Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans, they say. So anyway, this morning while everyone was at church, Alex and I got text messages saying that his flight back to Seattle had been cancelled due to the weather. We knew that the heavy weather was coming tonight, so the plan was that right after church, Missy and Beth would drive the van back to Muncie and Alex and I would follow in the car, then Beth could drive if Missy got nervous driving in the weather, and we would leave her in Muncie with the van, head to the Indy airport, leave Alex there for the flight back and head home. Instead, I spent most of Sunday school time on my phone with the airline looking for a plan B flight. The agent did much better than I could, as it was really looking like there was nothing available to get Alex there until maybe Tuesday. But they got him onto a plane leaving Chicago O’Hare at around 7pm, which was actually about the same time the flight from Indy was leaving. So then, Missy was going to have to brave the weather by herself because Alex was now going in the opposite direction, and Beth wasn’t going to be able to go with her because there was no extra vehicle for her (since the truck had a flat tire, which I haven’t mentioned yet). Missy was pretty nervous, but we helped her get ready to go as quickly as possible so she could hopefully beat the weather, and Alex and I left as soon as we could so we could do the same and leave plenty of time for bad traffic, bad weather, and huge lines at security if people were being diverted there a lot. And Beth stayed home. In the end, Missy got back to school just fine without encountering any bad weather on the way at all, and Alex and I had little traffic, no bad weather, and there were literally 6 people in line for security when Alex got there. So he then had about 4 hours to kill until departure. I thought I should stay close just in case something happened and flights out of Chicago started getting cancelled too, but there was hardly even any wind. But since I had time to kill too, I went over to the IKEA in Schaumberg for a bit. I spent a couple hours wandering and picked up a cutting board and some cookies and chocolate, that was it, before deciding Alex’s flight was pretty safe so I headed home. Alex’s flight left on time and Scott picked him up on time, so he’s back for his final semester now. 

Judy and Neill came by this week. They wanted to take Alex out to dinner to celebrate his finishing college (early, but they may not see him again for a while) so as they passed by on their way to Birmingham, they stopped in to take us (Beth and me too!) out to dinner at the Boathouse. It was nice to catch up with them for a while. 

Saturday was the annual ritual of driving up to Wakarusa to pick up our Amish cow. Well, only a quarter of a cow for the past few years since fewer people are eating it at home now. We’re starting to wonder if it’d be better for us to keep getting that quarter cow every year, or just go to the meat shop every so often to buy a few weeks’ worth of meat at a time. It seems more expensive this year, but buying in bulk is probably cheaper. No brisket this year, we got a hind quarter. I still have the giant brisket from last year in the freezer, still not sure what to do with it but I do want to try some things this year.

So yeah…the flat tire on the truck. Well, I asked if everyone wanted to go to the hockey game in Fort Wayne on the last weekend for everyone, which was Friday the 3rd. Alex was into it but Natalie didn’t know what to do about Churro, and Missy started not feeling good during the day and asked if it was all right if she stayed home. Beth stayed behind too, so it was just the guys. But as I put some air in the tire of the truck which had been showing low pressure for a few days, the air valve stuck (or froze) open so the tire wouldn’t hold air. I couldn’t get it to seal so we just went home quickly and left the truck in the driveway because it seemed like a bad idea to take the truck to FW that night. We took the car instead. I brought the jersey Beth got me for Christmas and was able to exchange it for the next smaller size, which fit a lot better, and the game started off well as the Komets jumped out to a 2-0 lead, which they blew for the remainder of the game and lost to the Walleye 4-3. When we got back home, the tire on the truck was flat flat flat, so leaving it at home = good call.