All is Well

Today was a day of little things -- like surprise licensing inspections.

And getting a plane ticket for Gary to go to Maine. I spent what seemed like an hour on the phone with someone from the airlines. First she checked to see if she could get him on the same flights that we had. She could, but it would be over $2000. The agency will pay for it, but that was just crazy. She kept searching and found him an itinerary for 1/3 of the price, and most of the same flights. On the way home we have all the same flight. On the way out we will all be on the same flight to the big hub airport. We will be able to drop him off at his gate where his plane will go straight to our destination. He will hang out at that airport for a couple of hours while we take two puddle jumpers to get there.

He's excited. He texted (what is the past tense of "text"? and when did "text" become a verb?) his friends, told the boys. He has not flown by himself before. At one point we thought that he was either going to have to have an escort (for which he is far too old) or he was going to have to find his own way through huge airports (which made him very nervous). This is just perfect. Just enough independence to be exciting without any real fear of getting lost.

We are all a little buzzed because it means that he really, really is going.

I also talked to my father about the other trip. He sounded good, by which I mean sober. Really it is quite a relief. He was very surprised that we were going to meet my sister at the airport. It is extra driving for us. He asked why a couple of times and I just said that Sis wanted me to and I said I would. 'Cause really, there is no polite way to say, "Well, Sis is afraid you will get drunk and not show up." He finally let it go. I think he might have guessed the reason and there is no point in having that conversation.

Still, I am hopeful that he will be sober, or at least something close to it, while we are there.

And on the good news front: my computer, like a Phoenix has arisen. I didn't even lose any of the recent files I did not have backed up. It turned out not to be the hard drive but the motherboard. There was another computer from "someone who doesn't work here anymore" and the IT woman took my hard drive out and put it in this computer. It feels all new and shiny. The keys still have texture on the top of them! And they have a degree of resistance that feels right. Hard to explain, but it doesn't feel old. It is also CLEAN.


Amazing.