Hello, again!

Hope you enjoyed reading (or re-reading) some of our old posts while we were transitioning.  It's been a whirlwind!  I'll do a quick overview on this post, and then go back and fill in the blanks.

We got home to Texas Tuesday evening.  Wednesday was unpacking the car and setting up appointments for Granpa's lab work and primary care doctor's physical.  But first things first; I got a Hawaiian haircut - or is it, a haircut for Hawai'i?

I surprised Granpa with a late Valentine's gift.  Well, I say "I," but our son and daughter-in-law actually accomplished it - I just paid for it.  Granpa's soon-to-be-antique pickup needed some work done on it before he should be driving it.  He surely was happily surprised!  Unbeknownst to me at the time I planned it, that move allowed Granpa and his momma to go one direction Wednesday morning while I went the other - otherwise we would have never gotten things accomplished before having to catch that flight out of DFW.

The agency offered to get us a hotel at DFW for Friday night in order to catch the 6 a.m. flight to Hawai'i on Saturday, so, Granpa's brother and sister-in-law moved Granny Beth's 80th birthday celebration up to Thursday night. And, oh by the way, one of our granddaughters had her first school program also on Thursday night.  Yowser!  Instead of flying out on Tuesday the 26th we had to leave Tyler, Texas for DFW on the 22nd - losing four days at home.  But we squeezed everything in and made it to the airport on time.

Suddenly there is a Code Red security breach at the check-in line.  Everything and everyone froze.  Total silence reigned.  After a few minutes the passengers-to-be started to whisper to each other.  A few more minutes drew restlessness.  A few more minutes and some of the passengers choose to move to a different United check-in area.  Then several more bailed.  The ever-patient Granpa stood his ground.

Shortly thereafter, the all-clear was given and things moved along quickly - until they got a look at my overnight bag.  They decided a manual check was called for.  They tossed my hairspray. (Silly me!  I knew that!)  They tossed Granpa's bottle of Aloe gel.  (He got nervous - he loves his aloe in Hawai'i.)  They tossed an 8 ounce bottle of Purell hand sanitizer. (Hmm.  Really?)  Everything else they let through.  They had to manually check Granpa's CPAP - always.  And the laptop had to be removed from its sleeve and x-ray-ed.  Finally, (daggers from the eyes of other passengers), they clear us to go.  Yeah, right.  Right after we repack everything!!)

We had an hour+ layover at LAX, a lo-o-o-ng six hour flight directly into LIH (Lihue International), and a windy, slam-on-the-brakes touchdown on Kauai.  An echo tech friend of Granpa's met us at the airport, took us out to eat, delivered us to our lodgings - and left us her car to use until sundown!  Mahalo, Tammy!!  Thank you!