Hitching A Ride

So last week during all the rain my parents ended up staying the night at our house because they were voluntarily asked to evacuate. Mom and Dad's house ended up not having any water damage, but the water was suppose to be at record highs so they thought it would be good to pack up for the night. It was fun having them stay at our house since it's usually the other way around. Owen of course loved having Ga-Ga & Pa so close.

The next morning my neighbor stopped by to ask an odd question to say the least. She and her husband had been renting the house across the street from us for about 2 months, but she was packing up and moving back to their house in Arizona because it was far to cold up here for her health. Anyways she asked me, since I'm a stay at home mom and am home during the day, if I could take her bird to the airport the next day. I can quite honestly say I've never been asked to take a bird to the airport before.

See her flight was leaving earlier than her birds and her husband couldn't take her (Angel) to the airport because he had to work. So of course I said I would help her out. What are good neighbors for. So later that night after we had dinner at Outback with my parents and picked up my ring at the jewelers we came home and the bird was going to spend the night at our house because our neighbors flight was so early in the morning. She called us about 10pm and let us know that she would just have the bird stay at the house so she wouldn't keep us awake and then she gave me the key so I could get in and take her the next day. I thought this was GREAT idea!

The next morning the boys and I got up and got all ready because we had to have the bird at the airport no later than 11am to make her 1pm flight. I can't even believe that I just typed that about a bird!! I got the boys all strapped in the car, cleared out the back of the van so there would be room for the bird, backed our car into their driveway, ran into their house to get the bird and headed out. Of course the first turn I made I heard something crash in the back of the van and I was terrified I'd killed the darn bird, but it was just my Dad's old CPU in the back had fallen over. Thankfully it didn't land on the carrier the bird was in.

I found the Northwest Cargo building with ease and went inside and waited and waited and waited. The people that work there weren't really interested in helping me. There were lots people sitting at desks, but none of them even asked if I needed anything. Finally a guy that had just walked in said that someone would be out to help me really soon and I said, "I hope so because I have kids in the car". Now don't freak out...the van was a mere 15 feet from me on the other side of a glass wall. I was the only car parked at the cargo area and the van was locked and it was neither too cold or too warm outside. The boys were fine! But this guys was like, "Oh...well you could bring them in!" No, no, no...I kindly told him they were 2 years old and 7 months old to which he replied, "Oh I've been there!".

Finally a lady helped, but it's not that easy shipping off a bird. I had to fill out all this paperwork...I mean I practically had to sign my life away. I don't think I've had to sign my name that many times since we refinanced our house. The funny thing was while I was standing in line waiting for someone to help me I started thinking...hmmmmm why is it this bird has flown so many places. My neighbor told me all the places she been and let me tell you she should be accumulating frequent flyer miles. Anyways why does the bird fly so much? And how well do I know my neighbors? Am I unwillingly participating in some drug smuggling operations? I really started thinking that the Feds were going to bust in the door at any minute and I was going to be taken into a room and interrogated for hours. Did I ever tell you guys that I can be a bit dramatic?

Anyways Angel got on her flight safe and sound and the boys and I went and had the oil changed in the van so all in all it was a pretty successful day!