Greetings from the Pacific Northwest

Well, I made it out here on Sunday with almost no problem. We had a slight delay getting out of Denver. Seems the plane we were to get on needed to have a mechanical issue checked. Someone "perceived a strange sound" coming from one of the doors while in flight, like the seal might not be airtight. Since maintaining cabin pressure at 30,000 feet is probably a good thing, they were checking it out. It appeared to my untrained eye, that their method of checking this problem out involved putting a guy on a lift outside of the door, while they increased cabin pressure inside the plane. The guy outside the door then moved his hands around the edge of the door, where it should be sealed tight to the fuselage, to see if he could detect any air coming out. Hmmm. Perhaps using a cat with really long whiskers to see if they moved in the breeze might have been more effective. THIS is how you test for a leaking seal on a plane?? For whatever reason they decided to replace the seal, we left an hour late and that was fine. I managed to get to Portland, find my rental car and arrived at my grandparents house to visit for a bit with them and my aunt and uncle and cousin who I haven't seen in 15 years who were visiting from Minnesota. Then I drove an hour south to Salem where my parents live.

It has been a good visit so far. It is hard to see both of my parents struggling with health related issues. As a recovering cardiac patient, my mother is doing well. She is struggling with the sadness and depression that often follow heart surgery, but she is following doctors orders and taking medication. My dad is still working out how to do some things around the house. He had a stroke several years ago, which didn't really leave a lot of physical damage, but it has slowed him down. It takes him a LOT longer to do anything these days. My job will be to make sure there is a plan for chores getting done, like the vacuuming, the laundry and shopping.

Bob reports that Cooper has not had much of an appetite and isn't going to sleep on his normal schedule. He had to bring him home from daycare again on Monday with a fever. ARGH. There is hand, foot and mouth disease, otherwise known as the coxhackie virus, going around at school. He stayed home Tuesday too, but seems to be fine now. Bob says when they get to school in the morning, which is on the campus where I work, Cooper says "Mama, mama" looking for me. ARGH again. I miss them both, but this is the first time I have been away from Cooper and it is HARD. I know he is off his game because he misses me. Just a few more days little bean.