What's that you say, he's easily excited? I'm very glad to be home.
I have this thing about travel - I've been traveling about on planes since 1964, and I still get hyper - really. I am always glad to walk down that last jetway and actually find my bag there! I thought I would fill you in on the return. My lovely wife is well experienced with my craziness, and when we are traveling together, she says as a kind of a mantra: "stay calm, this is not nuclear war", or words to that effect. I actually get the shakes sometimes. I have NO IDEA where that comes from. I get it when things look like they are tight or about to go awry!
NO PASSPORT!
First off, Saturday AM, I am checking in with our fearless leader (this is Elena, by the way), and I wanted to verify that my passport was somewhere within easy reach! She responded that she knew exactly where it was, and she would get it. Well, it wasn't there! She didn't tell me that right away - she proceeded to figure out where it was first - a very good idea. Seems they moved some of the furniture around, and the passport slipped out of a locked drawer, Luis picked it up and secured it elsewhere. But he did not inform Elena of this, the "elsewhere" was locked, and Elena did not have a key! She called Julietta, who had a key, who proceeded in our general direction, with a couple of people who also needed to be transported about. THEN Elena told me the travails of my passport! It did show up, I did get home!
A Rocking Chair
Jude had asked me to buy a rocking chair that we could raffle off to benefit the Sister Parish Community. The driver, a really big guy name of Melvin, and I went off to the market. He helped me pick one out - and the seller had one disassembled, ready to go. He gave me the price: C$1200. I do NOT do numbers. I kind of blanched - my brain was doing dollars or something. I pulled out my iPod and calculated it as about $55. He read that as a bargaining statement on my part, so he reduced it to C$1,100, or about $50. I should have kept fumbling, but instead agreed to the price. They are just beautiful chairs. This is one the "newer" kinds, with just solid wood, and none of the plastic latice work - all hardwood, etc. So, we agreed, and he set about wrapping it in a plastic sack for shipping by plane.
These days, there is only ONE free bag for international flights, and I did have a bag to check - after all, I spent 9 weeks in this place - I did bring along a few sets of underwear and socks! So I would have to pay another $40 for the chair. Elena had the bright idea of putting my modest bag inside of a larger, more sturdy one, and then taping the business together so I could avoid the second bag fee. We proceeded to do that. When we got the airport, at which point I am becoming a tad nervous about this whole business, we approached the ticket counter - and an acquantaince of hers is helping people We hoist this thing on the scale, and it's like 54 pounds - and the limit is 50. He suggests that we separate the two, since the overweight charge is $200, and the separate bag charge is $40! Good thinking. Then we take my bag out of the other bag, and weigh that with the chair - they are like 48 pounds! Home free. Just need to bind the two together. So, of we go to the plastic binding machine. $6.00 later, the two are as one - a bit bulky, but under the weight limit.
Back we go, and I am literally shaking a bit at this point, carrying a 48 pound piece of large stuff to the counter! They took it, slapped the routing code on it, and we are off to security. Piece of cake!
Flight to Houston
No problem on the flight to Houston. A nice lady in the airport made me up a grilled cheese sandwich for about 2 bucks, with an iced tea! I don't even trust bottled water there at this point. I retrieve the somewhat bulky package after I clear customs, and put in on a cart to check in again. And I am wondering what I do if they want to "open" this bound up piece of stuff. But, not to worry, they wave me to "oversize items" check-in, and the whole thing disappears somewhere to be put on the plane.
BUT - somehow my iPod got totally hosed up by the airport security scan. The only thing I can think is that one of the bits got turned off or on by the scanner. The display was on HUGE, or MAGNIFY the whole time, and I couldn't enter anything, or see anything. So I read my Spanish novel without the aid of a dictionary on the flight to MSP. That did work fairly well. I am down to one unknown word per page at this point - and that doesn't affect the story much. I really like the book - by a Brazilian author - same one that is for sale in all of the supermarkets in Managua - more on that later.
HUGS
Jude met me at the stairs as I came out of the secured area, for one HUGE hug. I do love that lady. She leaves to get the car, since I have this 48 lb monster to navigate with. And I go to the luggage carousel. No bag! I am beginning to panic, just a tad - when I remember the "oversize" tag - and see a guy walking out of a room at the back with what looks like a surf board in a bag! Sure enough, there is my bag and chair waiting there. I heft it up, we put it in the car - and it's currently in my basement. Any volunteers out there want to assemble this thing for the raffle? I do not want to do this again, thank you very much. Well, maybe for a modest fee!
TALK, TALK, TALK
So we drive home, we sit at the table, we have a drink, and we talk unti 1:00 AM. We get up early the next morning to go to Church with the grandkids, and we talk for 2 hours while having breakfast. I never got to even open the newspaper! We get two Sunday newspapers, and I have not opened them even as I am sitting here. I love to sit and read the paper. One would think we have not talked almost every day during the trip - but we did. Tom gave Jude an iPad, and I used my iPod, and we have a video chat almost every day, thanks for the wifi at the AKF Center. The speed there was about 1.2 G, more than adequate.
GrandKids
Have I told you yet that I have the MOST beautiful grandchildren on the planet - 5 of them? Well, I do. When I show people the pictures I carry around, they are always in agreement. But then they make comments when they see pictures of my daughters-in-law that now they understand how it is possible - it couldn't be me that these kids take after! We wait by the door at Church, and are greeted by the kids. Annalynn ran up and grabbed me around the knees for a big hug. Marcus and Quinn were a little more sedate. Quinn was his usual affectionate self in church. I do love these kids!
After Mass, we had a concert - Marcus and Annalynn. Here's the clip!
http://youtu.be/oBkX-Fe4hnc
Quiet
I am still waking up at 5:30, just as I did in Managua. It is light there at that time - it is NOT light here! But it is QUIET. In Managua, there are birds, whistles, cars, buses, horses - you name it - on the streets at that time. Here, it is so quiet I can hear the furnace fan when it turns on! It is rare that a car on the street can actually be heard in our bedroom. It is really quiet. Interesting. I never adverted to that before.
ToDo List
My todo list has 44 items on it. I've been ignoring them or adding to them while in Nicaragua! Gotta get busy, I guess. I have an online class in Feb / Mar - first priority to get that ready. Etc.
Newspaper
I love reading the newspaper. Jude and I have been talking so much, I now have 3 of them to work my way through! I read the paper most days in Managua - but it is mostly local news. Which you can read on line, if you want!
LAUNDRY
If I lived in Nicaragua, the very first thing I would get - after a refrigerator and stove - is a washing machine. I hate washing clothes with that soap and scrub board approach. It takes forever. I remember my mom with our first washing machine - and it had a wringer on it - where she regularly got her hand caught! So I came home with a bag full of stinky clothes. The socks are particularly bad - and that's not even on my todo list!
Mail
Jude managed most of the mail - but there was quite a pile to talk through and make decisions about. Not to mention the 400 or so emails that had stacked up. I actually read most of them before - she had nicely deleted the ones offering to enlarge certain body parts. Why do they think I am interested in that particular thing? I can think of lots of other spam I would rather get!
OK - that's about it - I'm home, back at "work" or whatever it is we do all day around here. I'm working on an "impressions" entry, and one about "projects". Stay tuned. This is the end of the travelogue for now.
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