Yesterday my wife came back from Japan via Minneapolis. She was to call me on her cell phone when she was in line to board the flight to Duluth.
That was the first of many delays. The plane had not arrived yet. It needed to be de-iced at its previous landing, but the de-icing equipment was broken. This wasn't so bad, I don't think it left Minneapolis more than 45 minutes late.
When she called, I started off on several errands before I met her, figuring I could do quite a bit in an hour.
The first was to dump food scraps for compost at a neighborhood restaurant. I did that then went in to pick up the latest Reader Weekly. It wasn't in yet. I came back to the car and it wouldn't start. Oh, no! I left the lights on?
What do I do? Walk the block back home and get the other car? Or do I just bring the battery charger? I opted for the latter. Then I couldn't get the lid off the charging contact. Even with the pen knife I had recently bought to replace the one I lost. I kept trying and eventually got the lid off. I hooked up the cables and nothing. I put the ground at a different place, and vroom!
OK, I can go now. But as I shut the hood, I forgot to take out the prop. For the second time this year I bent it! So, there's five more minutes to straighten that out so I can close the hood properly.
Next stop is to mail a bill and a Netflix DVD. That went OK though the mailbox access was not the best. And I managed not to get my door banged by other traffic.
Now it is too late to do my next errand. So, it's straight to the airport.
As I'm on the way to the airport, my cell phone rings. The best I can do is peek at the caller and see that it is my wife calling. She has landed.
OK, so I go directly to Arrivals and call her to say that I am out front. No answer! I try again and again assuming she either went to the rest room or has it buried in her purse. After six or seven tries, I loop around to the "cell phone lot". I try two or three times more. #%&! I drive to the pay lot and trudge across the cold, windy, snow-packed lot to the terminal.
What do I do first? Yell and scream at her for not answering the phone? Give her a big hug because I'm so glad that she has come back safely. Of course, the latter. Then I "yell and scream" and she admits she had turned her cell phone off!
She is ready to trudge across the lot with her big suitcase, our granddaughter, and our granddaughter's little suitcase. I say no, I'll drive up to the Arrivals and meet you there.
So, I trudge back across the cold, windy, snow-packed lot to our car. I have $2 out because that is the cost for the first hour. I present the ticket and $2 to the attendant. He presses a few buttons, says it's free, and gives me my $2 back. Second best thing of the day after my wife coming back.
The rest of the day was "normal". She had enough energy to visit the store I had planned to visit first, to go to two other stores, and to go out to eat at the restaurant that I had stopped at first.
Then she crashed! Then woke up and couldn't sleep. Then she crashed and slept to ten this morning.
Maybe in a few days, we'll be back on our normal cycles.
Oh, my wife also suggested that maybe I forgot to press the brake as I started the car with keyless entry. Did I? Didn't I? I vaguely remember both!
