One Final Word

I know that the holiday season has now been over for several weeks. The decorations are securely stowed in the garage, the tree has been properly disposed of, and all of the unwanted presents have been returned or exchanged. The new year is here and we are all back to our normal, run-of-the-mill work schedules. However, if you will afford me the privilege, I would like to offer one final word from our family about our holiday vacation. By clicking here, you can view this final word or you can watch it on the player below. (Please Note - Because of the size of this video file, your browser may require several minutes to download the entire thing. Just click "Play", and wait for the download to complete.) By the way, the footage containing all of those complete strangers was taken at Denver International Airport several hours after it reopened from the first blizzard. Enjoy the flick and we hope your new year is off to a smashing start!

Back in the Saddle

(The following is my TWIRP for the week of January 1-6, 2007. Enjoy...)

All good things must come to an end. Or so the saying goes. And they usually come to an end much more quickly than one would want. Such was the case with our Christmas vacation. Once we finally arrived in Colorado, we were rather reluctant to leave. It's not that we don't enjoy Ohio, because we do. It just that...well, it's kind of nice staying in a big house with lots of people and lots of DVD's and lots of food and lots of hands to help with the diaper changing and lots of heat! (My parents keep their house quite a bit warmer than we do.) So it was with heavy hearts and heavy suitcases that we bid my parents farewell just outside the security checkpoint at Denver International Airport early in what proved to be a rather long day.

We were able to fly directly from Columbus to Denver at the beginning of vacation (albeit two days late). We were not so fortunate in returning to Columbus. The only flight that I could find on January 1st that was even remotely within our price range included not 1 but 2 stops. This meant that we got to visit 4 airports in 4 cities in 4 states spread across 3 time zones in approximately 7 hours! In the future, I will do anything short of donating a kidney in order to avoid repeating this process. Eldan behaved very well for most of the day, but he reached his limit during our last flight. We sat on the tarmac for over 30 minutes in a completely filled 737-300. Eldan started screaming. Not just crying, but screaming! I think that some people were getting irritated, but I couldn't really blame Eldan. If I didn't think I would be hauled away for doing so, I would probably have done the same thing.

Eldan did eventually fall asleep, and our plane did eventually leave the gate and the ground. Several hours later we pulled up to our modest abode in Heath only to discover that we could not get in. The front door was locked and chained. The only other way in is through the garage, but the garage door opener was in the car which was in the garage which was securely closed. Needless to say, my wife and my son were both thrilled at this unfortunate turn of events. I succeeded in gaining an entrance to our home only by sawing through the chain on the front door. Normally, I would be irritated at the thought of the added expense of buying a new chain, but at that point...I was just glad to be home.

School resumed on Wednesday, and I jumped back into the teaching saddle with both feet. (Which is a strange way to get in a saddle, let me tell you!) All three of us have been trying to fight off a pesky sinus infection, but have been unsuccessful thus far. As I type this, I am riding on a crowded school bus which is headed back home from Wood County, West Virginia. My basketball team and I suffered a pretty severe loss earlier tonight. At present, our record is 2-4. We're all a little disappointed, but the guys seem to have a really good attitude about the team. That is very encouraging to a rookie coach like myself. There's no time to sulk, however, because we have another game in approximately 12 hours!

Although we are still in mourning over the end of the holidays, we are all doing well and enjoying all of our Christmas "stuff." Basketball season is here in full force, and the weekend awaits...