Well, there have been lots of activities since (most of us) last spoke... buckle up for a bit of a ride!
One of the things that the wife has done in past years is an assignment in New York City for the month of September providing support for the United Nations General Assembly. With us being at a new assignment, with a new boss, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to go this year. After careful deliberation, her local boss signed off on her trip this year. There was nothing saying that I needed to be here during that month, so we planned for me to head back to the states that month as well, to "check on the kids and house." Actually, just an excuse to spend some time back home.
She left Frankfurt in early September, nonstop to JFK. I'll only be able to relate specific parts of her story since I was only involved with a portion of it. A few days later, I flew to Knoxville, connecting through Charlotte. Charlotte shows up again later in my story.
She arrived and settled back into her New York routine, with minimal differences from the activities of previous years. I arrived in Knoxville to meet Cori waiting at the airport for me. We retrieved my checked suitcase and went outside, to find Palmer waiting in the loading area. We got home and surprised the animals... the kids have been in charge for the last few months, and evidently didn't tell the dog and cats that I'd be coming home.
I arrived on Friday night; bright and early Monday morning I had a lab appointment scheduled at my doctor's office. We changed some of my medications before we left, so I wanted to check and make sure that all of my levels looked okay. Later Monday afternoon, I took the cats in for their annual shots and checkup. They both hate vet appointments, and I'm quite sure that neither of them are looking forward to my next visit home, if they think this is what they can expect.
The following day, the boy and I drove to Nashville, and took a Jet Blue flight to La Guardia airport in New York to take up some space in Rebecca's hotel room. He stayed in the city from Tuesday night till Friday morning. This was the first time the wife and boy had seen each other since we moved to Germany. He and I hung out and explored during the day, then hung out with the wife in the evenings. While he was there, he and Rebecca went to a Broadway show (Aladdin, I think), and he went to Book of Mormon on his own. On Friday morning, I put him in an Uber to La Guardia, and he flew back down to Nashville. When he hit the ground in Nashville, he met up with the girl, who had driven his car to Nashville from Knoxville. She got onto a plane to NYC (La Guardia again), and he drove back to Knoxville in the car she'd just driven in. I took an Uber to the airport that night to meet Cori and get her back to the hotel. Her flight arrived late in NYC - she was scheduled to arrive at 10:00 pm, and didn't get to the gate until close to 11:30. Evidently, the plane that was at the gate her plane was scheduled to use had "issues" of some kind. If you read closely, you'll see a parallel later in the story.
Finally collected the girl and Uber'd back to the hotel. That Friday was one of the high stress days in Rebecca's schedule, so she got back to the room after we got there. She and I went down to wander through Times Square for a little while, while Cori decided that she'd had a long day, and wanted to go to bed.
The next day, Rebecca was able to clear out a bit of time, so we met up with one of the guys who'd traveled up from Knoxville for the UN, then metro'd to Little Italy to wander around the Feast of San Gennaro for a little while. We walked down to One WTC and putzed around down there for a little while, then took the metro back to Times Square and the hotel. We took Cori out through Times Square that night, just so she could experience the true chaos once, as she'd never been in the city before.
The next morning, we had breakfast and wandered around a little bit, then jumped in (yet another) Uber for the airport for our 3:00 departure. Our boarding was delayed (still not sure why), and we sat on the plane for a while. After waiting on the plane for a couple of hours, they finally let us back off the plane, to hang around the gate area. And wait. Then, wait some more. Then, they moved us to another gate. Where we waited a couple more hours. Then finally boarded the replacement plane. To then sit and wait for almost another hour while they checked out yet another issue. We ended up flying home without video service, which I truly don't care about; but when that's one of the main selling points of a cut rate wanna-be airline, you'd think that's one of the few things they'd get right. When they came over the PA to tell us that the video system wouldn't be working, the whole plane was so fed up with the delays and the lack of communication from the flight crew that we all yelled that we didn't care about the video, and just wanted to get home.
I'm truly not sure what time we finally took off, or what time we landed in Nashville. I just know that we ended up getting home around 2:30 in the morning on Monday morning. We were supposed to be home around 8.
I hate Jet Blue. The only reason I'll fly them again is to use up the vouchers we got for that debacle. Six homeless guys with a Red Flyer wagon wouldn't have been a much worse choice for our transportation, and we probably wouldn't have been much later getting home. At least we would have had some entertainment on our journey.
The next couple of days passed in a flurry of doctor's appointments and trying to chase down vaccinations of random types.
Cori and I got back on Sunday night (technically Monday morning), and on Thursday I drove to North Carolina to visit with a couple of people. One of my best friends moved to BFE, NC a couple of years ago, so I wanted to see him while I was in the area. Additionally, I need to tell y'all about our trivia nights real quick.
While we lived in Knoxville, we started going to trivia (pretty much) each week. We'd get together with another couple of people we'd gotten to be friends with, and settled into a routine where we'd meet at one of the local hangouts for dinner & random questions, occasionally winning a gift certificate. Our trivia crew grew a bit, ultimately including: S & E (our local friends, a couple), J & A (a coworker of Rebecca's and his girlfriend/fiancé/wife), Rebecca and me, and frequently Cori. This pattern went on for a couple of years. J was the coworker we had gotten together with for lunch while in NYC. S & E moved right outside of Raleigh at about the same time we moved to Germany.
Back to our tale. On the way to visit my friend in NC, I got together with E for drinks in Chapel Hill - S was out of town for a golf tournament (or just to play, not sure which). S & E were planning on coming to Knoxville the following weekend, so I made plans to meet them somewhere around town. After reconnecting with her, I kept driving through and spent the weekend hanging out with my high school buddy, his wife, and his mother in law. I drove back to Knoxville on Sunday morning, in time to catch the Packers game at the bar on Sunday afternoon.
While we've lived in Knoxville, we've been watching Packers games at a local craft beer market with our local Packer Backer club - the club's grown quite a bit since we've moved there. We joined in 2014, member numbers 34 and 35, thank you very much. In the years since, the membership has swelled to over 500 members, and spending just about every game with these folks every football season, we've gotten to know most of the people there. It was good reconnecting with them, especially after telling everyone that we were moving overseas, then showing up for 3 of the first four games this season.
The next week was filled with chasing down and visiting with friends, and getting more damn shots.
Rebecca was initially planning on flying back to Germany straight from NYC, but she was able to change her plans and come to Knoxville for a few days instead. On Thursday night, Rebecca, Cori, J & I went to trivia (just for old time's sake), and won first place. Rebecca took a picture of Cori, J & I, and sent it to the trivia group.
Palmer's girlfriend came to town somewhere in this time (I'm probably getting the order of events all screwy - what do you expect from me?!?!?). Some of our trips around town included random mixes of kids, some didn't. Nothing worth special mention at this point - just normal day to day life.
Saturday night, the wife and I got together with S & E. When I'd gotten together with E in Chapel Hill, there was no mention of Rebecca being in Knoxville, as it wasn't planned at that point. Rebecca and I went to the bar to meet them, and when we saw them pull up, she went and hid, then came out once they'd joined me at the table. S & E are a bit younger than we are, and we jokingly refer to them as "the kids." As Rebecca and I mused to each other: we have quite a bit of history surprising our kids, so it's not much of a jump to put together a surprise for the kids. Over the last few years, S & E have become quite close friends of ours - I officiated their wedding - so it was nice for all of us to be able to get together again.
We got to go to the bar and watch a Packers game with our club again; the last game I'd watched there, there was no plan for Rebecca to be in town, so we were able to surprise our friends there as well once her plans changed. See? It's a pattern!
Monday was Palmer's 21st birthday, in addition to being the day Rebecca left to come back to Germany. We all (Rebecca & I, Cori, Palmer & his girlfriend) went out to breakfast at a local place, so he could have his first legal drink. Had a pitcher of mimosas for the table. Cori had to stick with straight orange juice.
Rebecca & I stopped at a couple of places for some last minute (for her) shopping, then I dropped her off at the airport.
I went back to the house and loaded up Palmer & his girlfriend for more birthday shenanigans. We went to Pigeon Forge to do a tasting at a moonshine distillery. Wandered around the tourist areas, then headed home. Palmer & his girlfriend wanted to get together with some of his coworkers, but that fell through, so we ended up having a little tasting of random alcohol around the house. #JustBadDadThings
The next night, they went out with that coworker (and others), then came home a little loopy; we watched a few episodes of House of the Dragon.
Just hung out and caught up with friends for the rest of the week.
When we booked my flight home, we had scheduled me for a 2 hour layover in Charlotte. American Airlines, in their infinite wisdom, sent me an email prior to my trip, and told me that they'd taken it upon themselves to change my return, evidently deciding that 2 hours was overly generous, and switching me to a 30 minute layover instead. In the week prior to my departure, I went out to the airport (rather than attempting to navigate their oh so helpful customer service number). The ticket agent couldn't figure out why they'd changed me, and switched me to the only remaining option: a ten hour layover in Charlotte, following a 5:05 am departure from Knoxville. Yay. Be at the airport at 4, to sit around for ten hours in a strange airport, arriving in Frankfurt after 24 hours of traveling.
And airlines wonder why people think they suck. If I could have just skipped the Knoxville leg, I could have called those 6 homeless guys and their Red Flyer wagon and slept in a bit longer. Hell, I could have had one of the kids drive me to Charlotte, and they'd have been back home before my initial departure.
I guess it's not just Jet Blue - I've really begun to hate air travel in general. I've frequently wondered how much a good old fashioned ocean liner would cost for future trips back to the states. Even below decks with Jack in third class, I'd have more room than being crammed into the increasingly Lilliputian seats in roach class, and I wouldn't have to deal with all the BS the airlines serve up. I'd just hope they watch out for icebergs.
Maybe I'm just getting old. That's probably it.
Anyway, that's all for now, all the members of our family are back in our (current) rightful places... for now. More shenanigans are afoot, but as is my usual pattern, I'll wait until afterwards to share the events with you. Until then, I'll be yelling at the local kids to "Runter von meinem Rasen!" - that's (per Google Translate) "Get off my lawn!" in German.
Auf wiedersehen!
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