Wedding Weekend
Friday evening ushered in my most insane weekend yet. You see, my Uncle Paul was getting married on Saturday in Felton, CA and I really wanted to be there. A potential side benefit was "getting even" with him for driving all the way to Oregon for my college graduation. So I booked a Saturday morning flight from PDX to San Jose.
Of course, there was more happening said weekend than my uncle's wedding. I was responsible for a case in the large animal hospital. And LK invited me to the Harrisburg MC youth group VB/softball games. Strangely, my friend CS invited me to go rafting, and my friend JG invited me for breakfast on Saturday. When it precipitates it floods.
Certain of those options were mutually exclusive. No way I was going to attend the wedding and go rafting and eat breakfast with JG and Co. But the volleyball/softball... was still an option.
So Friday evening I joined the Harrisburg youths for about an hour of volleyball. I had a good time, then headed home and was there by some time after 11pm. It was 1 am by the time I was done washing clothes and eating supper, so I crashed for 2 hours and arose at some point after 3 am.
I parked my car at the Portland Airport and took myself to the proper terminal and waited for boarding. My flight was scheduled to fly at 6:45 am and arrive in San Jose around 8:30. We all boarded, and after a while we backed away from the terminal... and then we returned to the terminal. The pilot explained that he started having stomach cramps as they backed from the terminal, and he would not be flying the plane. It was sad, but also rather amusing. I felt bad for the pilot -- what a reason to give for your inability to fly the plane. :)
They looked for another pilot, didn't find one, and ended up rerouting us. I was worried that my whirl-wind trip planes would prove fruitless and I would miss the wedding... but I was sent off to San Francisco on an ~ 9 am flight and this was compatible with the wedding. I switched my rental booking to a San Francisco pick-up.
It crossed my mind to be concerned about traversing the San Fran airport and finding my rental in good time, but airports possess amazingly good directions and all was well. Obtaining the rental was hitch-less though the line was seriously long. The rental lady almost got me to buy a full tank of gas so I wouldn't have to refuel before I returned the car -- but $50!! Like I was going to use that much gas in my short little trip. She took it off the bill.
My rental was a white Mazda3. I stepped in, scanned the shift set-up, and pulled out -- trepidacious because the car was new to me and I don't have oodles of money to spend on crashed or dinged rental cars. I was driving along, and lo! -- the car would rev but would not shift to the next gear. There were these little plus-minus signs above and below the shifter and further lo! moving toward the + set the car in the next gear. So, great, I thought I had it somewhat figured out but chose to stop somewhere and read the driving directions.
Found out I was in the manual shift mode of a Sport AT set-up. The manual shift mode was grand and all, fun to experience, etc -- but in the interest of my pocket book and physical safety (and given my superb sleep of the night before) I switched into the full-auto mode.
"They" say that California drivers are worse than those in Oregon. I don't know if that's true -- most of them seemed pretty sane -- but for such a short trip I saw my share of nonsense. There was the hatchback Honda Civic on the curves of Hwy 17 -- it kept acting like it would change lanes but didn't and never put on a blinker. I gave it a wide berth. And on my way back from the wedding this Toyota Matrix merged onto the freeway and tried to merge into the fast lane in front of my car. Fine and all, except that they would have been smashed if I hadn't slowed down. I think there was less than a foot of lee-way even at that. And then they got stuck a hundred feet ahead as is often the case with such people. Funny.
The wedding was a fun occasion. I gained a new aunt who has a horse and enjoys outdoors activities (she and my uncle are going on a horse packing trip for their honeymoon). I met two second cousins for the first time and met two of my mom's first cousins. They were all very nice people -- the sort I am pleased to be related to. And then there were my mom's youngest brother and most of his family, and my mom's parents. It was a great reunion.
I sped off after the wedding ceremony and pictures and a portion of the hors d'oeuvres. It was sad to leave so soon, but it was the only way I could make it to the wedding. It was a certainly worthwhile trip.
I had some fun experiences on the way home, but enough of that for now.
Of course, there was more happening said weekend than my uncle's wedding. I was responsible for a case in the large animal hospital. And LK invited me to the Harrisburg MC youth group VB/softball games. Strangely, my friend CS invited me to go rafting, and my friend JG invited me for breakfast on Saturday. When it precipitates it floods.
Certain of those options were mutually exclusive. No way I was going to attend the wedding and go rafting and eat breakfast with JG and Co. But the volleyball/softball... was still an option.
So Friday evening I joined the Harrisburg youths for about an hour of volleyball. I had a good time, then headed home and was there by some time after 11pm. It was 1 am by the time I was done washing clothes and eating supper, so I crashed for 2 hours and arose at some point after 3 am.
I parked my car at the Portland Airport and took myself to the proper terminal and waited for boarding. My flight was scheduled to fly at 6:45 am and arrive in San Jose around 8:30. We all boarded, and after a while we backed away from the terminal... and then we returned to the terminal. The pilot explained that he started having stomach cramps as they backed from the terminal, and he would not be flying the plane. It was sad, but also rather amusing. I felt bad for the pilot -- what a reason to give for your inability to fly the plane. :)
They looked for another pilot, didn't find one, and ended up rerouting us. I was worried that my whirl-wind trip planes would prove fruitless and I would miss the wedding... but I was sent off to San Francisco on an ~ 9 am flight and this was compatible with the wedding. I switched my rental booking to a San Francisco pick-up.
It crossed my mind to be concerned about traversing the San Fran airport and finding my rental in good time, but airports possess amazingly good directions and all was well. Obtaining the rental was hitch-less though the line was seriously long. The rental lady almost got me to buy a full tank of gas so I wouldn't have to refuel before I returned the car -- but $50!! Like I was going to use that much gas in my short little trip. She took it off the bill.
My rental was a white Mazda3. I stepped in, scanned the shift set-up, and pulled out -- trepidacious because the car was new to me and I don't have oodles of money to spend on crashed or dinged rental cars. I was driving along, and lo! -- the car would rev but would not shift to the next gear. There were these little plus-minus signs above and below the shifter and further lo! moving toward the + set the car in the next gear. So, great, I thought I had it somewhat figured out but chose to stop somewhere and read the driving directions.
Found out I was in the manual shift mode of a Sport AT set-up. The manual shift mode was grand and all, fun to experience, etc -- but in the interest of my pocket book and physical safety (and given my superb sleep of the night before) I switched into the full-auto mode.
"They" say that California drivers are worse than those in Oregon. I don't know if that's true -- most of them seemed pretty sane -- but for such a short trip I saw my share of nonsense. There was the hatchback Honda Civic on the curves of Hwy 17 -- it kept acting like it would change lanes but didn't and never put on a blinker. I gave it a wide berth. And on my way back from the wedding this Toyota Matrix merged onto the freeway and tried to merge into the fast lane in front of my car. Fine and all, except that they would have been smashed if I hadn't slowed down. I think there was less than a foot of lee-way even at that. And then they got stuck a hundred feet ahead as is often the case with such people. Funny.
The wedding was a fun occasion. I gained a new aunt who has a horse and enjoys outdoors activities (she and my uncle are going on a horse packing trip for their honeymoon). I met two second cousins for the first time and met two of my mom's first cousins. They were all very nice people -- the sort I am pleased to be related to. And then there were my mom's youngest brother and most of his family, and my mom's parents. It was a great reunion.
I sped off after the wedding ceremony and pictures and a portion of the hors d'oeuvres. It was sad to leave so soon, but it was the only way I could make it to the wedding. It was a certainly worthwhile trip.
I had some fun experiences on the way home, but enough of that for now.
posted by Claire at 22:15
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