Planes, snow, tears, frustration and sadness!

I posted a while back that my brother would be flying in from Portland for Christmas. He was supposed to arive on Friday, but if you've watched the news at all you know that Portland has been covered in snow for the last week. Well on Friday they got a new storm and we got their old one. Everything was fine when I left for Salt Lake to pick him up from the airport. Well okay it was snowing and the wind was blowing but, as far as the information on the flight everything was "On Time" well that means that his flight should have left 30 minutes before I did. It didn't. My poor brother has huge issues with PTS having served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Due to the Army's hurry up and wait way of doing things he also has huge issues with planes. After being on the plane for as long as he could handle with no information, and sitting next to a lady who (apparently) smelled as if someone forgot to change her diaper before she got on the plane, he go up and got off. I don't blame him. I was talking to him on the phone several times until he couldn't handle it anymore and I couldn't calm him down because at that point I was slinding (in several directions) on Parleys Summit and trying desperately not to be pushed into the median. At the end of the trip to Salt Lake I was sobbing on the phone to my mom, my friend Kori, and co-worker Zach begging Zach to take my 7am shift the next day because there was NO Way I was getting on Parleys again that day. Thank you Zach! Thank you Kori for letting me stay the night at your house, as well.

Well, after all of that I got on the phone and called Southwest and called to see if anything could be done about the ticket. Many thanks to Cindy operator number 66. She listened to what I had to say didn't even ask for any details she offered another plane and when I said that there wasn't anyway we would able to get him anywhere near a plane she gave us a credit that is good for anyone. On Sunday my Mom used it to fly out to see him for a couple days. Poor kid he was worried that we were mad at him and all sorts of other junk. I told Mom when she was making the arrangements that she'd better make sure that she spent Christmas with him. She decided that she would spend Christmas morning with Andrew and the afternoon with us.

Sadly, our fish Calli that I posted a couple pictures of a month or so ago has died. She died yesterday morning. Poor fishy, has had trouble before when we cleaned the fish tank, with not getting enough oxygen. The fish tank with a fish tank that big needs to be cleaned at least once a week and unfortunately the bubbler was off for just too long. Calli was still alive but just never recovered. We will miss Calli.

-Leslie