on your own terms than when they go out when most needed!

So hopefully that gets done and then we head out of town on Wednesday.   Wednesday afternoon down to Milwaukee and fly out to West Palm Beach.   10:30 Wednesday night we should be in West Palm with Bev and Wally.  Looking forward to it!  Floridians,  break out the sun!   So you will hear from us on how the weather is!

I-pod is charged, tickets are on the counter, camera ready to go.   Have yourself a great week.

So hope everyone has had a good week.   I don’t think we know anyone currently on the East coast,  and digging out.  Weather is mild here.  Just did some cleaning up in the yard and trimmed the apple trees.   I trimmed them last winter and one tree had more apples than we have ever had.   So trimmed the other one back even further this year,  and will see if we can force something to blossom.

We had a great brunch with the neighbors after church today.   Went to Robbins and they do a wonderful job.   So don’t need much to eat the rest of the day!   About to work on my homebrew club newsletter,  have an exec meeting this week and will miss the regular meeting next week as we head to Florida.  I can deal with that.    So I will dig up some articles as I start watching the super bowl and get the framework in place to add the minutes and last minute updates.

The week went by quickly,  both Chris and I have a lot going on at work.   But I did leave on time one night this week so we could go out for Chris’s birthday.  Had a nice Italian meal at a restaurant we had not been to before.   But now the birthdays are out of the way for the year!

Other than that not much new.   Just enjoying the fact that the temperatures are warmer and hope they stay.   Starting to think spring!  So the big game about to start.  I am thinking Indy,  I like Peyton Manning,  but I won’t be too disapointed either way.  Next year Packers……

So enjoy,  keep life in perspective.

Randy