Wednesday, July 21st
Greyhound managed to pull in about a half an hour late (average for them), and we were off. This was much unlike last time when they had bus problems delaying us for a good 4-5 hours. All aboard!!!!!!!
The Greyhound trip was pretty uneventful, aside from the fact that the route from Waterloo to Chicago had changed drastically since the last time I took the trip. It was to be expected though.
We were supposed to pull into Chicago about 10 pm, ended up doing so at 930, despite the half hour late start, which was a pleasant surprise.
The Journey is officially under way.

Thursday, July 22nd
After crashing at my sister’s place, it’s off to Ohare where I picked up a flight out to Seattle. That was a bit interesting, as the gate mysteriously changed from what was printed on my ticket, and the president’s plane was in OHare, meaning that it was a bit jumbled, but good. We survived pretty well. While on the way out , my sister called and said her flight was delayed 2 hours, while mine was right on time. At the time I thought it odd, but really didn’t put two and two together. Silly me, right?
We landed in San Fran on time, for the connecting flight, only to find 1/2 hr delays there as well. So, I got stuck for a bit there, but no big deal.
Getting into SeaTac was a bit of a mess, trying to find luggage was even worse. There’s enough luggage ramps for one to literally get lost in. Thankfully I got luggage just before they took it back to storage.
Luggage in hand, it’s off to find the shuttle van. Originally, mom was to pick me up, but she didn’t have a car, so I grabbed the address out of the laptop case and off I was. Talk about an adventure in and of itself. 30 minutes it took just to find the right place and get registered.

Friday, July 23rd
Today was movie day, relaxed, enjoyed @ moms, basically vegged out, doing nothing. Probably the only peaceful time @ her place during the whole trip.
Towards the end of the day, she mentions that she’s got a friend who needs computer work and calls them (from my phone of course). Well, we go out there, and I look at things, discovering that I need something I don’t have. No biggie, sometimes stuff just can’t be done. I tell her this and apologize. She understands completely.
We get back to mom’s place, watch another movie and just crash.

Saturday, July 24th
Today was less laid back, a bit more hectic.
Cable guy comes in around 8am, sets stuff up, says that he can’t run the cable across mom’s front room (where the TV is) because of company policy. Well, that’s understandable. So, what has to be done? I get the pleasure of moving her entire living room around. Ugh!
Called Jodi, she and Ewi were coming out to pick me up for what (I thought) would be a couple of hours. Well, lo and behold mom had something she wanted my help with, that was outside of the house, shopping or some stuff. So, I went, all the time looking at the clock on my phone, wondering just how close she’d decide to push it. She knew that I had a time limit, yet poked, putzed and prodded at this and that, finally driving me to push her along. What is it with people that don’t understand time frames, appointments and being late.
We get back to the apartment and 10 minutes later, Jodi calls and says “hi, I’m here”, so I’m off.
I get into the car and it’s like “Oh, you don’t have any stuff?” Turns out that they wanted me to crash. Miscommunication, my bad, actually turned out for the better. So, I run back up to mom’s place and grab stuff to enjoy, including the laptop and off we go!
Their place is absolutely beautiful, it’s amazing!

Sunday, July 25th
Car Show! Pictures abound. Poke through, enjoy!
Argosy Cruise, absolutely amazing! We saw enough to keep me absolutely amazingly happy, from Bill Gates’ house to the founder of Nintendo to U.W. , all along the side of the lake, which, again was absolutely amazing. Pictures in album.
Originally the plan was to go back to mom’s Sunday night, but by the time we got off the cruise, we figured it’d be best for me to crash @ Jodi’s again. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met right there.

Monday, July 26th
Back to moms and the adventure begins. Dad’s arrived in town and now it’s time to figure out the plan for the next few days.
We’ve got to figure out schedules for visiting my brother, and if we can even VISIT my brother, as he’s in rehab. Unfortunately, details aren’t mom’s specialty, so I have to call and firm things up. Well, they won’t work like that (I’m not on the official contact list, or wasn’t), so they have to speak to mom. Try explaining that details need firming up, and a yes or no answer is needed to someone who’s so laid back she just flat out doesn’t care about yes or no, and is happy to leave voice mails. Ugh. At one point we thought we wouldn’t get to, but we did get to see Robert. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring in my camera for that one. This was the first time our entire family had been together in 15 years (and understandably so).
Once schedules had been firmed up, it was then time to look @ mom’s computer and go back over to her friend’s place to fix hers, as I now had the data necessary to do so (thanks Ewi and Jodi!!!)
3 hours after we get over to her friend’s place, I declare things setup, fixed and done (which they were). A total of 5 hours working on that for nada, nothing. Oh well.
We get back and mom’s pc is still in pieces in her room. Well, the BIOS chip had to be adjusted so that I could override the BIOS passwd. Unfortunately, it was long and tiring work (you try stripping out a drive, 2 CD’s, a floppy, a zip drive from an ancient board), and it was done. Well, now it’s time to play with getting it back in. Unfortunately, bios didn’t like her drive, so it was a mess. I told ‘er I’d finish Tuesday.

Tuesday, July 27th
Finally, the day for visiting my brother had arrived, and it’d been confirmed that yes, we could. Of course, it’s later in the evening/afternoon, so , again, I start working on the BIOS and pc, as well as watch RAW from the night before. Around noon’ish, I started laundry, cleaning up, declaring the pc unusable, old hardware, all that.
330 rolls around,my sister calls and said she’s an hour or so late. No biggie, but I’m a bit stressed, because the meeting is an hour or so away and at 545. We get there, in one piece and (barely) on time.
The meeting with Robert went as expected, little personal time, originally the plan (on their side) was to have us go through an hour long counseling session for 15 minutes of “personal” time. Well, we weren’t the ones that needed the lecture or counseling, so that didn’t exactly appease us. Robert came out and hung out with us for the lecture time, as well as afterwards.
Back to moms for one final attempt at fixing the pc. Unfortunately, it was not successful, and she got upset over that. I packed everything up for the remainder (or start of) the vacation.

Wednesday, July 28th
Over the hills and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go!!!!
We left Seattle around 1130am headed for Spokane, an expected 5, 5.5 hour drive. The drive is absolutely boring, the hills and pass just seem to be the same all over the freeway.
Finally, we get in around 430p, call grandma and kick back. Pictures aren’t as detailed there, but her house is absolutely amazing. The yard, the deck, all of it, it’s amazing. It needs a bit of development, obviously, but it is absolutely, wonderfully amazing!
After dinner, we call up my aunt, go look @ her place, examine how many changes she’s made in the past few years since I lived there, and just go “OOOOOOOH”. I didn’t think to bring my camera along on that trip otherwise I’d have pictures of that. Her house is absolutely beautiful, and her dogs are amazing, snow dogs. Beyond the house she has a pond which she’s been working on for a while, it’s grown a good bit since I left a few years ago.
After Debi’s, we head to the bar (her bar), which had as much as moved across the street and doubled, if not tripled in size. The place is absolutely beautiful. Again, if I’d had a camera, I would have pictures, but it was late, and they probably wouldn’t have turned out well anyways.

Thursday, July 29th
In the truck and on the way from Spokane to Sequim for the final leg of the vacation. Well, the final leg of the vacation part anyways
We took off from Spokane around noon’ish, and got into Moses Lake between one and two. Pretty typical, stop, gas, stretch the legs. By the time we get back over to Kirkland, it was 430, and my sister had to take care of some stuff @ her friend’s place. We hit the road officially for Sequim around 500.
We get to Sequim between 7 and 8, finding my uncle’s place very nice, if mnot a bit bare. Of course that was expected, as they’d just moved in (Thursday would be their 14th night there). The home itself was beautiful, the property a bit bare, but to be expected, and that problem would soon be remedied
Pizza, BS and a few hours later we’re off to bed. Nothing major, except for a bit of driving.

Friday, July 30th
As is typical for the whole vacation, I’m up between 8 and 9, dad and his brother have been up for a bit. We got into the truck, went into town for a few things, came back and started work. Believe it or not, I actually WORKED during the vacation, not a lot because of my back, but I did a bit of it.
We get back in, only to find that I’ve got my neck so burned that it’s impossible for me to sit comfortably. Thankfully my aunt knew of something that just (literally) took the pain right out. She checked the next morning and it was great. No burn @ all, beautiful stuff there!!!!
The girls cook dinner, then, excited to be doing something, go out and hammer away. Pictures in the album, as always.
All in all, a VERY productive day!

Saturday, July 31st
Morning saw some work on the shed, though I didn’t help that much (back problems, shoulder was a bit out of it still), although I helped a bit.
Towards the afternoon, we all headed towards the lake, which was eventful. Because I had no shorts (or thought I did), I didn’t go in, but took some pretty damn good pictures of the whole thing. Thankfully, it wasn’t AS sunny and hot as it had been, though it was still a bit.
Getting back from the lake, we did the barbecue and family thing. Thankfully we’d gotten enough done on the shed for the time being. Spent some time with the grandparents and watched a home movie of stuff put together by my cousin. Good movie

Sunday, August 1st
Things start wrapping to a close, as dad wants to get the floor (or a part of it) on the shed by the time he leaves @ 3pm. He, my uncle and cousin were out there working feverishly for a couple hours , leveling the beams, etc. Finally, around 330, the floor is put on and he leaves.
The trip back with my sister begins quietly, like she’s pissed @ something, so I let it go, whatever it is, she doesn’t want to talk.
Halfway into the trip, she gets a call from her daughter, my niece and carries on a conversation for a good 30-45 minutes, as traffic slowly progresses along the highway. When I attempt to call my ride @ the other side of the ferry though, I’m yelled @, which, obviously ticks me right the fuck off, but we’ll get there later.
Finally, we’re almost @ kingston, yet Queen B has to make another stop, of course, she’s got to make 3 trips into the store, for piss, food, drink, gas, all that, and then to clean the windows. Of course, she does all this shit knowing damn well that I’ve got to meet people on the other side at a certain time. I swear to fucking god, people in this family have NO clue about fucking schedules and arriving early, on time or anything of the like. Kinda reminds me of Mike at times, but at least he’s reliable when it comes to important shit, much more than i can say for either my mom OR my sister.
We pull out to find that there’s a 2 hour delay (already knew that), and it’s like “well, ok, you can walk on if you don’t want to wait”. Because I don’t want to wait, I DO decide to walk on and ask for a ride up to the terminal (maybe 3 minutes drive). Of course, Queen B decided to be a total *censored* about that as well, so I pick up my bags from the back of the truck and hoof it. Thankfully, someone picked me up and ran me up to the terminal, because I never would have made it.
Anyways, I get on the ferry, only to discover a call from my sister when I get settled (with 3 bags, damn near weighing 50+ pounds combined), fucking me out, claiming she “didn’t like the way I left in a huff”. Hrrrrm, some people are so fucking self conceited that they can ONLY think of themselves and not how their actions affect others I guess. That’s the ultimate definition of selfish. Of course when I told her why I was pissed, her response was quite the 3 year old one:

“dude, it’s my car, I’ll gas it when I want, I’ll do what I want with it”..

Well, technically, it’s NOT your car! Technically, the car belongs to the individual whom you were supposed to be housesitting for, yet slacked off.
The ferry gets in and Ewi helps carry my crap to the car (thanks SOOOOO much man), we go back to their place, kick back and enjoy dinner, beer and games. I knew I brought the PS2 for something!

Monday, August 2nd
Weeeeeeeell, the day started out beautifully (as did the other 2 @ Jodi’s), walking out looking at the absolutely beautiful park she’s got in her back yard, it’s absolutely beautiful, pictures in the album (of course)
I get to the airport for my 4pm flight @ 1:45, perfectly on time and absolutely clueless about the hell that was to follow. It’s 8pm, and I’m STILL sitting in fucking SeaTac, because United the jackass airline can’t pull a spare plane out of their asses to accommodate passengers.
The official (united) reason:

We are waiting on a plane from DC which will get in around 935 local time. We will begin loading as quickly as possible.

My only question:
Do they only have ONE fucking airplane? Who the *censored* are these people to keep over 100 passengers waiting (minimum) 5 hours. Come the *censored* ON! Talk about a poorly run company.
Of course this throws everything off, costing ME more money. United’s reimbursement? A $7.50 meal voucher. Oh goodie, that might (might) buy a hamburger @ SeaTac.

Thoughts, all that in the next entry
TJW