Good evening my loyal and faithful readers. This is coming to you from The Holiday Inn Express in Bartow, FL, in the morass known as Polk County aka Polk F**king County aka PFC.
Man ... there was a bizarre experience on the flight down. What ... you are no doubt breathlessly asking? Well ... actually there were two ...
First ... the plane was about an hour late arriving at the gate at LGA. I later learned from one of the flight attendants that the reason was that the flight originated in Tampa in the morning and the wings were iced up. It being Florida, the Tampa airport had no de-icing equipment so that had to wait for the sun to rise and melt the ice ... kinda weird thought I but not nearly as weird as the second part ...
Here goes ... about 30 minutes before we were to start the boarding process, on a whim, I went to the gate agent to see if by any chance there was an exit row seat still available.
I smiled big at her. She did the usual click click clicking and smiled back at me and said yes there was one left ... seat 33A. Hot Damn!!
The seat was in Zone 1, meaning I was with the first non-first class passengers to board. I walked down the aisle, carryon in tow, looking for row 33.
Here they were ... 30 ... 31 ... 32 ... then ... 35 ... 32 to 35??? WTF!!! Where were rows 33 & 34?? I double-checked my boarding pass and it was still said 33A. I had not had a senior moment.
There was a service galley where the rows were supposed to be. WTF?? And ... suddenly there was a glut of people like me standing in the aisle with puzzled looks on their faces, looking at their boarding passes. WTF?? I think there were 6 of us. The aisle was backed up.
We finally got the attention of one of the flight attendants and she crowded all 6 of us into the now cramped galley area. The boarding process was stopped as they tried to figure out what had happened.
I remembered hearing the gate agent telling someone that the flight was almost sold-out ... my heart began to pound. My God, thought I==>I gave up my original seat, 14C, for a seat that doesn’t exist. WTF??
Well ... to make a long and frustrating story somewhat shorter ... what had happened ... in Tampa the night before they had changed planes and apparently, for some unknown reason, that information was not entered into the LGA computers so the seating configuration was different.
Luckily they found seats for we “displaced 6” and the flight left, now only 90 minutes behind schedule. One of the flight attendants told me that she had worked for Delta for 24 years and had never experienced something like this.
Oh, Norris Travel Curse==>you are indeed sneaky and resourceful.
The flight down was uneventful and I am happy to report that we made up a lot of time and we were only about 30 minutes behind schedule when we touched down in Tampa.
I got my rental car ... a VW Beetle ... yeah ... I love them ... and was at The Holiday Inn Express around 3:30.
Met up with Dr. John and Kathi, who are also staying here. We headed out around 6:00 to Gina’s dad’s (Dave) house in Winter Haven.
It was a family gathering with relatives from both sides of everyone’s family and that was nice. It was also very emotional as we were celebrating two awesome events==>(1) Gina and the soon-to-be-born Little Falletta and (2) Alex’s safe arrival from his long flight from his current assignment in Kuwait.
In the first picture==>Bill III aka The Bill is on the left, Kathi in the middle (in this family she is ALWAYS sandwiched between the guys) and Alex aka Army Guy on the right.
We had lots of pizza. Alex put on a show with some awesome pictures he had taken during his assignment in Baghdad.
I actually got to feel the baby kicking.
Yes ... that in itself was worth the trip down. The baby was probably indicating that she was ready to get on to the next phase of her life. Well ... so are we all ...
And speaking of that ... as I write this at 8:00pm ... Gina has checked into Lakeland Regional Hospital and “they” will begin the process of inducing labor tonight with expectations that Little Falletta will be born on Saturday. I, of course, will be there whenever it happens.
Moving on ...
Today has been a very strange day. Thank goodness the weather has greatly improved.
The first thing I did this morning was go over to the office of my trusty and highly professional travel agent, Blanche Bryant, to change the date of my return flight to The Big Apple. I was scheduled to return in the evening of Wednesday the 11th. I changed it to Tuesday at the same flight time. Yes, I had to pay the outrageous cancellation fee but it is partly offset by savings on the motel and car rental.
Then I went to the storage area I have maintained since I sold my Bartow house back in 1998. My purpose was to get a large painting, not one that I had painted, and have it sent to PHC via UPS. When I got there my key didn’t work. It had been so long since I was last there that the lock had ... for the lack of a better word ... crudded over. WTF thought I.
Luckily one of the staff was able to get things fixed. I was surprised at how many of the paintings that I had done were still in storage. I need to have them with me. But ... will have to get Dr. John to go back with me because the paintings are all too large to fit into the rental Beetle.
Then I went to a nursing home called The Rohr Home to visit Florida Bryant. Florida worked for me for over 20 years and was instrumental in me being able to survive as a single father raising The Bill.
I last saw Florida about 8 months ago and she didn’t recognize me then. Well, she didn’t recognize me this time either ... but at least I was able to check on her and she seems to be receiving excellent care.
Then I called the home of my long time friend, Jack Davis, to see if he felt like company. Jack was a career court system employee and our friendship goes back to High School. His health has been deteriorating over the past several years so I really wanted to see him on this trip ...
Well ... I was informed that Jack was in Bartow Regional Hospital and that ... damn I hate to write this ... he is dying and has only a short time to live. He has been there since December 26th. All of his vital organs are slowly shutting down.
I immediately headed to the hospital and was a bit surprised that I was able to see him. He is attached to all kinds of tubes and stuff. He was awake.
He was surprised to see me, of course. It was very emotional for both of us and we both cried and I am not ashamed to admit this. I didn’t stay long. I asked him if I could come back and his response was ... "Oh, yes, please please do." And, I will.
Ain’t nothing more I can, or want to, say about the day.
So ... on a Friday night I am in The Holiday Inn Express in Bartow, FL, in PFC.
Hopefully by this time tomorrow I will be a Great-grandfather.
GO GINA AND GO ALEX!!
Bill
ALEX-136
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