Travel, Teaching and more travel, busy at home

I do not necessarily enjoy travel, especially without Mama with me, but it is tolerable. The real issue is the number of strangers you have to share the cabin space with. My flight to Minnesota was a full flight – very full. I did not end up sitting with any larger passengers but the three of us men who were crowed into the three small seats we filled were constantly trying to “sit small” – as a row mate on my flight home described it. I was in the aisle seat and was constantly having to avoid the flight attendants as they walked up and down the aisle. Crowding into my row mate to my left. The fact that I was in one of the very last rows made that travel much more frequent than if I had been further up in the plane. But we adapted.

It was not a bad flight. It was a bit rough. Bad turbulence. A little over two hours. Cramped and a little warn, but not overly so. Anyway, I made it safely to the training site, which is saying something, with all the ice on the secondary roads in Minneapolis. Turns out that the office where I gave my class had been shut down for several days due to heavy snowfall over the previous week. That class went well. Lots of very positive feedback. When I got back to the hotel and parked on the icy parking lot, I did not venture out until I had to go back to the airport the next morning. Fortunately, there was only a light frosting on the windshield and the rental company had provided a scraper to deal with that.

The flight to Denver was also a full flight but on a smaller plane. With only two seats to a side the seats were actually larger than on the larger plane. Go figure. It was a much smoother flight, but we were flying away from the storm front that had roughed us up on the way to Minnesota. It was much warmer in Denver. There was some ice on the secondary roads. Deposited by the same storm that had iced over the roads in Minneapolis, but the warmer temperatures during the day was taking care of a lot of the accumulation. The Denver airport is an interesting experience in and of itself. In that airport you have to take a tram to a separate facility to get your bags. When the announcement was made to hold on, I noticed that most everyone took a firm hold of the poles provided. I did as well. One young traveler did not heed the warning. As the tram lurched out of the station, he quickly stumbled into the group behind him that had chosen to get a grip. No one took offence. Some of the group that caught him seemed prepared to do so.

Class the following day also went very well. I had taken the time to locate the facility right after I arrived in Denver. If I had not, I would have had trouble finding it the day of class. From the road it was not recognizable. I drove by it twice. The map I was following assured me I was in the right place, but it did not look right. The facility was located behind a partially demolished gas station. When I drove past the demolition zone, I was able to see the newer buildings. The facility for the Colorado class was much nicer that the garage I had given the class in at the Minneapolis facility. We started early, took a very short lunch and ended early. No one complained about that.

The flight home was another full flight as well. Once I got to the farm, I had to hit the ground running. Mama had taken two little bucks to the vet to be de-horned and they had to be separated from the herd for a week. They needed to be weaned as well, so Mama’s timing was wise. Anyway, we had no place set up for them, so I had to make one as quickly as I could. The only option was to use the pig building in some way. It is still a mess from the two pigs we housed there earlier in the year, but we put up a couple cattle panels from the pen I had started before my travel schedule got full. That gave the little bucks access to the front of the pig building (where we would normally keep a feed barrel) and a small enclosed yard. It also allows me and Mama to close them up in the building at night. Just to be on the safe side.

Several other little things need attention which kept Mama and I occupied until dark because Mama and I needed to be able to get the morning feeding done quickly in the dark Saturday morning. She and I had an appointment at our bank in Lawton to sign some paperwork for the houses we have there. We left the farm at 7 am to get to the bank by 9 am. When we finished that appointment, we looked at our houses in Lawton, but we did not linger. I needed to be back in Decatur at 2 pm for choir practice. Mama had a lot of baking to do for Kimberlyn and Kenny who were feeding two hundred reservists on Sunday and we had a parade to participate in that night. So, Mama baked at the church while I was at choir practice. It was a busy day, but we got everything done in a timely manner. We left the farm at 7 am and got back at 9:30 pm.

The cantata yesterday evening went very well. Having the young people from BBTI with us for the cantata was a real blessing. They added so much to the choir. I was very thankful to have them. In fact, we moved the performance up a week so they could participate. Many of not all of them will be leaving for Christmas break next Saturday. Now the cantata is done and done well.

Now, maybe we can relax a bit.