Thursday 01.30.2014

I see I didn't post the last few days.  I knew I had missed last night and the night before---

Tuesday I worked another 12 1/2 hour shift, then came home to put my suitcase together and get finished up for my trip.  Jeremy called saying his shop had closed down at 1pm Tuesday, and was not going to be open on Wednesday due to the forecasted winter storm. Savannah was predicted to receive ice, sleet, and some snow.

I turned on the Weather Channel about 9:30pm and began watching. Eww, it sure wasn't looking good. I had my bags ready, but was thinking about alternate options. I really didn't want to be able to leave Detroit and not be able to get out of Charlotte. I was riveted to the Weather Channel until about 0100 Wednesday morning. I had been checking the airline's website, and the Charlotte to Savannah flight showed it was cancelled.  Ugh.

So I called the airline's phone number, was on hold over 20 minutes, but it was finally my turn, and a nice lady connected the line.

She looked up my itinerary and said the flight was showing as active on her end. We talked about changing the outbound flight to Thursday; I looked on my computer and she looked on hers and told me it would be an extra $30+  to change the flights. Did I want to do that??

Just then, the Weather Channel's radar updated, and the newest radar showed the storm moving beyond both Charlotte and Savannah. I figured that by the time I was there, (12:30 ish pm)  the weather would have kind of resolved, and decided not to change the flights, and to go with my current itinerary. I thanked her very much for her time and took myself to bed for a 3 hour nap.

When I looked at the Weather Channel again it was the same radar loop, until 0500 when the next programming started (Wake Up With Al, I think it was called).  The updated information was amazing--Atlanta was still frozen in place, and it was still zero degrees and below in Michigan.

I got to the airport in good time, found a parking place, (wrote it down so I could find my car again), got into the terminal and through security, and settled in to wait for the flight, which was On Time.

In Charlotte, there were lots of people in lines trying to reschedule the flights that had been cancelled the previous day.  The 2 morning flights to Savannah had been cancelled, and my flight was the first one to be going. It was a small 50-seat plane, and it was full. (There was no "jetway"-- we had to go outdoors down the steps, and then up the steps into the plane. Never done that before...)  The gentleman behind me made a phone call after getting in his seat--he was last one on--and said "I'm finally on a plane. Can you believe it--it's been 40 hours..."  Yikes.

That was exactly what I did not want to experience.

But it worked out fine for me.

Jeremy and Matilda were waiting for me, and she smiled when I spoke to her. It was good to see Jeremy, and when we got back to the house, Jenny, too.

I've had a great visit so far.  It's cold here--29 at night, 34 today. They only got an hour or so of freezing rain. It's strange to see ice on the plants and vehicles, and icicles hanging from the mailboxes.

Tomorrow is predicted to be high 30's.

My sinuses and ears feel swollen today. I've taken tylenol and motrin, used a nasal inhaler, and drank a bunch of water. I do think it's better tonight.

I'm hugging 'em while I got 'em.

Thank you for reading. Hugs.