Finally on the Water / Is it Fall already?

Last weekend, I finally got a chance to get out to a lake, and get some time on the water. It was longer than the 45 minutes I spent on the Missouri river for the 4th of July. I got the good ole' skyski out and went flying for a while. Man was that fun, but you relaize when you don't do it all summer, and then go out and ride it, that you get tired really quickly. But, it was fun, none the less, and I was able to get some decent high flying tricks in. I guess now the only way to go higher is get a boat with a wake tower. Hmm.....

Based on the temperatures the last couple days and nights, it's starting to feel alot like fall is setting in. Of course, some people would determine fall because of all the high school sports getting underway. Football was underway this weekend, and volleyball this next week, and soccer has kicked off for the fall also. To me, in my book we're to the fall sports season and school is in so no matter what the "official calendar" says it's pretty much fall, even if the temps stay high. I'm back to busy this week with soccer with games this afternoon and Friday and a week from today. Good thing they give me 5 days to recover, because I keep getting older, and these kids are always staying the same age.

Yesterday, I had an interesting expirience at Coborns. I pulled up to get gas and groceries and I was instantly directed to pull up to a pump here close to 60 people were standing around at various pumps directing you into the lane, then filling your car up with gas, and giving $.50 a gallon off! That's a nice change at the pump for sure. That brought the price of the gas I paid to $1.99 a gallon. Turns out that three local churches got together and did a community out reach where the purpose of this was to use the gas station as an oulet to invite people in the community out to the community church service today at the park. And, since Heather attends one of the churches that is involved here, I'll be going out there today to take in the festivities before heading back to the soccer field. If you bring your own chair to sit in, you get free lunch, I'll give you two guesses to determine whether I'm going to take advantage of that or not. So nice to have a relaxing Sunday, but unfortunately, on the other side is Monday.

Soccer Season Kickoff

I got pulled into an earlier than expected start to the soccer season on Sunday afternoon when I got a late call to do something pretty fun. I got called into action for my first Division 1 game. Northern Iowa played USD for the season opener, and I got to be on the crew! I realized on thing though, as college girls stay the same age, I get older. I was fine, but still came up sore and finding myself needing to get into slightly better condition to recover from these games faster. So, that's the goal now, but I've ended up with 4 games now in the first 4 days of the season, compared to only being scheduled for 2. Guess you have to be flexible along the way. I'll get my first mens center tonight, and my first women's center on the weekend. Should keep me plenty tired, that's for sure.

Little House, Big House

Already school is back in session, and last night when I stepped outside, the air already felt cool. Anyone else wonder where summer went? Yikes. The fall sports are already going, and this Friday soccer seasons open across the state. For me, I get to not work the opener. The high schools start this weekend, and the colleges start very soon as well. I'm getting worked back into shape after being sidelined with sickness, so it's back to the grind again. Not fun, but I'm ready for the season to start. So, since I don't have to referee the season openers, what shall I do with my time? That's an easy one for me. I'm going back to the pitch where the coaching career started! I'm headed back to JVC for their home opener vs. who else, but Mitchell Christian. I've not been this excited for soccer game in a long time! It takes me back to the good old days of playing, and wanting to just beat your rival into the ground! I'm going to be there, sitting in the middle of the field, cheering both ways. Yes, you can call me a traitor if you want. I've had the privilege to coach kids on both of these teams, so I'll be parked right on the fence. It's going to be fun to watch these kids that played together in the spring battle each other out in the fall. Plus, I cannot remember the last time I sat and watched a full soccer game not having to coach or referee the game. I'm thinking it might be when my brother played last. That's far to long, but I'll be there, ready to enjoy a nice summer evening with a good opener to the season!


PS. If you haven't figured it out yet, this post has nothing to do at all with a house.

Airline Issues

I'd have to say that I've experienced my worst travel week ever. You've already heard the story going to Iowa, going home it got worse. We spent an hour and a half in the Cedar Rapids airport on Friday as we tried to get home. Any extra time spent in Iowa is worthless. That long of a delay, and it put us in Minneapolis very late, and could not make it to the 5:00 Sioux Falls. So, me and a co-worker had to spend an extra 2 hours to wait for next flight. So we get to the gate for the 7pm flight only to find out that it was delayed until 8:30pm. We finally got home around 10:45pm after we had originally been scheduled to get home around 1pm, we arrived almost 10 hours later. It was not an impressive week for the Delta flying team, however, I guess I still have my $300!

Travelling Disaster

Well, it wasn't a plane crash in this case but getting back to Iowa, which I'm thrilled to do, is turning into a nightmare. I'm sitting in the Sioux Falls airport waiting for my flight to leave currently, but it's been a poor day at best. I'm travelling with one other Martin Group employee, however, our two stories here will be very different.

Let me backtrack to last night. On the trip back from Minnesota, I ended up in Watertown with a flat tire. After half an hour, donut tire installed and I'm back up and running again. However, this tire requires travelling at lower speeds, and results on a very very late arrival back in Mitchell. Unfortunately, that bad karma carried into today. Upon arriving to the airport with my co-worker, we found that our flight had been cancelled. He did more checking, and found himself rebook on the next flight, which was the best ideal scenario. I, however, was not so lucky. I'd been pushed back to the 5am flight tomorrow. Haha!! No! So, I spent 20 minutes in line to talk to the agent. At least she was quite friendly. I'd have gotten snippy if she'd have been in a bad mood. She did some checking, and found that there is no flight that I could get to. I could get to Minneapolis, but then all the flights to Eastern Iowa were full. So, I asked to check other airlines, knowing that United and American both fly into Eastern Iowa also. She did some checking, and my itinerary was looking like a flight at 6:15 to Minneapolis, then to Chicago, and a late flight back into Iowa. However, I couldn't make the connections or the flights I needed were booked on all the other airlines. Wow. This was not happening!! Then, the agent volunteered to go talk to United. She went and came back stating they found me a ticket, so I could go with United. Upon arriving at the United counter, I found that I'd been placed on the 4:40 to Denver, then the 10:25 to Eastern Iowa. I'm going to get on a plane, that's going to take me 2 hours in the wrong direction, to get back on another plane 4.5 hours later that's going to cover all that ground again, and a little bit more. While it doesn't seem like a good option, I took it anyway, because I'd rather arrive a little after midnight, then get up at 3:30am to catch the flights to Iowa to work immediately upon arriving. At least this way a little sleep will be mine. I just hope my luggage arrives with me, or that could put the cap on a miserable travelling weekend.

PS. For my troubles, Delta has smoothed things over with me offering me a $300 travel voucher to be used in the next year. I come out on top in the end anyway!!

Home Again, Gone Again

Well, I'm back home, safe and sound. 20 hours and 20 minutes of travel time between my departure from Romania and my arrival back in Mitchell. Had some interesting experiences along the way too. I got frisked, twice in Romania, and got interviewed like I was on a terrorist watch list. I was quite surprised actually at the run around I got as an American citizen. I was also wondering why I got picked to be the training body for the security guards to practice searching. But, they let me leave anyway, and I headed home.

Around 11 hours in the air, and then a landing in New York an hour early. That was nice, especially after being in the air for that long. So, got through customs, and then went into the plane to go to Minneapolis, and that flight got a little rough. The air was bumpy, and there was a medical emergency on board. I'd never been a part of one of those, but they told us and asked for any medical personnel to assist them. We got to Minneapolis 45 minutes ahead of schedule to a cleared path all the way to the gate, and they got the paramedics on the plane almost immediately. From touchdown to the gate time, was around 3 1/2 minutes. I've never taxied quite that fast in a plane ever, and there were no other airplanes in site. Apparently the control tower kept them all back so we could get to the gate as fast as possible. So, we got to exit the plane after all those events, and I got my flight to Sioux Falls, and grabbed my car, and drove for the first time in 10 days. Got home around 12:30am, and slept soundly, and woke up rested and ready for the day, even though I'd much rather be on vacation, that's for sure.

So, this weekend I go to Minnesota, then back to the airport to take to the air for work. I should be flying first class everywhere quite soon with all these frequent flier miles!

Coming Home

Well, the time here is almost complete already. There are a few things that I'm going to miss: some of the great people I've met here, anything that has to do with the mountain region, and the historical aspects of the country. There are a few things I will not miss: the dumb mass transit system, the dumb taxi drivers, the selfish and impatient people. We ran into all these things during our time here. Sadly, the transit system was the biggest disappointment. The first couple days it was fine when we went to Brasov, however after that they kept changing everything and just don't find the need to post information anywhere. That is one thing that is annoying. Communication with hundreds of thousands of people who use this every day, and it is no where to be found. Gets really old after a while.

Heather and I had a great time at a different castle yesterday. We got a chance to see the "summer residents" of Romania's royal couple from the 17th century. There are more photos uploaded to the photo gallery. Now today, it's going to an international church which will be in English, and getting to see anything that didn't get seen so and wrapping up with the gift buying. Tomorrow, flights start leaving at noon local time, and I'll be back home by 12:30 am instructed to return to work by Tuesday morning. I'd rather continue on vacation, but I guess duty calls.