Welcome back to the 2008 version of this crazy Alaskan blog!
Well it’s been an interesting/stressfully past few days. I’m sure most of you have heard, vague details atleast… but I’ll do a recap.
The fog thankfully lifted enough for Dad to drive me down to South Bend. However, upon check-in, I found out that my 9am flight to O Hare had been cancelled… it was only 7:30! Who knows what the reason was really… the fog couldn’t be to blame because it surely would have lifted completely in time. Well, alright, so my flight is cancelled… now what!? The airport folks tell me that they didn’t put me on another flight and I had to use the little “United airlines” phone to call and reschedule myself. “Isn’t that what they get paid for!?” Valerie and I said to each other! So as I’m on the phone rescheduling, the airline people keep informing people that come up behind me that the flight has been cancelled. While I’m waiting for the lady on the phone to figure things out, I turn around to check out the newest person being told they have no flight and I’m surprised by who I see! “That’s Fred Upton!” I mouth to Dad and Valerie. Not a huge crazy thing but in the South Bend airport, just not the person you’d expect to see when you turned around! Anyhow, so I get a new flight to O Hare and also to Seattle. I had a 3 hour layover in Seattle so that gave me a bit of leeway to catch that Alaska flight.
The flights were alright… From South Bend to O Hare, I was on the very LAST seat in our little jet… not the most comfortable seat because it doesn’t recline any and is flat up against a wall. Then from O Hare to Seattle I had a little less than an hour to catch my flight (but I was hungry… and it’s O Hare!). Anyhow, I had a great flight! They put me in a seat that was basically the next step down from First Class. It was an economy premium or economy premier… something like that. Well it had a lot more leg room!! Probably not quite as much as an exit row but I had a good 6 inches to spare. I even had a phone I could use if I wanted to become bankrupt by calling from the air! So I arrive in Seattle feeling fairly relaxed… but I had to make it quick to catch my Alaska flight. So much for leeway time!! I arrive at the gate as they are boarding people (though they just started…) but I still had to get my boarding pass printed off for me. However the lady was dealing with someone else and something wasn’t going right for her so she kept having to call someone. All I could think was “They are going to give my seat away to a standby person cause they don’t think I’m here!!” Needless to say, I made it fine to Alaska.
HOWEVER, my bags did not! *Recalling in my mind the dreaded lost luggage situation when I came home a month ago* GREAAAAAT… The lady at the counter was nice and helped… said an 11pm flight was supposed to come in and usually the bags come in on that. “Did you have any tight connections!?” She says… “Umm ALL of them!?” I said with a laugh. She said to call in the morning (or come back at 11) and check… gave me a little bag with toiletries (sp?) and sent me on my way. We get to the apartment and unfortunately the internet isn’t working… BOO! Anyhow, I wake up early the next day feelin good… my bags are gonna be here… I know it! “Hi my bags were lost last night and I’m calling to see if they came on last night’s flight” “Oh well that 11pm flight didn’t make it in last night…” “Umm…….. is there a flight in this morning!?” “Yeah, it arrives at 11:25am.” This doesn’t sound too bad… ya know… just gotta wait for the bags. However, Deena and I are supposed to fly out to the hatchery this morning at 10am! As bad as we wanted to leave, the weather just wasn’t going to let us. I was kinda thankful though because of the luggage. It ended up coming in! The flight to the hatchery was cancelled though… so we spent another night in town. That gave me a bit of free time to clean up the shampoo explosion that happened in my suitcase. It WAS in a plastic bag but it had a hole… it only affected one corner of my bag. And by the way, my luggage came all in one piece and DIDN’T have anyone else GARMENTS in it this time! ;-D Email me if you didn’t hear that story…
Anyhow, we managed to get out the next day. Arrived back to the hatchery to be greeted by my wonderful boyfriend and a nice icy cold wind! There’s a lot of snow… big shocker right!? Guess it shouldn’t surprise me really! There was probably about 4 to 4-1/2 feet of snow… estimate! :-D Today we are supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow… followed by 10-14 inches tonight… and another 5 inches tomorrow. Nice right!?!? And it’s about 11 degrees out. Unfortunately the only person working in it is Adam!
So snow snow snow… what else!? Adam took me out to see the new Takatz house yesterday! I’m sure I’ve talked about the new house to most of you but you just may not have seen the picture. Well, we’ve been excited about it, but once it finally arrived… not so exciting! It’s a nice house, and quite large, but there have been a bunch of problems with it. It can’t hold as much food as we want because it’ll be too low in the water… the wiring is all screwy for OUR needs… the first real snow, the stovepipe fell off and snow sliding off the roof hit the railing to the deck and caused it to fall and mangle. So I finally get to see it and about froze on the way out and back! Please, I don’t want to hear about how you are worried I’m getting cold already! I just wasn’t dressed right… AND it’s just really cold. Well the house isn’t as big in the living area as I thought it would be but it’s still nice.
This is "pre-mangled deck railing" of course.
Anyhow, it’s nice to see everyone again. You know why I sorta like to be here!? Because it gives me a good reason to do nothing! Cause there’s nothing TO do… except watch tv. Or freeze outside… At home I was doing nothing but… I did have places I could have gone. I was sure nice to be home but also nice to be back.
Well, there isn’t really much else to tell. There’s a lot of snow… ponding should start in a few weeks (for some of the fish I think)… I’m sure there will be a bit of shoveling to do when I get back to work but I’m not even sure what day I’ll start. And best of all, THERE ARE NO BEARS OUT! YAY!
I’ll leave you with a new quote I read…
HOME IS NOT WHERE YOU LIVE, BUT WHERE THEY UNDERSTAND YOU!
SHOUT OUT OF THE DAY - TO YOU… Thanks for understanding me and thanks for tuning back in!
P.S. My pictures of the 2008 season will appear in the same Photobucket site but will be under the album name “2008.” I wanted to put all those 2007 pictures into a “2007 album” but it would change all the links from the pictures I’ve posted and make it all weird, so they are in the same place. Sounds confusing but don’t worry about it really… they’ll still be on here.
Well it’s been an interesting/stressfully past few days. I’m sure most of you have heard, vague details atleast… but I’ll do a recap.
The fog thankfully lifted enough for Dad to drive me down to South Bend. However, upon check-in, I found out that my 9am flight to O Hare had been cancelled… it was only 7:30! Who knows what the reason was really… the fog couldn’t be to blame because it surely would have lifted completely in time. Well, alright, so my flight is cancelled… now what!? The airport folks tell me that they didn’t put me on another flight and I had to use the little “United airlines” phone to call and reschedule myself. “Isn’t that what they get paid for!?” Valerie and I said to each other! So as I’m on the phone rescheduling, the airline people keep informing people that come up behind me that the flight has been cancelled. While I’m waiting for the lady on the phone to figure things out, I turn around to check out the newest person being told they have no flight and I’m surprised by who I see! “That’s Fred Upton!” I mouth to Dad and Valerie. Not a huge crazy thing but in the South Bend airport, just not the person you’d expect to see when you turned around! Anyhow, so I get a new flight to O Hare and also to Seattle. I had a 3 hour layover in Seattle so that gave me a bit of leeway to catch that Alaska flight.
The flights were alright… From South Bend to O Hare, I was on the very LAST seat in our little jet… not the most comfortable seat because it doesn’t recline any and is flat up against a wall. Then from O Hare to Seattle I had a little less than an hour to catch my flight (but I was hungry… and it’s O Hare!). Anyhow, I had a great flight! They put me in a seat that was basically the next step down from First Class. It was an economy premium or economy premier… something like that. Well it had a lot more leg room!! Probably not quite as much as an exit row but I had a good 6 inches to spare. I even had a phone I could use if I wanted to become bankrupt by calling from the air! So I arrive in Seattle feeling fairly relaxed… but I had to make it quick to catch my Alaska flight. So much for leeway time!! I arrive at the gate as they are boarding people (though they just started…) but I still had to get my boarding pass printed off for me. However the lady was dealing with someone else and something wasn’t going right for her so she kept having to call someone. All I could think was “They are going to give my seat away to a standby person cause they don’t think I’m here!!” Needless to say, I made it fine to Alaska.
HOWEVER, my bags did not! *Recalling in my mind the dreaded lost luggage situation when I came home a month ago* GREAAAAAT… The lady at the counter was nice and helped… said an 11pm flight was supposed to come in and usually the bags come in on that. “Did you have any tight connections!?” She says… “Umm ALL of them!?” I said with a laugh. She said to call in the morning (or come back at 11) and check… gave me a little bag with toiletries (sp?) and sent me on my way. We get to the apartment and unfortunately the internet isn’t working… BOO! Anyhow, I wake up early the next day feelin good… my bags are gonna be here… I know it! “Hi my bags were lost last night and I’m calling to see if they came on last night’s flight” “Oh well that 11pm flight didn’t make it in last night…” “Umm…….. is there a flight in this morning!?” “Yeah, it arrives at 11:25am.” This doesn’t sound too bad… ya know… just gotta wait for the bags. However, Deena and I are supposed to fly out to the hatchery this morning at 10am! As bad as we wanted to leave, the weather just wasn’t going to let us. I was kinda thankful though because of the luggage. It ended up coming in! The flight to the hatchery was cancelled though… so we spent another night in town. That gave me a bit of free time to clean up the shampoo explosion that happened in my suitcase. It WAS in a plastic bag but it had a hole… it only affected one corner of my bag. And by the way, my luggage came all in one piece and DIDN’T have anyone else GARMENTS in it this time! ;-D Email me if you didn’t hear that story…
Anyhow, we managed to get out the next day. Arrived back to the hatchery to be greeted by my wonderful boyfriend and a nice icy cold wind! There’s a lot of snow… big shocker right!? Guess it shouldn’t surprise me really! There was probably about 4 to 4-1/2 feet of snow… estimate! :-D Today we are supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow… followed by 10-14 inches tonight… and another 5 inches tomorrow. Nice right!?!? And it’s about 11 degrees out. Unfortunately the only person working in it is Adam!
So snow snow snow… what else!? Adam took me out to see the new Takatz house yesterday! I’m sure I’ve talked about the new house to most of you but you just may not have seen the picture. Well, we’ve been excited about it, but once it finally arrived… not so exciting! It’s a nice house, and quite large, but there have been a bunch of problems with it. It can’t hold as much food as we want because it’ll be too low in the water… the wiring is all screwy for OUR needs… the first real snow, the stovepipe fell off and snow sliding off the roof hit the railing to the deck and caused it to fall and mangle. So I finally get to see it and about froze on the way out and back! Please, I don’t want to hear about how you are worried I’m getting cold already! I just wasn’t dressed right… AND it’s just really cold. Well the house isn’t as big in the living area as I thought it would be but it’s still nice.
This is "pre-mangled deck railing" of course.
Anyhow, it’s nice to see everyone again. You know why I sorta like to be here!? Because it gives me a good reason to do nothing! Cause there’s nothing TO do… except watch tv. Or freeze outside… At home I was doing nothing but… I did have places I could have gone. I was sure nice to be home but also nice to be back.
Well, there isn’t really much else to tell. There’s a lot of snow… ponding should start in a few weeks (for some of the fish I think)… I’m sure there will be a bit of shoveling to do when I get back to work but I’m not even sure what day I’ll start. And best of all, THERE ARE NO BEARS OUT! YAY!
I’ll leave you with a new quote I read…
HOME IS NOT WHERE YOU LIVE, BUT WHERE THEY UNDERSTAND YOU!
SHOUT OUT OF THE DAY - TO YOU… Thanks for understanding me and thanks for tuning back in!
P.S. My pictures of the 2008 season will appear in the same Photobucket site but will be under the album name “2008.” I wanted to put all those 2007 pictures into a “2007 album” but it would change all the links from the pictures I’ve posted and make it all weird, so they are in the same place. Sounds confusing but don’t worry about it really… they’ll still be on here.
1 comment:
Hi Becky,
You really lucked out getting out on Tuesday when you did because the weather has been sort of lousy ever since. You might still be here! We went to my MALP reunion in Marshall on Friday night and just got back this morning. Blizzardy weather. We got off at Paw Paw and took Red Arrow and still there were white outs. Glad to see you finally made it to the hatchery and back to the Griz. Home is where you are happiest! Love DAD
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