Detroit Bound
Well, that is exciting, isn't it.
Actually, Tuesday I am going to Northern Ohio for a week, and it is about $250 less apiece for the round trip if I go to Detroit instead of Columbus Ohio. Detroit's Airport has a lot of memories, because I left through there both times I flew to Vietnam. I remember the song "Leaving On A Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul, and Mary while we were in the car on the way to Detroit's airport when I went back to Vietnam after my R&R. My wife and 7 month baby were bawling, and her dad had to stop the car to recompose himself.
Now coming back from Vietnam to the Detroit airport was more fun. I called Judy when I got to Anchorage on the flight back and told her when I would be coming in. We were VERY excited to see each other.
I told her that I wanted her waiting for me at the gate, naked, with a mattress strapped to her back. She said, "Sure, but you better be the first one off the plane!"
We are going to Ohio because of her mom, who is in a nursing home. But we also got a call from my older brother's girlfriend telling us that he was not doing so well. After years of smoking he has developed COPD which gives him fits of breathlessness. I am so glad that I quit 17 years ago, and I hope I quit soon enough. I am still afraid that I would start chainsmoking if I ever had a single puff again.
My job in Ohio is to go through her mom's stuff. She was so private in her dealing that nobody knows what she has or where, including her. So I will be emptying the drawers, putting stuff in boxes, looking for her secret stashes, and hoping I can find that rumored load of 40's porn that grandpa hid before he died in the 80s.
AT&T, which advertizes "more bars in more places: is not availabe in Tiffin, Ohio. Except when you drive about 15 miles to the west near Interstate 75 or 20 miles north to the turnpike. So basically my phone is useless there. And there is only one decent place with WiFi that isn't on the college campus. So I will be spending a lot of time there.
I have been going to this same little place up there for morning coffee since long before I left the army. We used to go up every couple of months so I got to know a lot of the others that went to the place. Now I only go a few days every couple of years. But as soon as I walk in the store, they treat me like an old long lost brother.
I miss small town life.