Home and Texas

Jan 26, 2015 Home and trip to  Texas


The end of January was filled with thoughts of going home.  It has been a year since I saw the grandkids and the rest of the family and all my friends.  This time I am giving myself lots of time, since there is nothing going on in Fiji except waiting for the cyclone season to be over.  With me out of the way, Alan should be able to work full speed on all of the projects.  He won’t have to worry about cleaning up and putting things away every night.

I go shopping several days in a row,   Need to be sure Alan has enough food to eat while I am gone since he hates taking the bus to town and shopping, if he runs low he will just eat out.   I pack and repack and pack again.  Just when I think I am done, I read the small print on the plane ticket and discover that Fiji Airways wants one 50 lb bag instead of the two 25 lbs ones that I have packed, so I need to repack one more time.  Eventually it is done.  The taxi is scheduled and I head to the bar to wait.  When the driver shows up there are “good-bye”s and safe journey”s for everyone and I am off.  Headed home for the  first time in a year. 

I am going from Fiji to LAX and then straight on to Texas to see my brother and his family for several days and then back to LA.  The flight is not full so I can stretch out and sleep.  Customs is easy and I am checked into Southwest with time to spare.  I land in Houston on time and am soon waiting at the curb for Steve to pick me up.  I had emailed my flight schedule weeks ago and confirmed it just before I left.  I don’t have a phone but my iPad will pick up email messages in the airport.  After waiting over half and hour I check my messages and discover he is waiting upstairs at departures since he thinks there is less traffic there.  He had actually suggested this earlier but I had declined, seeing that I don’t know my way around the airport, and tired and have a VERY heavy duffel bag without wheels.  I message him to tell him I am waiting downstairs and he sends back that he is upstairs.  I am not going to try to figure out how to get up there with these bags so I wait.  Eventually he shown up.  It is almost midnight and there is no traffic.  When he lifts my bag into the trunk he is surprised by how heavy it is.   My point exactly.

Steve moved last year into a beautiful house on a lake in Houston but it needs a lot of work and he has been too busy to take care of it.  So Sharon, who is getting married first, has taken charge and is determined to whip it into shape by her wedding day in March.  Both girls are getting married this year.  Since I can’t be there for the weddings, this is my chance to meet the boys .  Everyone shows up for dinner Saturday night and we have a wonderful time.  Elisa’s fiancé is a wonderful cook and makes a delicious baked salmon for dinner.  We end the evening in the hot tub under the stars

When I cleaned out the house before we left home, I sent a lot of the family antiques and heirlooms to Steve for the kids.  Now that they all three have their own homes, I was interested to see how they had divided it all up.  Turns out, no one had even opened the boxes.  They were just moved from Austin to Texas and stuffed into the closets.  There were two sets of good china that should go to the girls buried n there somewhere.  Meanwhile, Steve is using stuff that he got from the thrift shop.  So I spent much of my time there cleaning out closets and sorting the good stuff from the junk.  I found my mother’s good china which Steve had had since mom dies and did not know that he had.  Also found my grandmother’s Havalind china set.  Boxes and boxes were set aside for the thrift shop by the time I left and the good family heirlooms were displayed in the china cabinets instead of being hidden in boxes in the closet.  And the kids know where stuff is when they are ready to move it into their new homes.