monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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I should probably wrap some of these presents...
I napped for a couple of hours yesterday, then I awoke to the sounds of Catsy shrieking over a video game in the living room, so I got up and sat with my knitting and watched her play AC. Sando was here playing something growly on his laptop and Kim was on the couch playing I forget what on a Gameboy. I'm glad they're enjoying their holiday.
Kim had taken a phone call from RA, who has been visiting her kids in Idaho and was supposed to come home today. Through Denver. She won't be back until Sunday, so we need to go over and check her cats and pick up the mail. When we were there to feed the cats on Wednesday, I let Kim go in to feed them, and I loaded a bunch of logs from a tree her husband cut down into the back of the van.
The logs have been sitting under a tree all year because we already had a pile of firewood last winter, and they needed time to dry out and whatnot. (We don't heat our house with them, we just use them for the fireplace.) They were a bit dirty and growing a spot or two of fungus, so I picked them up one at a time - they were big but not heavy - and held them away from me gingerly as I carried them to the back of the van. I realized I looked girly and ridiculous, but they were icky! I didn't get all of them, but I got most of them and then when I was carrying one, it slipped and I had to juggle it a little and some of the fungus-y dirt blew into my face and my open mouth! I hope I don't get a disease. After that I was done loading logs. I made Kim and Catsy unload them and stack them in the garage later. They didn't mention that Sando was coming over, or I would have told them to wait and let him help.
Rich got home late and bitter from work, ate some leftover spaghetti that I made yesterday, and went upstairs to his office. He was still there when Kim and I left at 8:30 to drive to DeKalb to pick up Rachel, so we didn't say goodbye, we just left.
The drive to Rachel's was foggy! I couldn't see more than 20 yards ahead, so I had to drive slow and hunched over the steering wheel, peering ahead into nothing! By the time we got to Rachel's, I was getting a headache and my neck hurt, too.
We stopped to get something to eat, but we ate while we drove. The fog cleared slightly as we headed for Chicago and right near the airport it was fine.
When you go to pick someone up at Midway, you drive around a big loop that passes all the terminal entrys and when you spot your passenger standing on the sidewalk, you pull over and they throw their luggage in the back and jump into the car as fast as they can. There are airport people standing in the road to wave you on if you are too slow driving by, or if you are taking too long, and if you don't see the people you're picking up, you make another loop around.
So we got to the airport at about 11:15 and the kids were supposed to arrive at 10:45. We thought they would probably already be outside waiting for us, so we made the first loop, at the speed of a snail, and Rachel was very crabby about it. We looped by sloooowly, and the wavers on were annoyed with us, but we didn't see Scott and Carolyn, so we started the big loop again. It was sooo slow!
On the second loop I tried to call Scott again, and his phone was still going to voicemail, so we wondered if maybe they were still in the air. I called Kathy at work, the only person I could think of who would be awake and near a computer, and she was looking online to see if the flight was delayed, when Scott called. He said they had just landed and were still sitting in the plane. They were over an hour late, and he said it was the worst flight he'd ever been on and he would tell me later.
We made the loop four more times, (each time was faster as the traffic cleared) and finally we got the kids in the car and started back home. We dropped Rachel back at her place and I drove back home through the stinkin' fog.
On the drive home, S & C told us that they ran into C's little brother in the SLC airport, and he had just found out that his flight (through Denver) was cancelled, and his mom couldn't get him on a flight until Sunday, so he was homeless. The dorm he lives in was closed for Christmas break. They gave him a key to their apartment and directed him to the shuttle that would take him there. He is grateful because the alternative was staying at their grandparents, and apparently there is no TV and the grandparents are writing some boring memoirs that no one wants to read.
Arriving home at 4 a.m., Rich and Buffy got up when they heard us come in the door, and we were all asleep before 5. Whew!
On the way home I realized this would be the day to get a turkey, if we want one for Christmas, and I think we do. So I'm going out to shop a little this morning. We also need cat food, as Zorro can see the bottom of his bowl, and when he sees anyone go toward the cat's bathroom, he runs hopefully behind them, but alas, no one pours more food into his bowl, and Sando just gave him a shove back out because apparently he is not used to taking a pee in the presence of cats.
9:33 a.m. - 2006-12-22
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