After 20 and 1/2 hours of flying I finally arrived at Denver International Airport at 7:15pm last night. I had left Florence Italy some 21 hours or so earlier on the long journey. I made it to Frankfurt Germany ok but then was delayed due to light snow, de-icing and apparently waiting for a half a dozen passengers from a connecting flight. That coupled with fierce headwinds of 200 kilometers an hour resulted in a 9 and 1/2 hour flight to Dulles (Washington D.C.) and me missing my connection to Denver. Upon landing I was told they had me on a noon flight today which I would have been on had I not been the type of person to question authority. I kindly but sternly told the lady at the connection desk that that just would not work for me. Magically I was on a flight 60 minutes later but in seat 34B which is in the middle in the back. I didn’t much care as I was just happy to make it home on Ty’s birthday.
The trip was long but successful. We had a couple mishaps including Antonio rolling his Fiat and ending up in the hospital and Luisa going into town one night alone and supposedly being drugged and robbed at a bar (long story!) before also ending up in the hospital! Throw in a late night or two including one until 3:30am watching the Bronco’s lose (WTF) and it made for a long long trip. Yes it was Italy but I might have well have been in a hotel in Cincinnati as I didn’t see much else but the inside of an office.
I sure enjoyed the misses writing while I was gone, as I’m sure you did too, and will have to get here to continue as she paints a much prettier picture of life and tells more about the kids and our life than I do. She joked she was going to drift into politics several times but waited for me to get back!
I woke this morning just before 4am and feel pretty good. I fell asleep a bit after 9pm so I snuck in 7 hours or so. I’ve started the laundry, fed the dogs and will soon head to the gym. Both boys have literally grown in the 8 days since I left. They look and act so much older and were happy to see me at the airport. Both boys ran up to me and almost knocked me over when I walked out of the terminal. My lovely wife looks great as usual and everything here at home was fine. I’ll have to give her some kind of break this weekend and take the boys somewhere and send her to the spa or something. Both boys have birthday party’s tonight with the oldest guy having a sleep over. I’d prefer he stay home as I miss him and he also has baseball tryouts tomorrow morning as you know a bunch of 11 year olds are not going to go to sleep early!
Well my second cup of strong coffee is kicking in so I should get ready and head to the gym before I miss my window. In Italy I start the day with 2 doppio (double) espresso’s so a couple cups of coffee here is about the same dose. The boys have Monday off (Martin Luther King Day) and except for a call at 9am and a meeting at 10am and one at 5pm (who scheduled that one!) I’m going to try to spend the day with the kids. Maybe we’ll go to the stock show!
Hope everyone is well, it’s great to be home, 8 days without my family is just too long for all of us but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Take care, stay safe and God Bless.
The Dawn of Time…and…220,000,000B.C., Â Â Â Ty’s cake minus the black frosting.
