He's Back!!!!!!!!!!

Back, Back in the USA!!!

Yesterday was a very good day on a number of fronts.  I’ve always kind of liked Thursdays.  In college days Thursdays were referred to as “Weekend Eve” and were properly lubricated in preparation of the First Friday of the Week.  I was on pins and needles as my son was making his way home from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.  He called us Wednesday night as he started his odyssey.  He spent a couple hours making his way through customs and ticketing in Bishkek and was thoroughly frustrated at the 3^rd world pace.  I told him to focus on what was waiting for him at the finish line.  He was booked through Istanbul, Turkey where he had to retrieve his luggage, obtain a visa, re-enter and check his bags in again for a flight to New York City (=very long flight) where he had to pass through US customs before a short hop to Boston.  I was describing this to my boss and he marveled that my son would handle this with so much aplomb.  He said it was a huge advantage being a military brat because this type itinerary would have intimidated someone who wasn’t brought up traveling so much.  I was just glad to have him back on our side of the pond.  My wife wanted to surprise him at the airport but he made it very clear that his girlfriend was picking him up and would brook no interference with that reunion.  He’s young and in love and I don’t blame him.  The above picture says the requisite thousand words as to why her company was preferred over ours.  We’ll see him on Monday after he’s rested up from his “ordeals”.  We also successfully concluded contract talks with the union yesterday.  This is completely unprecedented for this union which has never settled a contract on time.  They have always pushed it to the absolute limit, usually months after the previous contract expired, to include something like 7 strikes since the 1970s.  I didn’t realize this was such a big deal but we’ve been showered with congratulations since the news came out yesterday that we’ve settled.  It still has to pass a membership vote on Saturday night but since it has the endorsement of the entire union leadership we should be good.  I was sitting at home out on the deck with my wife enjoying a beautiful evening (son’s reported location was NYC) when my wife received a call from one of her close friends.  She could tell I was less than pleased that she was going to spend the next twenty minutes on the phone while Buddy and I would be forced to amuse ourselves without her supervision.  She thrust her I-phone at me and instructed me to check out our email.  I found amid all the junk email one that said someone had made a comment on the blog’s entry – Seeking Tuesday – in which I chronicled my adventures trying to get Sears to fix my lawn tractor.  Apparently Sears trolls through blogs, I’m sure using some kind of data mining for certain words like Sears and unhappy.  Color me mildly impressed as I was asked to contact them and they would seek to rectify my concerns.  I’m not sure they’re ready for me because if they only read Tuesday’s blog and not the earlier ones, they have no idea of the true scope of the adventure.  I’ll let you know how it turns out. 

Contract Done!!!!