Happy 2007

Happy New Year to all wherever you are. It's nice to be back in the comfort of home after a wonderful weekend in Seattle. For a time, we wondered if we would be back in the comfort of home for this New Year's morning when we learned that our Horizon jet had a crack in its de-icer.

We had already boarded later than scheduled. The first sign that something was wrong was announced by a lady behind me.

"Oh, there goes the pilot," she said. "He's out there inspecting the plane. That doesn't sound good." With that announcement, the groans started. The man next to me was a grouch from the beginning, and his dismay at the prospects of sitting there for who knows how long was very apparent. Soon the pilot announced that maintenance was coming to see if they could patch the crack.

Maintenance came about 10 minutes later but not before several cell phones and their operators came alive to announce to folks elsewhere that something "bizarre" was happening. "Don't tell Mom," one young lady announced. "She'll go ballistic." The pilot thanked us for our patience, only to have one lady bark out," What patience! We're not patient."

I'm amazed how fast human beings can decide to be inconvenienced. Now, I'm known for impatience at times, but this seemed ridiculous. We were safely on the ground. They were working as fast as possible to rectify the situation and people were belly-aching all over the plane.

Once maintenance looked at the situation, we were told to deplane. The crack was too big to patch. As we walked off, it was obvious the crack was much more than a crack; it was a big hole. We waited inside for another half an hour before the announcement came to change gates. So, we moved on down to another gate and waited another 15 minutes or so before boarding another Horizon jet.

On the first boarding, we discovered that Bill had nobody in the seat next to him, so I chose not to sit with the grouchy man, who later in Spokane tried to tear the door off its hinges when it suddenly shut as we walked into the terminal. A lady behind him calmly read the sign, which said, "Push the green button to open the door."

Instead of our expected 8 p.m., we arrived home around 9:30 and neglected to stay up to greet the New Year, but, as the year ended, we definitely had filled its final hours with a few more memories, including a visit to Seattle's Museum of Flight, which is well worth the stop. Annie figures her dad needs to come back sometime and spend the whole day. We stepped aboard the Concorde and toured Air Force One, which had been used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon.

We also had a great lunch at Pyramid Ale House across from Quest Field and very near the Filson store where Bill bought himself another Filson coat. It was a great way to end an action-packed year, which included a Texas visit, a family reunion, a major life move to Heaven in the country, lots of family, a new horse from Oklahoma, and all the usual moments of thankfulness for a good life.

Now we begin anew, and so far this morning, it's been pretty lazy. By the way, we are revving up for some quality time in front of the television late this afternoon as we cheer on Idaho's first football inclusion in the big bowl scene. Boise State will try to keep its undefeated record unblemished and put Idaho on the map when it meets Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

GO BRONCOS!