Whew! I made it!

My Regular Flight from Chicago to Houston on Continental Airlines made it right on time, which allowed me exactly 45 minutes to make my connecting flight at the Huge Continental Hub in Houston from Terminal C to Terminal A.

Normally, there is this awfully cute-n-fast tram-thing that connects you from Terminal C to A.
The awfully cute-n-fast tram-thing was, apparently, DEFUCNT.
So! They had this Horribly-Inefficient-Slow-Shuttlebus-Thing with which to connect passengers from terminals-to-terminals, hereafter referred to as the HISST.

I waited for 20 minites for the HISST when it finally arrived at Terminal C. There were also five-gazillion other passengers waiting for the HISST by that time who were also waiting for terminal C as well as Terminal B.

The person directing us all onto the bus spoke hardly any English at all.

"A" and "B" meant the same thing.

By the time a bus arrived, I had eight minutes until my flight was boarded. In Terminal A.

I tumbled into Terminal A and fled to the gate. The moment I got there, my flight was called. Yay! There were also thunderstorms in the area.

I called my mom and my dad from my cell phone to say that I had, indeed, made it onto the Little Bitty Scary Airplane to my Little Bitty Home Town.

I made it. The flight was fine and uneventful.

Remember how I mentioned in my last post how I didn't look forward to coming down to Texas where all the bugs were?

Well, I was the last passenger off the plane in Victoria, which of course, disembarks the passengers directly off the plane onto a Little Bitty Staircase. (LBS).

The moment I stepped onto the LBS, a Giant Flying Bug flew in my face and I was furtively waving my hands in front of my face trying to get the Giant Flying Bug out of my face. Mom was 30 feet away behind the glass thinking I was waving at her.

I was just in the process of stepping off a Little Bitty Scary Airplane in Texas, had been instantly attacked by a Giant Flying Bug, and was making a damn-good impression of Samantha Jones from Sex and the City, when my mom who was waiting in the little airport thought I was waving at her from the little airplane.

I was just frantically waving away a HUGE flying bug
Anyway, I hate the bugs.

We got here to my mom's place that afternoon. Relatives decended from four hundred miles away. I love them all, I really do. I hadn't seen my cousin, Patrick and his wife, Cindy, in five years. Patrick and I are the first-born grandchildren of my generation and our birthdays are 17 days apart. We grew up together. We went to summer camp together. We discovered Emerson, Lake & Palmer together. Pat and I go back a LONG way.

There was also his sister, Shannon, who is like the little sister I never had, along with her kids. (Pat is my age, Shannon is ten years younger)

Do you get the Irish connection here? I hadn't seen Pat and his family in five years. We just ate each other up.

My mom's place was the perfect meeting place. She has a big house and a swimming pool. Here are some pics.

Here I am with our newest member of the family. His parents are the sweetest people you'd ever want to meet. He's my first cousin, twice removed.

His name is "Cash".

We do "twice removed" and names like "Cash" a lot in Texas.

Don't worry. It's normal.

He's seven months old and likes pureed Spaghettio's.

And then, here is a family pic with me and my cousins. There were also lots of my first-cousins-once-removed around, of whom I am their "Uncle Buck."

It's good to be home!