When It Freezing Rains, It Pours (But It Could Have Been Worse)

Ice on the ground, the wing, in the giant pile blocking part of the neighboring jet...

          We made it!  I find it hard to believe but it is 3:52 a.m. local time, and we are finally home and checking in.  Today could have been much worse, but I wish it went much better.

          We wake up around noon after a fun late night with friends.  Mom is amazing and had a mock Thanksgiving dinner ready for us since I missed getting to have it this year.  The gravy, turkey, stuffing, and potatoes are so, so yummy.  I wish I could have leftovers.  We packed our bags before we went to bed so we pack the car, say good-bye to sissy, and head out into the freezing rain.  If you don't look closely it looks like snow in the yards, but it is multitudes of ice pellets.

          D and I nap a little as Dad masters the slick highways and traffic.  We stop at the Oasis for a quick potty break and my least favorite Christmas song is playing.  Mom laughs.  We make it safely back to the car, so grateful to be leaving this weather far behind.  At the airport Dad drops us off and we give hugs, say good-byes, and head to drop off our check bag.

          The line is huge!  We can't believe how big it is and how slowly it moves.  D takes a walk to check things out and returns with a tag for our bag.  Since we did everything possible online we were able to skip this huge line and hand our bag right over.  Whew, much time saved.  The people stuck in the long line are people who are looking for new flights because theirs were cancelled.  I feel very bad for them.

          The information boards say that our flight is delayed about two hours but not cancelled.  We can handle a delay as long as we get on a plane to get D home before work.  Security has no line since most people are stuck looking for a flight.  My lower pant-
leg lights up for them to pat down.  It's always interesting seeing what shows up on those machines.  With our bags in hand and shoes back on our feet we pass yet another really long line of passengers waiting for customer service.  I'm talking Disney at Christmas length lines, or just about.

          At our terminal we are lucky enough to find two seats together then a gentleman is kind enough to make room for us to sit and plug in our laptops.  We get a half hour of free wi-fi that allows D to find that our gate was moved.  Around 6 p.m.  we grab Chinese food and a sub sandwich.  We sit in line for Group 3 at our gate and enjoy the Chinese while looking hopefully at the jet parked outside.  After I hear from two official sources that the airbus outside is not for us we get a little discouraged and begin sending mental wishes for the airbus to move out of the way.  Our jet is supposed to be landing in about 5 minutes.

          Flight departure time gets pushed back to 7:45, then 7:50, then a buzz starts around us.  We hear people saying that our gate has been moved and flight time pushed back to 8:30.  The entire gate full of passengers moves to our next gate much to the surprise of a couple flight attendants who were checking the nearby information board.

          Since D's work smart phone hasn't arrived yet we are left at the mercy of info boards to verify what is happening.  We find seats at the far end of the terminal and take turns checking the board while playing games on Steam.  With half an hour remaining and voices coming from distant P.A.s we head closer to make sure we can hear when boarding begins.  Another LA flight (originally scheduled at a later time than ours, but happens to be on time compared with our very delayed flight) just boarded and freed up a lot of seats.

          Flight delayed to 8:59, I rest my head on D's shoulder and try to nap a bit.
          Flight delayed to 9:59.  We catch each other's eyes and return to nap attempt.
          Flight delayed to 10:00.  Really?  We head back to the far seats and plug in again for a little more gaming.  We each take a potty break and watch the delays grow.  After hearing two rounds of cheering coming from our crowd we make our way back and stand in a non-line line.  The plane is here and the doors are opening!

          Once seated we relax happily knowing that at least one more step is accomplished.  I watch out the window as plows pile the ice and fight the flooding that sweeps the ice right back under and behind the machines.  Two jets get de-iced as they pull out of their gates.  Our wings are quite iced and I'm eager to watch them de-ice us.

          The conveyor belt drives up beneath us followed by two trains of baggage.  The plane is so silent from sleepy and weary passengers that I can hear some of the bags land below us.   Another truck pulls up, does something with a hose and pipe in the ground then leaves.  A white truck pulls up then drives away again.  The plows keep pushing the ice as far up their piles as their spinning wheels will allow them to reach.  Finally the air is turned off and the de-icing begins.  I worry as they spray our side's wing and nothing seems to happen.  Over and back the spray goes and the ice remains unmoved.  Suddenly the spray nozzle starts moving, almost shaking in a Pixar fashion as though it is frustrated and it pummels the ice which finally starts sliding off the wing.

          I am very excited to see a man with orange wands appear.  Like magic we begin reversing, and a small army of vehicles leads us to the bone-dry runway.  As I chuckle at Michael Cain on The Late Show we fly into the clouds toward freedom.  The flight is mostly smooth and goes quickly with Celebrity Name Game, The Newlywed Game, Parks and Recreation marathon, and finally a survival show as LA lights brighten the ground below.  I have never heard such a quiet disembarkation.

          Our bag is waiting for us beside the carousel and we don't wait too long for our bus.  We did valet parking this time since self-parking was quite stressful over Thanksgiving.  The stress now is that it isn't waiting for us when we reach the garage.  My car enjoys auto-locking so we were worried leaving it behind after one of the drivers shut our door with the key inside.  D goes into customer service to do the paperwork and our car still doesn't show up.  I look in and D is standing off to the side as everyone else is getting helped.  His eyes are glassy, he's fidgety and seems to be avoiding eye contact.  My heart starts racing.  Did they lose my car?  A soft engine sound approaches from a higher level and I am so relieved to see Anna Marie (she picked the name and you don't argue with a Civic) pull up.  D's fatigue and cold combination faked me out; everything is fine.

          I call my mom and reach my sissy instead.  She asks me to message her when we reach our apartment.  There is so little traffic that D gets to use cruise control for possibly the first time ever in LA.  I pop in one last throat lozenge and relax.  Step 6 of 6 is underway.  We'll be home soon.

          I unlock the door for D to carry in the bags and hand him the key to check the mail.  I turn on the dining room light but it doesn't light up.  I try the kitchen and it remains dark.  Crud.  I wait on the front step to share the bad news and D heads straight to the breaker box once I locate the flashlight.  Flipping switches produces no result.  Now begins the search through mail for a cancellation notice (they tried messing up on us once already), but when no notice is found we call Edison to find out what's up.  D's phone is nearly dead so he uses mine.  The representative we finally reach says our best hope is flipping the outside breakers to off, waiting a few minutes, then trying on after we make sure anything that was on is now unplugged.  My phone battery doesn't have much juice left but I try calling our management office to let them know what happened as D tries his luck outside.

          Just as I reach the voicemail box D returns with good news, he found the switch.  We unplug or turn off what we need to then he tries the power switches outside and turns on the ones inside.  We flip a switch and finally the trials of our day reach their end.  Now he sleeps because he is getting his work computers set up at 8:30 and I want him to have a safe commute.  A little note to brighten our day before bed is a video of Darth Vader saying some very Christmasy phrases.  We gave that ornament to our friends during yesterday's ornament exchange and coincidentally they gave us a talking Chevy Chase from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  We are eager to see what he has to say.

          As crazy as our day was I am just very grateful to be home safe and sound and that my parents made it back safely, too.  I don't think Dad will let us talk him into being our driver next Christmas.  I hope you all had a safe and warm Monday and that the weather conditions didn't mess up your plans too much.  Last year was a bad December 28 and this year's is another for the history book.  I really hope next year has a better 28th for everyone.

Home Far Away from Home

My camera is fixed and back!

          The movers came today and brought our things to our new apartment.  Before that we got my Civic smog tested for the first time.  Since it is six years old even if I lived here all that time this would be the first year it needs testing.  It passed, of course.  Good-bye fifty dollars.  D says that test is free for him back at home.  Now we can go to the DMV Tuesday morning to get new licenses, new plates, new voter's registration, and whatever else they tell us to do.  Looks like we'll have to get our eyes retested and potentially even retake the written driver's test.  We did the practice tests online and I must admit that I didn't start off doing so well.  There are a lot of little details that you do without thinking about while driving.  When it comes to answering on the test it's hard to say exactly what you do.  By the last practice test I was doing much better, though.

The hotel is full of pictures like this.  Telephoto lens makes decorating easy!

          The truck arrived around 2 p.m. just as we finished playing with our two little Lego sets that traveled with us.  Time Warner tried getting our Internet set up for us, but they need to send someone out on Tuesday to do it in person since our modem wasn't connecting.  The movers were able to clear a spot along the curb in front of the building and set up ramps to make moving the furniture easier.  I was in charge of checking off each item as it entered.  The five guys got the whole truck unloaded in about three hours without making a scratch on anything.

My T-rex head prop was eating all of D's arctic adventurers.

          I'm grateful that the movers put most of the furniture back together for us and lined it up where we want.  I was amazed that my computer desk made it into the back room with no trouble.  The couch, however, didn't make it into the guest room.  I guess we'll have two couches in our living room when we buy a new set.  The couch is a sleeper sofa so we thought it would work for a guest bed, but everyone knows they aren't the most comfortable beds.  Maybe it's better to have room for an extra bed.  D is going to order us a mattress online based on reviews, and if that doesn't go well I guess we'll end up with a guest mattress without metal bars underneath!  I'd really like for friends and family to come out for a visit, so a more comfortable mattress might be the trick to convincing them.

Just in case this face alone won't convince them.

          After we signed the paperwork we got busy unpacking the office/computer room.  The most boxes got stacked there because we have a regular closet in the room plus a walk-in closet and an additional closet attached to a small hall leading to the master bath.  As of tonight the walk-in closet isn't too full, D assures me that will change, and the Holiday closet, as I've dubbed it, has a full floor but a little shelf space left.  We can't wait for Christmas to get to decorate.

Our first meal in our new place is Panda Express.

          We called it a night around 8, picked up the things we need for the night and headed out.  My feet and socks both got blackened from walking around the apartment.  Something black is all over the floor, and I hope it'll be easy to scrub out tomorrow.  We keep dragging it onto the beautiful white tile of the kitchen and bathrooms.  Thankfully it washed off my feet really easily.

The view from in front of our kitchen.

D wasn't feeling good last night.  Even though he had the whole bed he still slept on the very edge.

          I've been really homesick this week.  I hope that having a new home will help change that a little.  Having pieces of home with me should at least help fake me out that I'm not so far away.  Tomorrow we'll check out of the hotel and fully move in to our new apartment.  It smells nice, the air outside smells nice, there are flowers, birds, bees, and lizards in our yard.  We can see palm trees and the mountains from the kitchen.  We got bitten by a mosquito.  There are definitely perks to being in California in November, but the mosquito thing was a disappointing reminder that snow won't be scaring the bugs away.  We also had a little cockroach greet us in the kitchen.  New adventures sure are interesting.

The flowers that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds outside our window.

What kind of tree is this?!  I need to learn all new plants out here.

He Likes It; He Really Likes It!

This little cutie, Waddles, just appeared in our bed on our first night here.

          For the second day in a row D has come home happy and in a good mood.  You would not believe how rare that is.  Sure he's come home happy before, but not usually on consecutive days.  He comes home happy when work has gone well, when a project worked out, after a game night, or after seeing his parents.  He enjoyed grad school, but I could tell it also really stressed him.  Now he's come home with a smile shining from his face, even if his mouth wasn't smiling, on both days.

          This is why we came here.  If I get to see my husband happy and loving his job, leaving our friends and family two thousand miles away won't be quite so hard.  He knows that he's been placed on a challenging project.  The past two days have been full of more book keeping official tasks rather than what he will be doing.  Yet, I can tell that he is loving it.  If you ask him, for some reason he down plays how he's feeling, but he can't hide it.  Dr. D loves working at JPL.

The view from our hotel room.  The mountains are Griffith Park and Hollywood Hills.

Happy Plants

          My best friend commented on my Facebook wall that there wasn't an update last night.  She makes me laugh and realize I probably should let you all in on a "secret."  I didn't update yesterday because there wasn't much interesting to share.  I realize that can make this blog quite deceiving for readers who don't know me well.  You may read about our amazing and fun adventures and think we live a very interesting life.  From my perspective I am living a very fun and adventurous life.  I am blessed to be given all the opportunities I've had and blessed to be able to work to achieve the opportunities that don't come along as easily.  However, as my dear friends and family know, if I posted every day about what I did you definitely would get very bored for weeks or months at a time.

This picture from 2007 is a more accurate representation of my day to day life.

          That's why my blog goes silent for so long between adventures.  I'm not someone who does something worthy of being shared every day.  So for any readers jealous of all the adventures I share with you here, take note of the long gaps in between them and realize that I am either working to afford them (and retirement and groceries), reading, spending time with friends and family, sleeping, or playing video games in those gaps.  That's a good thing for us to remember about living vicariously through others on the Internet.  The stuff shared is likely less than 5% (probably a very generous estimate) of the sharer's life.

          Now that you know the truth about real life I'll let you hear what D and I were up to in the past couple days.  After the Horror Night we enjoy our first morning of sleeping in since before this string of adventures began.  We set out in the afternoon to check our apartment and make sure everything is working for their paperwork.  When we arrive we only find the mailbox key.  That's disappointing.  I have two plants eager to see the sun again outside of the car!  After failing to reach our contact at the management office we trudge off to Walmart.

          I bet your Walmart doesn't have palm trees in the parking lot.  We pick up some microwave foods and lunch items to last us the week.  The store is so crowded getting through aisles is a game of dodge carts.  People leave their carts in the center and don't bother moving out of the way when they see you waiting.  Now I remember why we shop late at night instead of during peak normal people hours.

          Sunday night dinner is Pizza Hut.  The buffalo chicken pizza is quite good.  We catch up on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, I show D a Supernatural parody, and we relax wasting time on the web.  Monday is D's first day of work.

His day was busy but look at that smile.  Someone is excited about his new career and Welcome Jetpack.

          D's badging appointment is at 7 so he kisses me good-bye but lets me sleep in today.  Around 9:30 I get the call back about our apartment keys.  Hopefully we'll actually be able to get in today.  The rest of the day I spend lazily watching Rooster Teeth videos my sis sends me, taking a nap, dropping off a check at the bank, and munching on last night's pizza.

          Magically the keys are waiting for us at our apartment and we're able to go through the move-in checklist.  My plants are now happy sitting on the balcony.  Tomorrow they should get some sunlight.  Despite our oven being quite derpy and a few other minor issues the apartment looks great.  We can't wait to move in.  We even discuss how we want to start arranging the furniture and what new furniture we can buy.  Microwave and bed are first on the list as we realize the place doesn't come with a microwave... oops!

Derpy old oven.  Everything else is new but they kept this.

          The lack of traffic makes the drive back smooth.  We settle in for some pizza and D starts the dishwasher.  Have I told you that our hotel room doesn't like us?  We are facing the freeway so it's nice and noisy, the AC sounds like a jet passing overhead if you stand next to the sink.  Weird acoustics.  Our door needs to be bargained with in order for it to let us in.  And now as we try to wash the dishes we end up in a cartoon.  So perhaps California life will be more interesting than usual.

I feel like I live in a cartoon when I'm in this state.

Impressions of California: Normally 61 degrees is when I start putting on a jacket, but here you sweat in a jacket.  From videos and articles talking about how people from the Midwest are overly friendly I expected people here to be standoffish; they aren't.  I haven't gotten into the elevator with someone else without them telling me to have a nice night, yet.  When the ground moves it is probably due to heavy traffic rather than an earthquake.  USGS has yet to show an earthquake happening at the same time the hotel floor bounces a little.  California doesn't like us and wants to make me liar in my own blog.  We have had more mishaps in this state while we've stayed in this hotel than in the months we've spent here before.  I sure hope our apartment brings us better luck!

Destination: California

We should have let Sinclair wear the water buffalo hat.

          It is hard to believe that 24 hours ago we were in Utah.  We woke up early enough for the free breakfast again, which means not much sleep.  The change in weather brought me a surprise nose bleed while I was eating.  D has witnessed one before so he jumped into action grabbing me napkins.

Colorful Utah mountains.

          We met a green long necked dinosaur named Sinclair as we gassed up the car.  Then we saw a sign for dinosaur footprints and we had to follow it.  We spent an hour and a half exploring the museum of dino tracks before we got back on the road.  I love Utah and its many colored hillsides.

These tracks really bring dinosaurs to life.  You can imagine them walking.

This print has impressions on it.

          Arizona starts out with some interesting hills of its own as we descend into the valley.  Driving through those mountains is so much fun.  Once the mountains are behind us, Nevada desert lies ahead.  The shrubs aren't as interesting and after Utah, Nevada can't compare.  We pass Las Vegas with its own version of a Space Needle.  D and I marvel at the three large mirrored solar farms.  We stop for gas and dinner one last time before finally arriving at the hotel.

The ground is so orange, red, and yellow.

My favorite part of Arizona so far.

Ed is sad to see the mountains go.

Nevada covered up its own sign with another sign.

Las Vegas Space Needle with rides on top.

Solar farm.

          The night is still young, however, and after printing out our tickets we're off for Hollywood's Halloween Horror Night at Universal Studios.  Exterminators are trying to wipe out the human pests as we enter the park.  We take the terror tram to a Purge party that lets us walk through the back lot scenery (super cool).  We barely survived the purge with our class 2 weapons.  Another shuttle takes us to another Purge zone plus The Crimson Peak maze and an Alien vs. Predator haunted maze.

Mr. Bates knows how to give a close shave!

          Universal knows how to haunt!  Each of the mazes get me at least once and the entire time I have an unsettled feeling as we explore.  That takes some doing!  Zombies from The Walking Dead try to eat our brains in a third maze; they do not care about personal space.  D is amazed how well they get an inch from our noses without touching us, and they aren't slow about it, either!  It's startling to turn and find a monstrous hand in your face.

Even if your face looks like this!

          It's after midnight now so we head to the short line at This is the End 3D.  Woah, talk about trippy!  They use neon paint in every room, on parts of costumes, and lots of neon wall art that pop at you so much.  The whole thing is like a cereal box exploding in your face and around the next fruit loop is Lucifer!  Once our eyes readjust to the normal world we have time for one last maze: Insidious.  Here people with oxygen-type masks come at you from above along with all the usuals popping out of holes, doors, and walls.  The last room has many figures standing around and there isn't enough time to determine which ones are alive before another one is in your face and gone.  Bravo, Universal Studios!  These are definitely the best haunts I've ever explored.  They make the sore feet and half price very worth it!

Merry Christmas from Krampus!

The Super Summarized Version of Utah

Near Tapestry Arch at our favorite part of the trails.

          As I sit on the most uncomfortable piece of furniture, sleepy and ready to crash, I will recount for you our day.  D had a waffle with breakfast.  There were lots of bronze statues all over Grand Junction, and some of them were a bit creepy.  Fall in Colorado and Utah is gorgeous.  The plateaus in Utah are some of my favorite sights ever.  Arches National Park is a MUST SEE for EVERYONE!  We saw about a dozen arches, the hikes were super fun, the sand is super soft and red, and you'll need more than a day to fully enjoy it.  El Mexicano Restaurant in Salina has decent food.  The stars in Utah are incredibly numerous.  We saw rabbits, deer, a lizard eating a spider, ravens, dinosaurs, blue birds, and chipmunks.  D saw a shooting star; I saw one our first night driving.  It is COLD in the mountains and in this general area.

Sandstone Arch with Creeper admiring his relative's work.

A Snowflake Landed in My Lashes

Tucked in on our first night.

Is there a need for both at once?

Ed kept an eye on our car for us.

Hello third state.

Omaha is interesting.  The rest of the state needs to catch up.

          When you start the day's adventure in Omaha you know that you're going to have to search for points of interest along the way.  Once Omaha vanishes behind you with its various interesting pieces of architecture and numerous museums a vast expanse of fields, some trees, and road lie ahead.  The fall leaves are beautiful, and the 75 mph speed limit is awesome, but I need more.  To keep myself alert I start watching for items on our trivia list.

D's breakfast.

          First up, our hotel did have a continental breakfast, but it did not offer waffles.  Instead it had a pancake maker; I ate one and D ate three.  The snow and mountains will have to wait for Colorado probably, so the only other one I can really watch for in Nebraska is the unusual animal we might see.

Rolling fields.

Wind turbines.

Pumpkin farm.

Aha!  Birds on the back of street signs.

Marvelous metal hot air balloon.

Llamas! (Imagine llama picture here, grazing on a ranch.)

Ad for another museum, I presume.

(Coming Soon: Moo!)

Road sign with a wagon on it.

(Coming Soon: Deere)

Aha!  The elusive humpback caterpillar!

Oh-ho!  The giant soft-shelled pill bugs!

(Coming Soon: Neigh!)

Ever ready roadside cement mixer.

(Coming Soon: Blaaa!)

Longhorn moo.

Watering hole.

          Suddenly:  Colorado!

          We ran into a bit of clouds in Nebraska which cleared up then turned into Colorado clouds.  They dropped just a little rain on us and blessed us with a beautiful rainbow.

Ed was so happy to see his first rainbow today.

          At 4:13 I was chatting with my sis when I spotted the mountains for the first time.  As we got closer to Denver it was sunset so in the darkness it was hard to tell if the lighter spots on the mountains was snow or a lighter rock shade.  We stop at DQ for a smoothie, blizzard, and some chicken wraps and need to put on a third layer; it's so cold!  I ask the cashier if she thinks what I saw is snow and she mentions Vail.

          In a few hours the mystery of Vail is uncovered.  Vail is near the summit of the Rockies as you drive on 76 and there was so much magical snow it looked like Christmas.  It clung to the evergreens.  It clung to the mountainsides.  It clung to the streets.  The snow plows are busy.  D does a great job navigating mountainous snow as I marvel at the beauty in the dim light provided by the traffic.  D and I try to catch snowflakes at a rest stop.  Our highest elevation was over 11,000 feet, and the rest stop sits on the west side of the summit around 6,000 feet above sea level.  Will they have to change those numbers if the sea level rises?

          Now we relax in Grand Junction with more adventures ahead tomorrow in Utah!

(I'll come back and add video and photos when I have a better Internet connection.)