Location, At
home, CA
The urge to
write deserted me this past week or so.
After my
trip to Wisconsin, I got a cold. Haven’t had one of those in a long time
especially the sore throat, cough, head-in-a-vise type of cold. Mostly I laid
around the house and read.
I did manage
to buy on-line a new cover for our gazebo. The old one lasted 3 years but the
sun finally got to it. Craig had reinforced the pockets where the roof poles
were inserted which helped. This time I also bought a UV protectorant and
sprayed the whole material before I installed it. Craig again also reinforced
the pockets so hopefully we will get 3 or 4 years out of this cover. Clyda has
been after us to get the cover up as it protects the plants on the patio.
I ran the Honda
generators yesterday. They were last used while I was in Quartzsite in January.
It took a few more pulls to get them started but both ran fine.
Some time
ago Clyda said “Why don’t we fly to Houston in April to see Tim and family?”
That got me to thinking so I checked the Princess website to see if there was a
cruise scheduled out of Houston during our visit. Well, yes there is! So I
checked prices and booked a 7 day cruise through Costco. Got a good deal on a
mini-suite. This will be a first for us as usually we book a balcony.
We will fly
to Houston on Wednesday; visit the family until Saturday when we board the
ship. The following Saturday we return from the cruise and transfer to Bush
International Airport and pick up a rental car. We will keep the car until our
return flight early Monday Morning.
All of this
sounds simple until you know the details. Our original flight was on American
Airlines. I bought Clyda a ticket using her miles plus a few more I purchased
for her. My ticket was bought for a higher price as no seat was available at
the regular price. American then announced they were ceasing operations April 1st
at our local airport so I called and had our flights changed to USAIR. Of
course we lost any advantage we had through American such as seat selection,
etc.
Also, during
all this, the oil spill in Galveston Bay kept our cruise ship from leaving for
3 days. This however has all been cleared up and we should be good to go next
Saturday.
Meanwhile,
Tim and family are on a cruise around New Zealand courtesy of Diane’s parents.
They were due home this afternoon but got delayed a day because of an over
booked flight. Qantas Airlines put them up in a hotel overnight and booked them
in business class for the trip home on the Airbus A-380, a double decker
airplane. Business class has lie-flat seats so you can sleep. I am so jealous!!!!
Tim just
called from Sydney to update us on their schedule. They will be home tomorrow
afternoon after 13 hours in the air to Los Angeles and then a 3 hour flight to
Houston. unfortunately, that gets them home only 2 days before we get there. I am sure we will all survive.
