I've been sort of sick for over a week. Really sore, painful, raw throat. Swollen sinuses. Occasional slight temperature. But not really sick. Just sort of sick.
From the airport in ATL to arriving in RDU - I actually got better and thought "finally, this thing is going away".
Until last night and today.
Whatever it is - it has finally won. My temperature has been up to 100 - every bone and joint aches - can't breath - congestion - and my throat is killing me.
I've made a 'walk in' appointment for tomorrow.
At least I got home before it all went to Heck.
Anyway - back to Christmas.
*Friday
What a surprise!
Took a late afternoon flight to Atlanta to spend Christmas with my brother; sister-in-law; niece and hubby (Chis) and their 2 girls (great-nieces).
RDU Terminal 2 is almost all glass - so I'm watching the plane pull in and passengers disembark. The gate agents announce the plane is totally full - and they need 40 carryon's to be gate checked. OK by me. So I'm the first one up to the gate desk.
While the agent is checking and tagging my bag - the pilot walks off the ramp to the desk - HEY! It's Chris!
(niece's husband? nephew-in-law? nephew" - I'm going with nephew - I like that best)
What a nice surprise! Chris works for Delta. He arranged to pilot the flight I was on. That was really nice and made me feel really special and welcome to Georgia for Christmas for the first time. Not to mention, the ride home from ATL airport.
Chris and Charlsanne grilled hamburgers for dinner. Yummy.
Saturday - Christmas Eve
Great weather - low 70's.
Walked around Senoia Georgia. Didn't know that Senoia is the location for ton's of movies and TV shows. Just about as much as Wilmington / Southport is in NC. Let's see - that took about 5 minutes. Senoia is small. Really small - maybe twice the size of Pittsboro (near me).
After wards, some toys for the girls needed assembling. Rode with Chuck to deliver another toy to a Church neighbor. Temporarily lost my phone and camera (set them down on the swing set teeter totter and promptly forgot them - found them later that night.)
Chuck and Brenda cooked out steaks. I love grilling - hamburgers one night, steaks the next - Bill was a very happy camper.
Let's see - I'm sure there was other stuff that happened - but I can't remember.
Christmas
Early up and on to Chris' and Charlesanne's and Maddy's and Maci's. It's always fun to watch kids open presents. They get so excited and happy. The big thing was a trampoline and a basketball goal. And an ipod (to play music. Yep - Frozen is still popular.) When I was a kid - I wanted a trampoline - never got one. These new ones have a lot of safety features built in. The girls were having a ton'o'fun on it.
Christmas dinner was roasted Cornish game hens (again - one of my favorites). The girls got served first, I'm getting their water and milk and teasing them a little about the hens.
Maci: "What are these?"
Me: "What are Cornish Hens? Ohhh, Cornish Hens are like little baby chickens. All nice and sweet and fluffy and fun and peeping and cute".
Maddy: "And then you fry them"
ROFL
Baked apples and veggies and corn casserole. Again - great home style food. I like going out to eat and trying interesting stuff at restaurants. But for times like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July - nothing beats straight forward ol fashion comfort food.
Took an early evening flight back to Raleigh. Again - a full plane but this time they didn't ask for bag checks. Looked like everything got stuffed into the overheads and below the seats. Everybody is in a good mood, even with the lines.
Thanks Brenda and Charlsanne (and Chris and Chuck for operating the grill. And driving the Airplane).
The girls are keepers
(Side note - TSA in Raleigh was fine - cheerful, happy - except for the one sniffer dog pompous jackass. Atlanta - the stereotypical TSA process - grumpy, abrupt, aggressively rude, almost surly. I guess it's the repetitive heavy workload. Or maybe they're just plain jerks who know they can't be fired. In fairness - The guy operating the ATL body scanner was pleasant to people.)
Fever and throat woke me up a couple times last night. Actually got ready to go into the office - and basically stopped and sat down in the living room - realized - it's a no-go.
The only thing I've managed is to change batteries in the garage remotes. Later I need to change out the smoke alarm back up batteries.
And - I want to program a new, third garage remote. You have to get out a ladder, open the door opener motor unit - and push a couple buttons inside the unit to sync the remote.
I hope I don't fall off the ladder. If nobody sees me online for a couple days - you might want to call one of the neighbors to check to see if there's an old fat guy on the garage floor.
Merry Christmas.
*Inside Joke
Hey Boseman - I finally win one! LOL
