Monday, December 24, 2007

For Those Who Care...

... yes, I am still alive. More or less.

My back isn't as bad as it was... but it still reminds me every time I do something I shouldn't. Such as bend over the sink. Or bend over to peer into a lizard house.

What with that nasty galloping crud I picked up on the cruise, I coughed so much, I popped a rib cartilage, or something. So now I have pains both back and front. And I am still coughing and sniffling a bit, though not nearly as bad as before.

I've been sleeping a lot more than usual. Today good friend Sara stopped by and presented me with a bottle of Bailey's. She retired from 35+ years of teaching just about the time I semi-retired from my job, and she is giving herself plenty of time to be lazy and enjoy "slumber and sloth," as she put it. "And a good slug," she added, pointing to the bottle. Great. Not that I needed justification, but if she can do it, so can I.

Of course I managed to get my sleep schedule entirely screwed up over the weekend. Friday morning I was to take the young sailor (who is now commenting on my blog as "bin V." which means son of V.) to the airport so he could go home to Ohio for Christmas. This was only the second time he had ever traveled by himself, and it was a good thing I went inside the airport with him so I could help him figure out what to do. His flight to Chicago was going to be delayed due to weather, and thus he would miss his connection to Ohio, and there were no further flights that day that would get him home. The best they could offer him was standby the next morning, with of course no guarantee. At first he was going to fly to Chicago and take his chances from there, but then he decided he would really rather not; and since he had gone through all of the bureaucracy and paperwork to get signed off the post and officially on leave, he didn't want to do it all again, and asked if my couch was still as comfortable as it was when he was in the 4th grade.

So at his mother's insistence, he took me to dinner (Olive Garden) and he crashed on my couch. We had to get up at 3 a.m. to get him to the airport (an hour and 20 minutes from my house; he flew out of San Jose because it saved his parents about $400). He had already sent his duffle bag through and he already had his boarding pass, so I dropped him off at the curb at 5 a.m., and told him as soon as he got through security, to find out what gate he was supposed to go to, and then go make friends with the gate agent and see what they could do for him. Meanwhile, I was heading over to Denny's and I would wait there until I heard from him.

Long story a whole lot shorter, he did get a seat on that flight (and I had breakfast and lots of coffee). I think he got bollixed up again somewhere in the midwest before he finally got home, but I am assuming he got home because I have had no further e-mails from V. on the subject. Presumably we will not go through this hokey-pokey when he comes back in a couple of weeks, because if his flights are delayed, he can just call me when he's about to board a plane for San Jose, and then I can just look up the estimated arrival time for that flight online.

So I headed straight home, and straight back to bed, where I slept another 5 hours. Saturday night I slept a full 8 hours--and then took a 4 hour nap Sunday afternoon.

Other than that, it's been mostly a pajama weekend. My various familial appendages are scattering in all directions tomorrow, so I may or may not go over to my mother's. It will depend on how I feel.

And now... back to bed with a book!

And a very Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it is sweet of you to help the young Squid deal with confusing air travel. 2 of my daughter's classmates here in 29 are at DLI right now (well, to be accurate, they are home on leave, but stationed at DLI). One is studying Korean and the other Durkka-Durkka.
Extended family (you, to the Squid) is sometimes as good if not better than real family.
My Sam is engaged to a (just got out of the) Marine(s). He now has a job on Base doing what he was doing as a Marine, but as a Civil Service WG employee. More money, better hours, better benefits, less BS. (The Marine Corps is a Department of the Navy, I know. The MEN's Department.)
I hope your back is healing.
Bum...I will put the sock back "in it" as per your suggestion.

Anonymous said...

"squid?"
and just remember whose signature is on the Marines' paycheck.
Anyway, I'm here in the Mac Store at Kenwood town(e) cent(re) (I thought english spelling had been standardized around the victorian era, then the marketing wanks jumped in...), and Dad is currently talking with a specialist about how to plug in an HD camera to a certain Mac computer. Here I am at another station typing this out. I'm not much of a fan of these keyboards. too flat.
Long story short, made it. considering how blatantly civilian my extended family is, I can see why Mom misses living halfway across the country. saying no more, except that I'm glad it's my parents and crazy sister only from this point on.
Still haven't gotten up the the nerve to ask alustadh (literally: the teacher ) what "Durkka-Durrka" means.
trying to explain the Arabic alphabet to Dad. failing miserably.
making lots of jokes on this language being the world's revenge for "bough", "knight", "gnome" and lots of other bits of random exceptions to rules that might-or-might-not apply on a tuesday.
According to one of my teachers, not even native speakers can keep track of it all.
Also, caroline, I found the tabletop Serenity RPG in Barnes-and-Noble (I love being in a city that's not monterey!), and will be bringing it with me, if you're interested. There are probably several browncoats in the area, after all...
seeya next year!

 
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