Mom's Surprise 60th Birthday Party Weekend

We pulled off the surprises for Mom's party just fine! It was quite fun. The weekend (3/2-5) started with the hour and a half flight home, Friday noonish. As you may remember, the Northeast was getting another whitewash, and a # of airports were closing. We were lucky, our flight got the green light.

When we were going down the escalator to our departure gate, Sue said, "Hey, isn't that your friend?!" And I'll be damned, it was. No big surprise I guess. It was Tommy Hanson, who was a year behind me in high school. He and I were 2 of the 3 bass clarinetists in band. "2 out of 3 bass clarinetists are queer." He's a flight attendant for United, but used to work for US Air. US Air is the airline that flies into PQI (Presque Isle International's call letters). He was behind their counter, checking people in for his former co-workers. Because he still lives in FF, and works for United, he has to fly this US Air route to commute to work a lot. (I'm not sure if United services Maine at all, but they sure don't service PQI!) When Tom's not attending flights, he's a sub teacher in the FF school system! I was still riding the escalator and started yelling, "Tommy! Tommy Hanson! Take me home big boy!" I owe him some embarrassment... VAST amounts of embarrassment. He came to visit me at GLAD on a couple of occasions. That's all I'm sayin'. He's a handsome devil... and yes, very devilish. But a very good man.

We were on a Saab 340B. 2 seats on the right wing, 1 on the left. Tom sat a few rows behind us with another off-duty flight attendant and the relief pilot who was supposed to fly the plane back to Boston on the return trip. There were more... "airline professionals" on the flight as there were "civilians." After about an hour, the excitement wore off. I peeled my nose from the window 'cause I hadn't been able to see anything thru the snow for a very long time, except ice forming on the wings, and that was getting boring.

I had JUST fallen asleep when I hear this "B* A * M !" I'm coming to, thinking, "Ok, where was I last?" My heart is racing a little, then I remember, "Oh yeah, I was on a PLANE..." that got my heart racing BIG TIME! I thought I had seen a burst of light off to the right, too. I looked up. The flight attendant who was on duty, Kelly, had taken a window seat a few rows ahead of us and turns to look at the relief pilot, Tom and the other guy, all sitting behind us. She looked a little bemused. There was ice forming on the props and it was coming off and slamming into the body of the plane. The first, ohhhh, 4 or 5 times were the worst. It was LOUD. Sounded like someone was standing on the wing and hitting the body with a baseball bat. But then, maybe it was even LOUDER than that! Think about it. A chunk of ice hitting the body at 700+ mph. It was a little unnerving, but I was pretty sure we'd be fine. Call me a confident flyer, I knew we weren't "going down." It did continue at random for the next 15 - 20 mins. The pilot had to descend to get into a warmer air mass, and it stopped not long before we got to PQI. When we landed the pilot told us that was a "good" sound because it meant the systems were working the way they should. The return flight, however, was cancelled due to "mechanical issues." We found out the next night at the party. My cousin had a co-worker who was supposed to fly out on that one. Didn't happen. The poor relief pilot. He'd just been notified that a.m. he was getting switched to the PI flight. He lives in S. Illinois, had never been to PI, then got stuck there and didn't know anyone ~ in a place where there's... absolutely nothing. Oh well. Tom did point out later that yeah, it's not uncommon for ice batter the aircraft, but still, it's not so good for something to be slapping the plane that hard.

Mom had suspected something was up. She'd caught Dad, Cora and Carl (M&D's best friends) whispering a few times. When Nik walked in, she looked psyched, and it took a second or 2 for it to register that we were with her. We'd all been guessing what her response would be. Something along the lines of "Oh you guys!" or "Oh, for heaven's sake." We did not expect, "Awwww! Don't hug me, I'm sick!"

OH NO. We were all thinking "There goes the party!" Luckily, she'd been taking zinc, and we fixed her some Emergen-C's. By the next a.m., she was 1000% better.

Steve and 2 of his 3 kids arrived Sat a.m. He had a headache, so he napped and Nik & I took the kids sliding. Sue was quite happy to curl up in the rocker by the gas fireplace. It was the first time she hadn't had to wear her turtle fur or winter hat INSIDE in a long time. Heating our place is wicked expensive, and I don't let her turn the heat up. We often run around very bundled. I go to bed to watch tv as early as possible so I can get under my down comforter. :) So she enjoyed the fire. Nik, the kids and I enjoyed the hills. The hill behind our house, the one I lost my tooth on... that seems so "bunny" now. We abandoned that for the one behind the Catholic cemetary, which is a part of the state's snowmobile trail system. Now THAT'S a hill! We did get Steve & Sue to join us the next a.m. It was a blast! I hold the record for speed and distance, and scaring the crap out of Sue on our joint venture. Really, I didn't need the help steering, and we WOULD have made it to the bottom if she hadn't helped. Instead we would up in a snowbank that had tons of burdocks protruding. Ahhhhh, good times. The weather was awesome! We lucked out. It was in the 40's both days! I even shed some layers. (And then when we came back to Boston, the temp plunged and I wore my skipants to work everyday. Hey, you never know HOW long you're gonna be out there waiting for the bus. At least I didn't freeze my bootie off! Freeze, freeze, freeze, then this week, it was 70 degrees, and today, a Nor'Easter.)

The party. Ahhh, what a riot! The "how are we gonna get her there" plan changed a lot right up until we got in the car. But we devised a plan to drive out to that side of town, 'cause really, the Lion's Club is in the middle of nowhere. We approached it and Dad was like, "Hmmm, looks like something's going on here tonight... Let's take a look." The driveway was filled with cars, and the windows were all dark. This killed us! There were 85 people from about 4 towns sitting in there in the dark for a good 15-20 minutes waiting for us! Nik's friend Nat said, "It sure was different. It was definately dark." OMG, we laughed til we cried about that later! We told them we'd be there @ 6, and for once, we were VERY punctual. The Redikers have a habit of being late. Gay standard time or something. But this was in MY neurotic hands. I told everyone we'd be there at 6, so we were there @ 6. (When everyone started mobilizing EARLY for once, and I jumped in the shower, thinking, "How can I slow this down? I've only got so much hair to wash!" Luckily, Nik and Steph helped out in the shop by "getting pretty.")

Driving in we got the standard response of surprised, "Oh you fellers!" She was surprised 'cause she thought Sue & I were the only surprise. She had a GREAT time. It was a lot of fun. WAY too much food (pot luck), and then everybody left kinda early. Old folks, what can we say?

Mom & Dad left for Bangor early on Mon a.m. to make their flight to FL. Sue & I were going to take Dad's truck to the PI airport and give the keys to the guy behind the counter, who is Carl's son. Where else but a small town could you just give the keys to the guy behind the counter at the airline check-in? Carl would pick it up later the next time they went to PI, but as we were just putting our coats on, Carl walked in and said, "If you're ready, I can just take you over now!" Great! Small towns can be good.