Working out here in NJ has given me a new appreciation for how screwed up some organizations can be. For example, on Friday at 4 pm before the MLK three-day weekend, the powers-that-be sent out an email…work for Saturday is cancelled.
Now, many people here did not make plans to do anything over those three days because we were working Saturday. And not 2 weeks earlier, there was a very public announcement; we will be working on Federal Holidays! So, a lot of unhappy souls that Friday afternoon; way too late now to make travel plans to do anything but sit in the hotel in NJ.
But not me…..I had long ago assumed we would be off MLK day and made plans to scoot home for the weekend. The only thing that irked me was that the 4 pm notification made it impossible to even consider a Friday night flight out (I never got to the point of checking on what the change fee would be; couldn’t make the last flight out of Newark).
I was scheduled to leave at 4 pm on Saturday (I figured I would work the typical half day on Saturday and then bolt)…..but after calling Delta realized I could catch the 6 am flight out of EWR….the only problem with that was a 4.5 hour layover in Detroit. Convinced my oldest son to get up early and drive down to Detroit to pick me up. That worked out well, Kevin didn’t sit very long at the airport waiting for me and we had time to talk on the way home…I arrived home early on Saturday, 9:30 am. Basically added 12 hours to my weekend!
Saturday started with Cpher’s basketball game (sports will be discussed in the next post) and then an impromptu trip to the North American International Car Show in Detroit. The boys have been obsessed with cars recently, and, it is a big event we’ve never gone to, so, let’s go!
Super Crowded! To me, the coolest thing was the various companies’ concept cars. So that’s what I took pictures of.
Not a concept car; Matthew sitting in a 2013 Beetle convertible. Got punched a lot by the boys as we encountered the ‘bugs’…
Toyota Tron Car? They literally had a video game set up where it seemed this car was doing Tron-like things…..
Honda electric car….
The biggest crowds were around this bad boy, the 2014 Corvette Stingray. Three or four deep all the way around the perimeter; Matthew and I waited our turn….
Cpher in that other concept car; the 2013 Volt. Hah!
Saturday night was pretty quiet; dinner and then watching TV. Getting up at 4 am to get to the airport took its toll; I was literally falling asleep sitting up while watching Wipeout with the boys at 9:30 and gave up. A little sad I couldn’t make it up longer (and I tried to sleep on the plane too!). Oh well.
Sunday was another Cpher basketball game, this time it was a 30 minute drive. I had hoped to get back from the game in time to see Matthew’s soccer game, but, that didn’t happen. Had lunch with some friends and then hung out at the house and watched football. Should have made much more of an effort to see the movie I had suggested with Suzanne instead of football. Oh well.
Monday was errand day; haircuts for the boys, tires for the CR-V (more and more referred to as Kevin’s car) and an hour at the gym with all three boys playing basketball. Had to be at the airport at 3 pm for the flight back. Ran into some nasty weather driving south from EWR back to the hotel, the last part of the trip took about 40 minutes instead of 10……lots of cars off the road.
