If the gods had wanted us to fly..........we'd be born with parachutes.

We are DONE !! And we are HOME !! (barely and by the skin of our white knuckles, but more on that in a minute.)
There are no pictures today, just my chatter and important ?? thoughts on life and moving.
The final hurdle of emptying the house and cleaning has lingered in our brains for several weeks and so it was actually good to get on with the final task. The interior of the house needed a good painting and if we had actually sold the house in the normal fashion, we would have painted before the Sale sign went up. But, I decided to fill the nail holes and touch up the smudges and finger prints. I was completely out of paint from recently painting the kitchen so Paul picked up a quart , thereby submitting himself as the culprit. I diligently went about the house, kitchen, family room, stairway, upstairs hall, living room and dining room.....all the same color, a light yellowy colour called Powell Buff by Benjamin Moore.......great color. When it dried , I was horrified to see that it didn't match....not at all. So Paul picks up a gallon of paint and this time it glides on and blends in perfectly.......beautiful and we felt really smug about our success........NOT. It dried and didn't match again. I talked with the future owner and her son, the realtor, and told them they had a polka dot house and then we wrote out a check to have the walls painted. Painful but it needed to be painted anyhow.
The neighbors had a Farewell gathering Sat night and we will miss this generous group. They were so helpful when Paul was on his back. They built the wheelchair ramp into the house, provided outstanding meals to us for several weeks. They mowed our grass and our favorite opthomologist plowed our driveway with his BIG truck and teenage son after every snow fall. Doug, our favorite Dr, brought us a large package containing all our medical records from his office. Beth and Danny hosted the event. They are a young and generous couple. AND, reponsible for our selling the house to Dan's mother. They are very special and we will miss them.
We signed the closing papers at the lawyers, said goodby and "see you very soon" to Andy and Mason and Jon drove us to the airport in the rain. (beats snow). By the way, Andy was very concerned about the dinosaurs and their disappearance. He asked me if I knew where they went ( because grandmothers know EVERYTHING ) and then asked if I knew that fish need to live in water . It was all very cute and he has pondered these important matters since pre-school that day.
We intended to catch the 4:20 flight but managed to arrive as the 3:20 was boarding so we stepped up to the gate and said, " Can we go on this flight instead? and the nice agent smiled and said "Enjoy your flight" and I thought I saw a sardonic grin on his face. The plane had only about 50 others on it and we made ourselves comfortable, again very smug that we had managed this smart move. We took off thru the rainy clouds and it was a bit rougher than I like but then, I don't like anything but SMOOOOOOOTH sailing. I settled down with my iPOD , my knitting and my generous bag of 3 mini pretzels. It was cloudy all the way. And a bit bumpy.......then we descended a bit and slowed down. I noticed that we were making wide circles....that western sunset kept reappearing out the window. And that we were over water. And that there was large dark very scary looking weather to the west with lightening. And the thought went thru my brain that we would have to go in that direction in order to land. Finally the Capt,with the soothing calm voice , said that the storms were over Orlando and that we couldn't approach from this direction so would have to fly to the other side and approach it from there......well, that got my attention !! (By the way, since I dislike flying so much and do it so often, I am intune with every sound and movement of the plane and can generally recognize when things are changing....but since I have close friends who actually fly these things, I try and understand that they are well trained and that this is all very routine.......but I also hear the stories of the occasional dorks that sit up there and make stupid mistakes.......but that's for another story). So we turn Right and head towards that nasty sky. It was not fun.....Captain Paul kept saying in that calm soothing voice that it was "MODERATE" turbulance.......I can't imagine what anything worse would be called.....but then I wouldn't care as I would be dead of a fatal panic attack.
We somehow made it across Florida thru hell with all plane parts intact and then started circling again. The Capt with the calm soothing voice said, "Well folks, it seems that we will have to keep holding as Orlando is now closed due to the weather (I was sure it was because some airplane, not screwed together as well as ours, had just fallen to the ground) and we will have to go to Ft Myers for additional fuel. !! By this time, I didn't care, I just wanted off and intended to do just that once we landed. We would rent a car and drive .... I had my speech and tears all prepared to present my case to Paul. And then , after flying for 20 min in smooth air, we turned around, he said we were going to land in Orlando after all ( so what's with the needing fuel issue.....are we on fumes ??) We turn around, it is now very dark and we descend in relative calm and finally we LAND on terra firma. The plane erupted in applause. As we departed , I hugged the Captain, with the calm soothing voice, and offered him my last born grandchild in appreciation for saving us. ( We won't tell him that Mason is currently in the midst of the Terrible Twos .) Paul had nary a bead of sweat on him and probably would have slept thru it if it weren't for that clinging hysterical woman next to him. As we came out of the jetway and I saw all those innocent soon to be passengers, I wanted to shout, "Run, don't walk to the nearest rental car....you DON"T want to go up in that sky.! " But I didn't and smiled as if I'd just gotten off of a Disney ride.

Here's a little humor from Jon.......


So we are HOME and it looks great and we can get on with enjoying it. But, it is COLD and they are saying lows in the 20's tonight. What is with this. ?? Haven't we been thru enough already.? I want warm and sun and a cool drink by the pool . With my luck lately, it will probably snow .......