Traveling on my birthday

So I took my birthday off and had a fairly lazy morning before heading off to the airport.  Once I arrived at the airport, I could tell something was amiss as everyone had that look.

Turns our plane was significantly delayed and the internet access was out at the airport so nothing could be done electronically - like checking in your bags and getting another flight sorted out.  I found this sort of funny and went and had a piece of carrot cake.

After about an hour and a half, the website said the flight was cancelled, and I thought - darn it!  But the gals in Wick said they had a charter flight that was going to Aberdeen and would come back and get us and that is exactly what happened.  Arriving 4 hours late to Edinburgh, we all queued up to resolve our flights.

Even though I'd purchased my ticket on British Airways, they made me rebook a flight with FlyBe.  There was only one lady working the FlyBe counter, and she promptly deleted my ticket in the system and then spent 30 minutes trying to resolve it - all the while the queue was growing, and the flight to London left.

When it was finally sorted, I went and checked in for the next flight to London and was told it was delayed. I found all of this quite funny in a I-can-fly-24-hours-from-San-Antonio-to-Wick-on-6-flight-segments-changing-airlines-3-times-and-not-have-any-problems-but-I-can't-get-from-Wick-to-London sort of way.

I did have a small hissy fit when I got selected for special screening - this was after I'd already had some gal stick her bare hands into my pants to verify I didn't have anything inappropriate there: I didn't.  The special screening itself was not issue, but afterward, I was asked my age, my race and my religion - now this sort of pissed me off - like with no explanation.

So I lodged a complaint - let's face it I had some time.  I did receive a response which I found interesting.  The screeners in the UK are offered gloves, but it is their choice as whether they should wear them or not - what about my choice?  I mean seriously, they stick their bare hands in people's pants all day long - could the be any grosser?!?

For the special screening questions, well they were verifying the selection was indeed random.  Now this just adds additional support to my theory that I am often chosen for screening as I help balance out the statistics - so they can racial profile.  I told her I was a 60 year old hispanic hindu and I was really nasty about it.

After my hissy fit, I waited in the lounge, which was a bit messy but had nice cold Pinot Grigio.  I did finally make it to London on my birthday - just at 15 minutes before midnight - and after a long ride on the Piccadilly line, I arrived at my apartment for the next 3 days and went straight to bed.  I was exhausted.

Coming Down

I totally get just how they feel...

Ambling down to see the man in the blue truck

Will he have something for us - a treat perhaps

It's awful dry in Texas right now - come on, don't you have a treat

Oh well, it was nice to see you

Dad and I did weigh the heifers while we were at the ranch to see which one had gained the most weight.  Doug's Queen Latifah won without much of a struggle.  I found this rather odd as I watched them eating because aka Lord of Flies was very pushy and seemed to be getting most of the food.

Luckenbach, Texas

After a couple of wrong turns, we found this great cafe out in the middle of nowhere.  We all ordered burgers because how could you not in a place that's in the top 3 burgers in Texas.  It was mighty fine and the homemade chips and onion rings were fairly tasty too.

After lunch, we headed off to Luckenbach, population 3 and had a beer sitting under the tree.

I think only Doug had been here before, which is strange because it sort of an institution.  It was lovely and relaxing.  

There were so many roosters running around like a little feathered gang.  Doug was sort of judgy about this rooster that had 2 combs - I thought this was a bit unfair considering some of his chickens had feathers on their feet!

Beer gone, we all said our goodbyes and headed back across the hill country to our respective homes.  As I sat in the backseat watching the land go by, I thought this place is beautiful, and I like these people very much.

Enchanted

Today, we covered a lot of miles and appreciated the Texas hill country, even without any bluebonnets.  

We went down to Ingram and saw Doug's house - it was incredible.  He has repurposed many items from his old wood floor, barn tin ceiling and water tank bed room door.  It gave the house this really homey and completely custom feel - totally cool.

The we headed off to Enchanted Rock.  It was a perfect day with blue skies, 80 degrees and a bit of a breeze that we would need a bit later.  I've never been to Enchanted Rock, so I had no idea what to expect...it is a giant round mound of granite in the middle of the limestone hill country.

Me, Dad and Doug headed for the top.  Mom decided to skip it and good thing as it was harder than it looked.

After a few breaks, some sweating and whining (dad), we arrived on the top and were treated to the most incredible views.  There were quite a few people up there with us, which seemed strange on a Monday - shouldn't they be at work?

Going down was  bit harder than going up because it seemed fairly vertical when looking down.  There were many discussions about rolling to the bottom, but I am pleased to say that there was no rolling, and we all arrived safely back at the beginning.

Good thing too, because by this time, I was starving. After a few false starts, we made it to this cafe in the middle of nowhere that has one of the top 3 burgers in Texas - really they did.

Off to the Gun Shop

Upon waking in my first morning in Texas, my brother - no-guns - called and said, hey I have to go to Austin to pick up my gun - you wanna go? 

Okay, I said.  

We hop in the mini cooper and head off to Austin; as we go I hear about how this place gives discounts to military personnel - which is why we were going to Austin.  Apparently, my brother - no-guns - had ordered 2 guns - Glocks - primarily because he was afraid he might not be able to at some point in the future.

Brother says - oh no, the parking lot is really full.  I had no frame of reference for this because it seemed like an office park to me and wasn't obviously a gun store.  In we went and grabbed a number like at the bakery or butcher.  We were number 23 and they were on number 2.

Huh, I thought.

I wandered around the store.  There is some interesting stuff in this store - but the other customers, well THAT'S INTERESTING.  Many of them were people that you would AUTOMATICALLY - like bioreaction-style think I DO NOT want you to have a gun.  Most of the guns were sold out and required a wait list - there was almost NO ammunition available.

I played with the backpacks. I bought candy.  I ate candy.  I bought drinks.  I played this game where I would pick up random things and say - what is this for?  My brother often had the answer, which was cool.

I contemplated tasers and decided I might want one of those. A later discussion with my father resulted in the revelation that he thought tasers were cruel.  I thought this was alternate universe funny - sorry dad.

Two hours later, our number was up.  Lots of paperwork required - this delusional moment when my brother had indicated he was born in 1977!  HeeHaw!  Then my brother - no-guns - asks how long for a bushmaster.  

A bushmaster looks like a machine gun.  

Guy says not as long as you think.  Sister - no-guns-a-traser-might-be-cool-I-mean-cruel, says you should order one. Brother says - Okay!

Two and a half hours later, our mission complete, we stopped at the drive in Sonic for a burger, corn dog and cheesy tater tots.

America the Beautiful

Business, I mean Pleasure Trip

Two weeks - just a blink yet also a nice lump of time.

It took an unusual 48 hours to get from Thurso to Phoenix, which meant 2 nights stay: one in Aberdeen and one in Atlanta, but I really wasn't in a big hurry as I was travelling on the weekend.  In the scheme of things, everything went to plan, and we arrived in Phoenix on Sunday at lunch time after leaving Thurso on Friday at cocktail hour.

After a quick but necessary trip to Nordstrom's to get my eyebrows sorted, I was ready for a week of conference.  The attendance was down a bit and everyone was noticably not talking about sequestration.  In one of the sessions on groundwater, the term was used by a presenter and everyone visibly flinched - it is a remediation term you know?

I got to see lots of people I hadn't seen for over a year and that is always nice...for the most part. It was a wonderful full moon my second night in Phoenix, and I had the best view from my room.

I had a strange week in a lot of ways when it came to men.  You see, I had a lot of men hitting on me at the conference.  This doesn't happen often in a work environment so when it first happened, I thought wierd, but by the 5th guy, I thought what is going on - please see photo for full moon.

In general, I don't handle this sort of stuff well and my reaction is to just ignore it and this often works.  In this case, it did not always work.  With the week behind me, I laugh at me smacking some guy's hand - like swatting a bee - when he tried to touch my face.  One guy I finally had to explain - look I just don't like you like that and then, look I am really happy and you are not worth jeopardizing my happy.  He interestingly accepted this as reason for refusal.

I don't know what the problem is - but I am ready for it to be OVER.  I was really pasty looking from Thurso and lack of sleep so maybe I was appealing to the caveman like tendency that men have to take care of the weaker sex - PAUSE...for me to laugh like a drain.

On Thursday, I hopped on Southwest and headed for Texas.  I was really pleased to see both of my parental units waiting for me in baggage claim.  Life is good.

Whatcha' Doin'?!?

  

Backyard Bird Watching

Mom and I went outside because we saw this gorgeous butterfly on her geranium.  By the time I got my camera, it was gone.  So we went out on the patio with a glass of wine to wait.  It didn't come back.  Instead, Mom spotted this hawk sitting in a tree in the neighbours yard.

There was a really stupid squirrel sitting underneath the hawk, and we watched the hawk tilt its head straight down to watch the squirrel for quite a while.  Finally, this wren couldn't stand it any longer and sent out an annoying warning, 

and the squirrel took to the trees.

After a bit more waiting, a companion came along and it all made sense.