February 13, 2014: Dominica Heads to the Bahamas

The alarm went off at three this morning. Dominica was up first and started getting ready and checked the weather and her flight status before getting me up. Her flight, on JetBlue out of JFK, was still scheduled to make it out this morning. So we packed up the car and off we went.

When we got out to the car, the snow had already been coming down for a bit and there was probably an inch and a half on the ground and the snow plows, even in our complex, had not been out yet. This might be a very bad morning.

It took a while to get out of our complex and we were moving like molasses as we tried to get out to the main roads. We were sliding by our first turn and almost could not make it up the hill on the snowy road. Not a good start.

The drive from our house to JFK in Brooklyn is only supposed to take an hour (that is crossing all of Westchester, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn can be done in that short of time) but our drive took at least ninety-five minutes. It was a long, stressful drive. We were really worried that we were not going to be able to keep moving and that Dominica would end up missing her flight anyway. The drive was just awful.

I got Dominica to the airport and her flight was thankfully still listed as being on time. We had seen no snow plows all morning thus far, although the roads were decent once we were into the Bronx, and the snow was coming down steadily the entire drive. And, of course, my windshield washer fluid is still frozen or broken or whatever so there is little means of cleaning the windshield. To add to the stress of the morning, I had forgotten my wallet at home so had only the cash that Dominica was able to give me for dealing with tolls and any emergencies that might happen along the way.

The drive home was so much worse than the drive down to Brooklyn. The snow had kept coming down and the roads were much worse. Luckily there were some plows out on the Sprain but they were shoulder to shoulder and moving at 12 miles per hour so I made almost no progress at all and there was so way around them. They created so much spray that there was almost no visibility.

Once I hit the Taconic there were no plows at all so suddenly I went from crawling behind treble plows to being out on a completely abandoned road with a long way still to go. That was really horrible.

I tried stopping at the deli right by the house to pick up breakfast for dad and I but the only deli that I would pass on my way home had not even tried to open today. So no food for us.

On the drive up, which took more than two hours, I finished reading Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” It was good but I was really surprised by how little “adventure” that there was. The whole book was them trying to get somewhere and then it was just over. I had expected so much more. I think that the book could easily have been four or five times as long and been much better. It had so much potential but petered out by the end.

Dad was waiting in the kitchen, watching for me, when I finally pulled into the parking lot at the house. Dominica had been emailing hoping to find out that I was home before she was en route to Georgia. Her flight remained on time and she had already boarded quite some time before I arrived home. I emailed her immediately upon arrival and she appears to have gotten the email but her response to my email did not come through until after she arrived in Savannah so it must have been right as she was going into “airplane mode” when I got home.

I pretty much went straight to bed after getting home. I was so incredibly tired. I only had about three hours of sleep and was tired before going to bed last night too. Before falling asleep I checked my mail from the office and was very happy to see that the office closed for the day. That means that I am just expected to work from home today – so I will not even be attempting to drive in but I was not going to anyway. The snow was so bad and still coming down like crazy – actually coming down much moreso now. There was no way that I was going back out there again, especially for an even longer drive.

I got a good, solid nap in. I felt much better after that. When I woke up I checked my mail and saw that Dominica had already disembarked from the plane in Savannah. She had had a very nice flight with nice goodies and stuff because it was the inaugural flight for that path.

Katie drove up from Jacksonville to Savannah, only about a two hour drive, to get Dominica and take her down to the cruise ship. They are really lucky that they had so many things in place to allow for these last minute changes in plans. It is amazing that Dominica was able to make this cruise!

I set up for work via my Windows 7 laptop (yes, I now have one that old) in the living room and hung out with dad and the girls. Dad is very thankful that I am home today. Now he only has a single day of being alone with the girls and that is only if I am going into the office tomorrow. I assume that I am, but we will have to wait and see.

The snow was coming down at an epic pace. Huge flakes and no end to it. Liesl was so excited as she loves snow to no end. She got bundled up and went out for a good, long play on the back deck in the foot or more deep snow. Luciana saw her go out and decided that she must go out too. So they played and played out there.

Work was pretty slow today. That is expected when the office is essentially empty. It was nice to be home, yesterday was a really long day. And the timing was perfect with dad there. Now he gets two days of training before having just one day all on his own.

Dominica and Katie made it to the ship before one thirty and were able to get onboard, set up in their massive stateroom and get their first meal while waiting for others to board. Dominica had time to take a nap too.

This evening, Dominica and Katie got to attend a special, private concert on the ship to which they had won tickets. The ship was originally supposed to leave port around three thirty, I believe, but had pushed off leaving until five and then six and was only just getting underway when she was done with the first concert closer to seven. That was the last update that I got from her as once the ship pulled away she had no Internet access so we are essentially out of touch until she gets back to port again.

This evening we all watched Star Wars again. Dad had not seen it in a long time and was interested in seeing it again with the girls and Liesl wanted to go back and watch it again because she liked it but had had a hard time following and remembering the story the first time. It is a much longer form movie and much more complicated than any movie that she has watched before so getting this one reinforced will probably make a big difference.

The girls were tired and ready for bed when the movie was over. They are sleeping in our room tonight. I read Liesl her chapter for “The Silver Chair” and we were all three off to bed.

As of the time that I was going to bed, the office is still planning on being open tomorrow but they will send out an announcement in the morning as being closed is a very real possibility. The snow stopped falling mid-afternoon but there was tons of it out there and it rained for several hours after that. Just as we were going to bed we had some massive lighting hits within a mile. Very bright and extremely loud. Luciana was scared.

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