Location:It’s Almost Christmas!

…and what have you done?  Another year over, a new one’s just begun.

So, what have I done.  Man!  This was quite a year.  You’d never say though, if you’ve been reading my blog as it hasn’t been my most prolific year for writing.  The problem with writing a personal blog is that a lot of the stuff that happens in one’s life is, well, personal.  Then there’s the other stuff that happens in your life that’s not exactly personal, like work.  But writing about stuff that happens at work is not exactly cool either.  So what does that leave?  Not much.  So that’s exactly what you’ve seen from me this year.

But that doesn’t mean my life is boring.  By no means…

I’ve driven the country roads of Austria and into the heart of Vienna.  I attended a course in Vegas and brought da wife down with me so we could contribute a few thousand dollars to the struggling economy down there.  (Does that count as a charitable contribution for tax purposes?)  We took a helicopter into the Grand Canyon and took a boat ride down the Colorado River.  I took first place (high average) in my pool league back in June.  We’ve been to Newfoundland to help my parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and then back again a couple of weeks later to send our son off to university.  We had family visit, both planned and surprise.  I spent time in Rhode Island and made surprise visits of my own.  I put a couple of thousand kilometers on our ATV, many of those travelling at about 5 kms per hour through the beautiful valleys in southern New Brunswick.  We decided to move out of the house we’ve been living in for 11 years and build the house we’ve always wanted.  (More about that last thing when we are closer to moving in…)

I have a beautiful wife who keeps things interesting, inflates and controls my ego, and generally makes life worth living.  I have a son to be proud of… he is steadfast on his education, becoming a confident young man, is liked and loved by practically everyone who knows him, and generally makes my life worth living.  They both drive me nuts, but I truly believe sanity is over-rated.    My network of family and friends are wonderful, diverse, and all folks that I truly enjoy spending time with and around.  Life is good.

So… in a few days, we’ll celebrate our last Christmas in our current home.  We did our usual decorating routine with me pretending not to like the process and my wife and son teasing me for being a grinch.  We’ll enjoy the company of family and friends.  We’ll enjoy the time we spend with just ourselves.  We’ll reminisce of our times in our current home while we dream about the next Christmas in our new home next year.

Nothing to write about?  Heck no.  I just realized that I just don’t have the time to write!  I’ll try to do more of it though for the two or three of you who, for some reason, are interested in my ramblings here on OhMeNerves.com.

In case I don’t say it before the 25th, Merry Christmas to y’all, and a Happy New Year!

An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him, “If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess.”

He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week.”

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you and do anything you want.”

Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, “What is the matter? I’ve told you that I’m a beautiful princess, that I’ll stay with you for a week, and that I’ll do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?”

The engineer said, “Look, I’m an engineer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend; but a talking frog, now that’s cool.”

As Maxwell Smart would say (queue up the nasal toned voice), “I missed it by that much!” For those of you who don’t know who Maxwell Smart is, pretend I said Inspector Gadget.

I had it all planned. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a plan and it was my plan. You see, I’m on my way to Graz, Austria for business meetings. I’ve been overseas before on these trips, and from experience I know that I don’t sleep on planes, at least not very well. My plan revolves around this and my technique for getting over my jet lag.

I left Moncton yesterday afternoon, changed planes in Toronto, with another plane change scheduled for Frankfurt. I was supposed to be in Graz by 2:30 pm today. That as the most important part of my pitiful little plan. Land at 2:30, at the hotel by 3:00, nap by 4:00, up by 6:00, crappy hotel food by 7:30, nice relaxing evening, bed by midnight, work tomorrow at 8:30.

But NOOOOOOOO. That was too much to ask for. My flight arrived at Frankfurt about 25 minutes late. That wouldn’t be too bad, but I only had an hour and ten minutes between flights. At Frankfurt, you don’t get off the plane directly into a terminal; you get off the plane and pile into buses. The plane I was on was a big one, so there were six double-length buses waiting for us. By the time I got off, the first two were full, so I got into the third one. The buses filled up and the first two left and then the three buses behind us left! Sigh. We get to the terminal and had to wait for the other five buses to unload before we pulled up to the doors.

I get out, rush to the board, find my flight… Gate A13. Heads up, look at signs while I walk/gallop. It’s amazing how big the person in front of you can make himself as he slows down to read signs, does the two-step trying to decide his next direction, double checks his boarding pass, stops and makes a sandwich… Lard Jayzussss will you get outta my friggin’ way?!?

Hallways, stairs, conveyor belts, customs, more stairs, an elevator, security, more stairs, more hallways and conveyor belts. There’s my gate! And there’s … Nobody there…

I looked down at my watch. 1:05. My flight was supposed to be 1:05. I could hear Maxwell Smart in my head. “Missed it by that much.” Just my luck. I was booked on the only flight in history to leave at the scheduled time.

So here I am. Stuck in Frankfurt airport. I’m rescheduled to leave at 10 pm tonight arriving at 11:30. No nap. No crappy hotel food. No relaxing evening leading to a good night sleep.

On the bright side, I hadn’t really written a blog post in a very long time. They say misery loves company; I say misery crushes writer’s block.

I think I’ll wander around now and try to find some crappy airport food. Sigh. It’s just not the same.

Published November 11, 2011 at 11:11 am. Just because.