Today Is?

Sunrise over Nevada. Tons of snow in those mountains. A cold reality sitting 31,000 feet below me. About four more hours of this plane, a trip from Honolulu that we almost missed. Someone has to explain to me why Gate 15 displayed Newark, but the plane boarded out of Gate 16. Neither Dad or I heard any boarding announcements and I found it strange that no one in the gate area seemed fidgety when we had not started boarding fifteen minutes before the plane was due to depart. Granted it was going to Newark from Honolulu. Only someone who had been in Micronesia and was coming home for the first time in fifteen months wanted to be on that plane.

My name rang out over the PA system. Then Dad's. Final boarding. “Oh shit, Dad. We are at the wrong gate.”

Fortunately, we needed to hustle just one gate. Never-the-less by the time I got to my seat a sleeping “intruder” was roosted in my blue space. Decked out in one of those silly eye masks, she slouched against the window, propped up on her own house pillow. I flagged the flight attendant to straighten out the situation, but she “woke up”, gathered her nest, muttered something or other and moved to her assigned seat. I swear I saw a few feathers float to the cabin floor.

Dad and I were too organized in leaving Kona. With everything packed and placed in the trunk of the car we had plenty of time to dawdle. In doing so, I relaxed on the couch reading the paper and took my cell phone off – normally glued to my hip. I got all the way to the Honokohau Harbor before I realized I was without my Can-You-Hear-Me-Now network.

Kona traffic can be brutal at sundown – okay any time. But it was strangely light this late afternoon. If one can zip around town, I managed and we arrived at the gate with twenty minutes to spar, by hitting every light green. Never ever before.

Get to see my kitties tonight if I ever get out of the Newark Airport. Weather delays. Dreay, but warmer than I expected. How many days before I return to Hawaii?