Back Home Safe, Sound, AND Secure

Did I feel secure while traveling? You bet, especially since I was the lucky one to be pulled aside for a random search. A few seconds after I walked through the metal detector at the airport, a bell went off and the security guard said sorry, random search time. After all the horror stories I had heard, I thought “oh joy, my first time to be frisked.” He had me go into this little 4’x4’ cordoned off area where he was standing and pulled across one of those retractable straps so I couldn’t leave (HA! Like that was going to stop anyone from escaping?). He was very polite, as was all the security staff, and said I had to wait for a minute until a female employee came. Luckily all that ended up getting patted down was my computer! She walked me over to the machine, pointed to one of the computers and asked if it was mine. Both Dave and I laughed and said take your pick, we have three with us (found a super deal on a new laptop on sale in Daytona). She grabbed one of the old ones and took it off to the side to wave her magic wand over it, then handed it back to us. Finally we could put everything back in its case, put our shoes back on, and retrieve our carry-ons. I think we had to commandeer at least 8 of those plastic bins for all our items to go through the machine. It’s a good thing that Daytona is a quiet airport with something like 4 commercial flights a day, so we didn’t hold up the line too long. I bet the staff is still talking about us.

Now it is back to reality, where the yards need to be raked and put back in order, the trails need to be groomed, and the motorcycle customers are already appearing, even though Dave hasn’t even opened up the shop yet. Everything in our Glenville home and business appears to be okay, and all systems are up and running. The water and heat went back into service with no glitches. We have already been up to Ticonderoga and the house and garages there are fine also, with no water in the cellar. We did get to see snow up in the north country and the smaller lakes were still frozen over!

Despite the windy, damp, and cold weather since we returned, it is still good to be back home and see all our friends and neighbors. Plus our wildlife seems to have been waiting for us, with 5 deer greeting us in the yard, along with the usual woodchucks, squirrels, chipmunks, and many varieties of birds looking for a bath and a free meal.

Best of all, it feels great to be on ‘the grid’ again! I still hesitate every time I go to use the microwave oven, thinking that I need to turn on the generator. Conserving power and water is important, but it’s nice to have a never-ending well, a long hot shower, and the luxury of turning on more than a couple of lights at once.