Shorts to Shivers

My brother drove us to the airport at 8:30 on Friday night. We left Honolulu International Airport at 10:30. I could not sleep a wink for the 6+ hours flight to Salt Lake City and saw the sun rise over the gorgeous snow clad mountainous state. It was breathtaking! We used our 3 hours layover to grab a lunch at an airport restaurant called Squatters.

Then we got the news. An hour delay, they said. Then we boarded the teeny tiny airplane and waited for take off. The pilot reported snowfall in Chicago. There would be a delay as we waited for O'Hare to clear us for landing. They told us 50 minutes. An hour went by and a report that it would be another hour. We left about 2:00 PM.

We finally arrived in Chicago and saw the sun go down. I've never seen anything like this in all our travels. We could see the lights of the city glowing orange under the blanket of overcast clouds. One area of sky held a tall wall of clouds that seemed so solid you could touch it. The city itself was covered in glistening snow. There was a back-up of planes trying to land so we were put in a holding pattern... Sigh...

Two years old KC and her mother greeted us at baggage pick-up and we were very excited to see that she had not forgotten us after the four months of separation. I have discovered that she does indeed have a name for me. My name is Gobby. Gobby? Art is Poppa. After just a tiny bit of shyness, she is pulling us along to play with her.

It was the most incredible feeling to see our town again. I couldn't help but feel an ache as we traveled past all our familiar and favorite places. I'd missed it all.

Entering our old home which is now filled with KC's things, I felt rather strange. Where was the piano that I used as a catch-all? Where were the crocks that I used to hold our newspapers?

And snow? There was a good 10 inches of snow outside that poor Tif has had to shovel all by herself. Luckily, we've got amazing neighbors here who help whenever they can.

When I woke this morning I was completely disoriented. I kept thinking it was Saturday. With no sleep for 24 hours, I slept this morning until 10:45 and am still extremely jet lagged. Is it really Sunday?

Adding to all that, I've only got dial-up so no real blogging until we're at KC's home in Chicago. I might be suffering blogging withdrawal for a month.

Gosh... we might have the slowest dial up in the country here.
Sigh....

Uh oh... it's snowing again.