Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

I’m back!

I’m so sorry I haven’t posted for over a week. I was really really busy at work and then I left for Myrtle Beach. Now that I’m back, I’m really really busy again at work. So, as I get the time I’m going to update my blog for all the happenings.Pre-Retreat…We are doing testing on the solar arrays… So, I spend the weekend (2/21 and 2/22) at work pushing to get the testing started on Monday. It didn’t get started on Monday so I ran around some more. Testing got started on Tuesday… and man was that a long day. I got to work for a 7am telecon and finally left just before 11 pm. But the good news was that the solar array was finished testing. The next day I ran around like crazy. Today we have a presentation and I needed to get my slides finished before I left for the retreat Thursday. I also spent the morning cleaning up from the test and helping my boss with an interview. And at one point on Wednesday I managed to get my DH’s car to Costco to get new tires installed (that he ordered like three weeks previous and never got the phone call that it was in… but that is another story). But I got my slides in before yoga Wednesday night. After the week I had, I was not going to miss yoga. I got home about 9:30 after yoga and finally started to pack. I had to be out of the house about 5 am to head to Sue’s to pick her up. We took her Wrangler to the airport and left my RAV4 in her garage (it has never spent the night in a garage before!).Getting to the Retreat…So, I got to Sue’s place about 5:30, I made good time and I left a bit early. We hopped into the Wrangler and drove to the airport. We didn’t take the first economy parking exit so we got to tour parts of the airport we don’t usually get a chance to see. But eventually we made it to check-in. Of course I went to the United desk first (I used United miles for this trip)… but we actually were flying US Air. Everything was going smoothly until we were about to go through security… and while emptying my pockets I realized I forgot to pack my Swiss Army knife. So, we hopped out of line and went back to the US Air desk. I was hoping to get my luggage and chuck it in. But it was too late for that. Since I only checked one piece of luggage, the lady took my knife and put it in a huge trash bag and checked it. I swore I would never see the knife again. No problems with our flight to Charlotte… until we landed. It seems we arrived to a snow storm. Boarded the plane to Myrtle Beach was a bit delayed (only about half an hour). But we got onto the plane and then we were informed that we were number 8 for de-icing. I’ve never been in a plane that was de-iced. Another lady in first class (when I called, they said only first class was available and when Sue called an hour later they said only coach was available) called a friend and said we should be taking off in twenty minutes. I wish I knew what I know now… I would have laughed at her. Almost two hours later, we finally were cleared for take off, and a half hour later, we were in Myrtle Beach. We arrived at the tiny airport (I think it has twelve gates) and went in search of the luggage. The first thing off… a trash bag filled with Bank of America leaflets. After a few times around, I finally checked… it was my Swiss Army knife. Not only did it make it, it was the first thing off the plane! After we collected our luggage, we went in search of a taxi to take us to the hotel. Thirty-five dollars later, we arrived!Next up The day before the Retreat starts…