Here we are, back in Greensboro, North Carolina after a very, very long trip home! This is mostly an organizational brain dump post. I worked on several posts from the early days of our trip about a week ago and I’ll edit and release those today. We also have to grocery shop today, but I have some very nice lettuce growing and it will be nice to have a fresh salad after airport food and snacks for two days.
The weather here while we were gone was crazy, from what I understand. Extreme heat and humidity and storms. I can tell from my solar production reports how up and down it was for sun and rain. When I thanked my neighbor for sweeping the front porch and steps, he said that it was windswept from Thursday night. This storm system was part of why it was difficult to get home yesterday. The other reason was that we missed our connection to Greensboro in Newark because a young man in front of us on the plane in Boston had a severe seizure that looked very much like a stroke…it was a serious medical emergency and fortunately it happened when we were still at the gate and a paramedic was on board. Then a paramedic team came on board and took him to a hospital.
Something like that happens in front of you and it makes you understand how fragile life and health is, and helps you reassess what is important.
The rest of the flights to Greensboro were canceled, but the United personnel were so helpful and we managed to get the last two standby seats on the next flight to Raleigh Durham. So it worked out well that we left our car in Chapel Hill! A passenger who had sat near us on the plane from Boston happened to be going to Greensboro too, so we were going to try to stick together and give him a ride to Greensboro, but there were only two seats and he was so kind to give us his seat so that we could fly together. We were kind to him, and he responded with kindness. During a time of great distress in this country, this was uplifting.
So we are home, but our two bags with most of our stuff are not. Mine was lost somewhere between Lisbon and Boston on Aer Lingus, and a United employee told Sandy that he would send his bag on to the Greensboro airport because it was not at all sure that we could get on a flight to RDU. So we didn’t check the baggage claim because we also thought that there was no way that it could be transferred in time. Whoops, I think that Sandy’s bag is at RDU. We will have to check on this and maybe drive back. My bag will be shipped to me if they find it because Aer Lingus doesn’t have service in North Carolina. All my flea market finds, my souvenir magnets, and some of my favorite clothes are in my bag. 😦 However, it means that I have very little unpacking and laundry to do today.
We came home to cats who were well cared for, but happy to see us, and a verdant and very wet garden. The weather is beautiful and the birds are singing. I am very aware that even though I loved the birds in Portugal, there were not many songbirds around. Most places there were only pigeons and swallows and seagulls, although I appreciated them very much too.
Once I have gotten settled and bags located, I will have a lot more to say about Portugal. In the meantime, the posts from the days in Lisbon will be released as I check them over.
Bom dia!
slowly she turned 