The FDA finds food safety issues at airline caterers!
The inspections were at U.S. facilities of two of the world’s biggest airline caterers, LSG Sky Chefs, Gate Gourmet, and another large caterer, Flying Food Group.
The USA Today reported that the FDA found live cockroaches and dead cockroach carcasses “too numerous to count” inside the facility of the world’s largest airline caterer, LSG Sky Chefs, at Denver, CO.
They also cited a report finding ants, flies, debris, and employees handling food with their bare hands. Samples from a kitchen floor tested positive for Listeria, a bacteria that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems. It is also extremely dangerous to pregnant women.
LSG Sky Chefs, which annually prepares over 405 million meals to over 300 airlines worldwide, says the conditions at the Denver facility did not meet company standards. It took immediate actions to correct the condition, says company spokesperson Beth Van Duyne.
The three caterers operate 91 kitchens that provide more meals than all others to U.S. and foreign airlines at U.S. airports. They provide meals for nearly all big airlines, including Delta, American, United, US Airways, and Continental.
The FDA reports say many facilities store food at improper temperatures, use unclean equipment and employ workers who practice poor hygiene. At some, there were cockroaches, flies, mice and other signs of inadequate pest control.
“In spite of best efforts by the FDA and industry, the situation with in-flight catered foods is disturbing, getting worse and now poses a real risk of illness and injury to tens of thousands of airline passengers on a daily basis,” says Roy Costa, a consultant and public health sanitarian.
Conditions open the door to food-poisoning outbreaks, says Costa, a former Florida state food inspector who volunteered to review the FDA reports obtained by USA TODAY.
So all you experienced travelers, you should pay heed to that “food” that is put before you on your next airline flight. You never know what has been lurking in that plate, sleeping on the plate or “conducting business” on that plate! Likewise, you never really know just what that entree really is! Could it be “caterer roadkill”, or could your meal be seasoned with other interesting unclean rodent material?
Is this the results of the airlines “cost-cutting measures”? What are your thoughts?
For me, your Captain, I can only say that for quite some time I have been refusing to eat anything that is from the airline caterers! I see what the quality of workers are, how they handle their products.
For me I steer clear, just give me a diet coke, please!
“Speed is life”, the old aviation adage goes. But on May 16, 2010 I had plenty of speed, about 540 mph, and I had plenty of altitude, 36,000, however, life was not guaranteed!
In order to give you a good feel for what I was about to be confronted with, I will provide some background details on the day that led up to my “enlightening experience”.
I arrived at my hotel room at approximately 7 am Sunday morning, May 16th, after flying the all nighter from LAX to JFK. I finally got into my comfy hotel bed and tried to catch up on that much needed night time commodity, of which I had to bypass during the night because I was flying-SLEEP! Unfortunately, I could only get approximately 4 1/2 hours of sleep and woke up at about 11:45 am that same Sunday morning.
After having a one person conversation with me about my desire for more sleep, I nevertheless decided to get up, showered, ordered up a great NYC pizza, turned on the NASCAR race from Dover International Speedway, and watched ol Kylie Busch win the race. Shortly after the race ended, I packed up my bags, got my uniform on, went downstairs, then my First Officer and I grabbed the van back to JFK for our flight back to LAX.
After going through security I finally maneuvered down through the bowels of our operations at JFK in the British Airways terminal to finally arrive at our JFK flight operations. It is here that I am able to pull up the paperwork that will give me the vital information about our route of flight, the enroute weather,the departure and arrival airport conditions, and the condition of the airplane that is assigned to me for this flight.
After reading all the paperwork for this flight, I noticed that this plane had diverted to Las Vegas on the previous day, Saturday May 15th, for smoke or fumes in the cockpit. The aircraft was ferried (flown without passengers) to San Francisco to the maintenance facility and was checked out further. The mechanics there were unable to find the problem, or so the paperwork stated, and the aircraft was put back into service. Also noted in the paperwork was the inbound crew had, once again, written up smoke or fumes detected in the cockpit upon their arrival at JFK.
Upon my arrival to the gate and airplane, a mechanic was standing in the cockpit. I engaged him in conversation regarding the write ups of the previous two days on the aircraft relating to the smoke and fumes in the cockpit. He assured me that there was nothing found in the airplane that would warrant any concern on my part. I conferred with my First Officer, we discussed our concerns, then decided that we would fly the airplane as planned. However, my parting remarks to the mechanic was, “at the first hint of smoke, I will put this thing down on the very first piece of concrete that I see, do I make myself clear”! The mechanic wasn’t too pleased with my parting shot!
Little did I know that the statement would become a reality!
With all the passengers seated, the bags all stowed, the cargo doors all closed and locked, it is time to push back, taxi out, and fly this B-757 to LAX. It is now SHOWTIME!
As we took off to the west on runway 13R at JFK, at approximately 8:29 pm EDT, the lights of Queens and Howard Beach were in our face. Shortly after liftoff we made a left turn to fly the departure over Canarsie, then out over NY Harbor heading to Sandy Hook, NJ. From there the departure takes us just a little north of Philly as we are heading west for LAX. During the climb there are numerous turns and level offs to keep the north-south traffic separated from the traffic heading westward.
Momentarily after level off, I instructed my First Officer to turn off the seat belt sign and talk to the passengers. He gave the “welcome aboard” speech, the pertinent details of the flight, our proposed arrival time, and arrival weather.
Once he finished his PA announcement we started to engage in some conversation. Before even the first thought was completely expressed, a hissing sound emanating from just below the left corner of where the front windshield meets the glareshield. Almost simultaneously with the hissing sound, came smoke boiling out from under that same corner. Likewise within a nano-second of the hissing and the smoke, fire erupted in that very same left-hand corner of the front windshield with flames running all the way up to the ceiling of the cockpit! “Holy S!*t” was my first thought!
I immediately gave control of the airplane to my First Officer, told him to call ATC to declare an emergency, and request an immediate decent! All the while we had put on our smoke goggles and oxygen masks, because the cockpit had started to fill up with that acrid electrical fire smell that burns your eyes, nose, and throat. The acrid smell is very distinctive and once you have smelled you will never forget what it smells like!
As I whirled around and jumped out of my seat to grab the Halon fire bottle, which is located behind my seat on the back wall of the cockpit, the oxygen hose that is attached to my mask had reached its length limit, snatching both my goggles and mask off my face. Holly Moses, I thought! This is extremely bad timing and what a horribly poor design this is! I am now stuck with fighting this fire, at least momentarily, without the use of my oxygen mask and smoke goggles. THIS REALLY SUCKS!
After I retrieved the first Halon fire bottle, I got my mask and goggles back on and began to fight this cockpit fire. I pulled the pin, pointed the nozzle at the base of the flames, and squeezed the trigger. It seemed like simultaneously the bottle emptied and the flames extinguished. Thank you God, I thought! My pulse lessened and I started to breath easier. However, that feeling was only to be momentary at best!
Then just as suddenly as the flames extinguished, the flames re-lit! “Oh my God, this may kill me”, I said to myself! Instantaneously I spun around heading for the cockpit door to request from my Pursor/head flight attendant another Halon fire bottle. With that move, once again, my oxygen mask and smoke goggles were snatched off my face with the same force as before! Now my pulse had quickened once again, my blood pressure went through the roof, for I now felt the urgency of life and death!
As I opened the cockpit door I was met by my Pursor with a Halon fire bottle in his hands shoving into mine, he had already figured out that there was an electrical fire in the cockpit, and that I needed all the Halon bottles that he could muster up for my use. I quickly closed the cockpit door and frantically pulled the pin on this bottle and began to empty the second Halon bottle into the fire. It was in this time that we removed the power to the window heat by turning off the switches simultaneously while I was fighting the fire with the second fire bottle. As this bottle emptied, the fire went out once again, hopefully to remain out for the duration of the flight.
Once this fire appeared to be out I climbed back into my seat and got up to speed with the First Officer on the progress of his requests. I then told ATC that we wanted to land at Washington Dulles ASAP! We had already started a descent and ATC had given us a vector heading, which was a turn to our right. That would give us more time to get the aircraft down. At this point the airplane was descending out of 36,000 feet and Dulles airport was only about 50-55 miles to our left. The right turn was not the most direct path, however, it was going to give me the needed time to get this airplane down in the very short distance that was available!
Now it was time to assure the passengers that their pilots have the situation under control. With that I got on the PA system and told the passengers that we have experienced an abnormality in the cockpit and that we have the situation well under control. Additionally, the flight was now on its way to Washington Dulles for landing. Furthermore, your flight attendants will have some much needed information, please pay very close attention.
The descent was fairly rapid at about 4,000-5000 feet per minute, with the speed brake fully extended for added drag. As it turned out, the large sweeping right hand turn was working out just perfectly for loosing altitude and positioning the aircraft to line up on runway 19L at Washington Dulles. By approximately 10 miles out of final approach the aircraft was stabilized, on course, and on profile for landing. Everything was now under control! I was feeling like “mission accomplished”!
What else could possibly go wrong?
Finally everything had come together and was looking like a normal approach, fully configured, stabilized, now all that is left is put this on the runway and get it stopped! At about 500 feet above the ground there was a very loud bang or explosion. The noise shocked me and the view that I had instantly after the explosion was frightening. My front windshield had shattered and crazed, I had zero forward visibility!
Immediately I transferred control of the aircraft to the First Officer so that he could make the landing. Another curve ball was thrown at the crew. For this last segment of the flight, I wasn’t sure if my windshield was going to implode into the cockpit an essentially fill me up with shattered shards of glass, and possibly cause great bodily harm to me! Consequently, I was sitting very low in my seat, kinda like “Cheech and Chong” in the movie Up In Smoke, hoping to avoid the windshield, if in fact, it imploded in on me.
Once that aircraft was down to a very slow taxi speed I take back control of the aircraft and taxied it off the runway to the awaiting flotilla of fire trucks, the time was approximately 9:36 pm EDT.
With ground control acting as the liaison between the fire trucks and the flight crew, we coordinated engine shut down, the firemen checking the exterior of the aircraft, and finally getting the fireman to board the aircraft to further check for the existence of fire inside the aircraft.
Once it was determined that the aircraft was safe the tug was allowed to hook up and pull the aircraft on the the gate. Once out of the aircraft, after the paperwork was accomplished in the aircraft’s log book, I headed to our flight operations at out Washington Dulles. Sitting down in a chair already was agents from the FAA!
Now even more paperwork has just begun!
Following the paperwork came the different investigations regarding the cockpit fire over the next 10 days.
That is still another story to come!
However, I finally got to my hotel room at 1:00 am EDT Monday morning, May 17,2010, totally exhausted both physically and emotionally!
So other than that Captain, how was your flight this evening?
The last few weeks have caused me to take pause and reflect on my 59 plus years. We all do this from time to time, depending on the circumstances that revolve around our lives.
This past February I celebrated my last birthday that started with the number 5. Since that birthday there have been some really significant twists and turns in my life. ( The flight of UAL 27 on May 16, 2010 I will write about in a few days!)
It is the bumps, the dead-ends, and the turns of fate intertwined our lives take that will, from time to time, make us analyze where we have been and where we think that we are going in our life. Additionally the birthdays, the Father’s Days, the anniversaries, and the birthdays of our children and grandchildren cause reflection as well.
So it is this Father’s day that has my twisted mind’s attention.
It didn’t seem too long ago that I was full of pride when my first born son came into this world. Then in just four short years my second son came bouncing into the family. Times were good and there was a long road that lay ahead of this, then, young Air Force pilot.
Back in those days the mirror reflected, what I perceived, to be the truth. There in front of me in the mirror, staring back at me, was always this baby-faced, barely needed to shave, very lucky young man. I would ponder what the future would hold for me and my family. In my twenties and bullet-proof, I didn’t fully comprehend that the long road of life that lay before me really is a journey, not a “guided tour”!
The bumps, the grinds, divorce, the bankruptcy of my employer Eastern Air Lines, the loss of my job because of that bankruptcy, a few bad decisions along the way, and at least one very good decision (Karen), have guided me to this point in my life’s journey. It is those experiences, like them or not, that make up part of “my life”. I took the cards that were dealt me, added a hit or two, then placed my wager, and played the hand!
Now that I have been on my life’s journey, and quite frankly most of it is behind me now, I can reflect back on many things. Some of my journey I take great pride in, my two boys, finally having a good partner in life, being an Air Force and airline pilot, and some things that I would just as soon forget! Nevertheless, sometimes I still feel like I need to make a name for my self, even though nothing is going to change who I am! But those times are far and few between these days.
Notwithstanding, when I look into that mirror these days, I realized the trouble with that mirror is that it doesn’t always tell the whole truth. It doesn’t show what is deep inside or read between the lines! It is only a reflection of the surface, not a true indication of who I am. I have found out that there is a lot more to life than just meets the eye! I must say that I have learned that lesson the hard way!
So with much self introspection, I have one thing to say to everyone that has followed along with me. To all my friends, and most especially my family, I would like to thank you for riding along on my life’s journey! It has not always been a smooth road, but nonetheless, it has been exciting and interesting!
I was a young pilot when I flew in on my wings, and I will be an old pilot when I am gone!
This week started out with a very huge cornerstone day in the Hammack Family. On Sunday June 13th my mother, Ola Mae Hammack, celebrated her 92nd birthday!
Her life started out the daughter of John Addison and Myrtle Annie Smith, a dirt poor family in the western Oklahoma town of Sayre. Even though her father was handicapped from spinal meningitis, the family eked out a meager existence by working the fields in OK and TX in the 20′s and 30′s. Their life resembled the characters in John Steinbeck’s book, “The Grapes of Wrath”.
In 1934 she married my father, Archie Wilson Hammack. For the next seven years the young couple continued to follow the crops and work the fields, all the while starting their family. In those seven years, they had three young sons with the first son, Donald Ray, only living to be 11 months old.
After the start of WWII the family life got somewhat easier, but was always a struggle for the family. There were three more children that were added to the collection from 1944-1951. That 1951 birth date just happened to be mine, and signified the end of the new additions!
Life for Mom and Dad was always a struggle, but they did their best to provide the most important things in our lives, stability and love.
My fondest memories of my mother from my early childhood have been resonating through my head this week. As a very young boy I remember my Mom loading us up in the car and carting us off to church on Sundays. She would also round us up when Oral Roberts came to town for his revivals.
When she would hang out the wash on the clothes line she would always be signing some of those good old Baptist hymns like, “Amazing Grace”, Bringing the Sheaves, and In The Sweet Bye and Bye”, just to name a few. To say that my mom had a very rough life would be a gross understatement! But neither she nor my dad ever complained about the lot in life that they were both delt.
I know that the lives of the five siblings are far better than the lives of our parents, part in because of what they both taught us. Mom never had things very easy, but I don’t believe that I ever her complain! She was a survivor and has made it for 92 years, with more to come—-no doubt!
What a life you have had, Mom!
I know that you will never read this, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my Mom!
Monday evening my sister and I had dinner with Steve Detjen and his lovely bride, Jennifer. I was back in Fresno for my periodic cardiology appointment, also it was a time to visit with my friends and family.
It was just two weeks ago that I met with Steve Detjen, one of my old college buddies, to celebrate the life of our other good college buddy, Jerry Noblett, who had lost his battle to heart disease. After the memorial service, we had decided to stay closer in contact with each other.
So I notified Steve that I would be in town at this time, it was agreed to meet for dinner at P.F. Chang’s on Monday at 6pm..
As my sister and I walked into the restaurant, the unmistaken profile of one Steve Detjen was observed at the bar waiting for our entrance, and I might add, sipping a cool beverage! It had been since Jerry Noblett’s retirement party, 8 years previous, that my sister had seen Steve.
As we three sat at the bar sipping a cool one, waiting for Steve’s wife to join us, we caught up on things. My sister and Steve caught up on old mutual friends that they both knew from the Madera P.D. and Fresno County Sheriffs Dept. Within a few minutes Jennifer arrived and we adjourned to the restaurant for some food.
Once we all slipped into our booth, and the pleasantries and re-introductions were over, the four of us exchanged stories. For me, being a Criminolgy major and a veteran of 1 1/2 years of law school, I was/am quite interested in what is like to hold court. So I had, and still have, many questions for “her honor”! Some of her responses and stories were quite enlightening, to say the least. Jennifer is really a very nice, down to earth woman, quite funny, and a great conversationalist! Obviously she is way too good for my old buddy, no offense Steve!!!!!! LOL
Additionally Steve and I re-hashed a few of our most memorable “good times at California State University, Fresno” stories. Some of them were still live-like in our minds and conjured up deep laughs and giggles! One in particular story would be the keystone of my college career, and I still have a very vivid picture in my mind of that event. Unfortunately, now both my sister and my oldest son also have that same picture of their brother and father!!! Can we say embarrassing? Oh well it was the late 60′ and early 70′s, what can I say?
I had a really great evening telling stories about the old days, asking questions and catching up on all those years. The realization that right before our very eyes we have gone from a “wide eye innocent teenager ” to a senior citizen still boggles my mind!
Those were the good old days!
For those that really know me will know that I am forever linking life to music. With the events of the last 3 weeks, it has made me re-live and old song by Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band , “Like A Rock”. There is some lyrics that occur in the middle of the song that really hits close to home and goes like this:
Twenty years now, where’d they go?
Twenty years, I don’t know.
I sit and I wonder sometimes where they’ve gone.
And sometimes late at night,
oh, when I’m bathed in the firelight,
the moon comes calling in ghostly way and I recall,
I RECALL!
Like a rock
So there we were reminiscing over 40 years of lost time, I was wondering “where did the time go”? Then, I RECALLED!!!
This weekend signals the beginning of the summer. Families from all over the US will be hopping on airplanes, cars, boats, and trains, heading out for a weekend vacation of sorts.
But what is this weekend really all about? It is called Memorial Day. It is a time set aside to honor all our military veterans, whether they served in war or peace, whether they survived or whether they gave their lives as the ultimate price to pay for freedom. Without out these men and women we would not be able to do whatever it is that we choose to do this weekend or any other day of the week.
Therefore, let my grateful words thank you for the nights you slept freezing in a tent or sweating in the desert, for the lonely days you spent missing your loved ones, for the hours you spent sick in pain and without someone holding your hand, for the moments of sheer fright in the heat of battle, for the wounds you have suffered fighting evil, for the endless days in hospitals undergoing painful surgeries, for the precious occasions you have missed back at home. For all of these sacrifices I thank you on behalf of my family who are so grateful for you. We truly appreciate these sacrifices.
And for those who returned in eternal sleep, may their legacy be honored for generations to come, may the tears shed over their coffins fertilize the fields of patriotism in our nation to raise a new generation built on strength and honor, able and willing to follow in their footsteps when duty calls to defend America. May their blood not have been shed in vain. Finally, may we prove worthy of their sacrifice!
So, my friends, take a few minutes this coming weekend and pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Freedom always come with a price, never it is free. After all it is not about the war, however, it is all about the warrior!
“Say a prayer for peace for for our daughters and our sons. Set our spirits free. Let us lay down our guns. Sweet Mother Mary we’re so tired. No we can’t come home til the last shot’s fired!”
Check out his video, listen to the words they are very moving!
It was the “summer of 1969″ that I met you in the that unforgettably hot gymnasium at Fresno State. However, it was a cool late spring morning on May 24, 2010, that I said my final farewell to you, my friend.
Jerry, I know that you were watching from above and wondering what all the fuss was about? Well, my friend, you touched many people during your visit here on Earth. Your honesty, kindness, and sincerity was always evident. Your presence cast a huge shadow among friends and family that can not erased.
You know I once heard a saying that has always stuck with me. It goes like this:
“It is not what you take with you when you leave this Earth, rather, it is what you leave on this Earth when you are gone.”
Jerry what you have left on this Earth as your legacy is your honesty, integrity, and courage. Those three traits embodied what Jerry Dean Noblett was all about. The courage was most definitely personified in the last few months of your life, battling heart and kidney disease. Only your family know just how courageous you were.
For those of us that have had the privilege of knowing you and calling you their friend, we will forever miss you!
So I say, with a very empty and heavy heart, so long and farewell my friend. I will miss you!
PS Keep the pinnacle game ready for Detjen, Bomprezzi, and me, ok!
It was the summer of peace, love, and harmony, the year of Woodstock, it was the end of the summer of 1969. I had just graduated from high school and I was moving on to start my college education at my home town college, Fresno State College later renamed California State University, Fresno.
I was busy scrambling trying to enroll into my very first semester of classes. The freshmen were all in the school gym running between the different desks trying to get into the classes that they needed. I was no different than the rest, a young uninformed 18 year old trying desperately to get my required classes.
As the frustrations mounted I was feeling hopelessly lost. I felt this tap on my shoulder and when I turned around it was a fellow student to my dismay. He starting joking about this registration fiasco and we both began to laugh. He told me his name, Jerry Noblett, and introduced me to one of his friends, Steve Detjen. They both went to school together in Madera, CA.
As it turned out all three of us were going to be Criminology majors. Wow, what are the chances of meeting new friends and all three were going to study Criminology?
Through the four years at Fresno State, we were like “The Three Musketeers”! We scheduled all our classes together, had lunch together, played pinnacle together,bowled together, and played pool together. In 1971 I got married and both Jerry and Steve were groomsmen in my wedding. The friendship was solid.
In June of 1973 I graduated and went into the US Air force to become a pilot. Jerry went into law enforcement with the Madera Count Sheriffs Department, then on to the Madera Police Department.
Jerry spent more than 20 years with the Madera Police Department. My buddy was a special person, it showed in the way his career unfolded and the way that he rose up through the ranks at the police department. He ultimately rose to the position of Madera Chief of Police, quite a prestigious and honorable position.
Last month I got notification from Steve that Jerry had developed serious heart and kidney problems and was being transported to the University of San Francisco Medical facilities to await a heart transplant. As recently as last week it looked like Jerry was going to be the recipient of a heart transplant, however that did not happen.
Monday morning I was notified by Steve Detjen that our friend, Jerry, had lost his battle with heart and kidney disease. Jerry Dean Noblett, husband, father, grandfather, former Chief of Police, and my oldest friend, had pasted from this life!
Jerry was a very humble, very honest, and very a hard working man. I feel very proud and honored to have been able to call Jerry Dean Noblett one of my oldest, and long-time friends.
Go rest high on that mountain, Jerry, your work on Earth is done.
Farewell my friend, your legacy will always be remembered by those of us that are left here!
How many times have we either planned a surprise birthday party or been the intended recipient of a surprise birthday party? It almost never works! Well, Karen was involved in planning and pulling off a perfect surprise party for her sister, Kathy aka KK, who celebrated her 60th birthday on April 14th. Here is Karen’s story of just how the party went!
So, last summer while visiting my family in Atlanta, my son’s girlfriend, Ginger, suggested that we plan a surprise 60th birthday party the following April for my sister Kathy. I was all onboard with the idea, as Kathy is the one person that we have all leaned on for many, many years and no one was more deserving of a “surprise” birthday than her…
Around the first of March, 2010, Ginger calls me and says that she has booked the venue for K.K.’s party (a really cool log cabin) and we need to get the ball rolling on the other plans, etc.. Being that I live in AZ and the party is going to be in Peachtree City, GA, I knew that I had to be there at least a week ahead of time, but that was going to work out perfectly, since the Grands were going to be out of school for Spring Break.. I could kill two birds with one stone… Kathy’s friend, Daleen, who lives in Huntsville, AL, said that her daughter would make the invitations, so that was one less problem that I had to worry about being so far away and ShiAnne, the invites were beautiful. She handmade each one differently using her scrapbooking skills and they were unique, to say the least.
I get to Atlanta a week before the party, actually the day before Easter, and spent a wonderful Easter weekend with my son Mark and his family, my sister and all of Ginger’s family !!! Now, all I have to do is sharpen up my “party” skills and it should be a piece of cake for the following weekend… It has been a long time since I threw a big party, but an extremely longggggg time since I threw a surprise party and keep it a secret, especially when you are with that person every day… I totally lost count of how many times I ALMOST slipped up and spilled the beans ~~~ how easy it was to be telling Kathy something and before I knew it, I was tying it right into the party …..I don’t know if I covered myself well or if she just wasn’t paying attention to what I was saying, but the cat never got out of the bag by some miracle..!
Ginger concocted a reason for getting K.K. to the party, but the first obstacle that I had to work around was the out-of-town guests who were coming… Linda, Daleen and ShiAnne were planning on coming up on Sat., from Huntsville, get a hotel room in Peachtree City and be at the party when Kathy got there.. On Thursday Daleen called me and said that she couldn’t stand the idea of driving all the way there and have to “hide out”, when they could come on Friday and we could be together all weekend… Now, all I had to do was come up with a reason for why they were coming and start the house cleaning without being too obvious.. especially since Kathy telecommutes from home on Fridays.
I went back and forth in my mind about whether I should tell her that they were coming up for the weekend, under the guise that we were going to take her out to dinner for her birthday, or just let that be a surprise, too…Well, a surprise it was when they arrived around 10:00 PM on Friday !!! She was almost asleep in her recliner and when the door bell rang and me thinking it was them, I opened the door ~ only to have my sister-in-law standing there… Hmmmm, well I invited her in and shut the door and before I could turn around and walk into the family room, in come the Huntsville girls screaming “surprise”….They had pulled into the driveway at the same time Tammy did, so Tammy came in first, while they hid where I couldn’t see them… Kathy looked as if she had just seen a ghost and it took several seconds for it to sink in, since she had almost been asleep… Loved the look on her face ……..
We told Kathy that they had come up for all of us to take her out to dinner the following evening (Sat.), since her birthday actually fell on the following Wednesday and they had to work… Well, she fell for the story and I had that first hurdle covered. Kathy and her friend Linda decided to do yard work all day on Sat., so that gave Daleen and me a chance to do the last minute “stuff”…. Errand, errands, errands… At 4:00 we could get into the venue to start decorating, setting things up and at 5:00 I had to pick up all of the BBQ stuff that I had ordered.. We arrived back at Kathy’s around 5:30, to find her and Linda still outside working in the yard… I told her that they had to quit and get in the shower, because our dinner reservation was at 7:00…
I had told Mark that he should call me between 6:30 and 6:45, so that we could put our plan into action. The plan was for me to tell Kathy that they had been at a poker tournament and had been drinking beer and didn’t want to drive to the restaurant, so they would need for someone to come pick them up.. My sister who never gets ready in a hurry was suddenly ready at 6:30 !!! There she is, standing in the middle of her great room, purse on her shoulder saying that she is ready to head out…. Quick thinking on my part I say that I have to go potty and give Leon a quick call. Well, I actually called Mark and said that he had to call in the next couple of minutes !!! Panic….. this is going faster than I had thought it would….
Three minutes later Mark calls and puts the ball totally in my court, as he just sits on the phone and makes me carry the whole conversation ~~ both sides of it… Little turd… Anyway I hold the phone away from my ear and say “Mark and Ginger have been drinking at the poker tournament and need a ride”….
WELL, that just set Miss Kathy off !!! “How could they do such a stupid thing when they knew perfectly well that we had dinner reservations” .. Blah, blah, blah…. : ) ….. I said, “Well, someone has to go get them and I’m not sure where this place is, so you talk to him”… (Uh, I knew perfectly well where it was, as I had made a half dozen trips there all afternoon, but couldn’t tell her that.)
So at this point I suggest that she go get them and Daleen chirped in and said that she would ride with Kathy and the rest of us would ahead to the restaurant and be there for the reservation. Do I have to tell you how livid my sister was at this point….well, livid hardly describes her mood, she was totally P/Oed…. I had already told Daleen when I got the phone call from Mark, that she had to suddenly say that she wasn’t feeling well and had to go to the ladies room, so that we could get a head start… She did good, because she stayed in there for over 5 minutes, looking at her watch…lol…. Also, she had decided that she would make Kathy stop at Wendy’s to get her a soda to help “settle her stomach”…LOL…. We knew perfectly well that there was a Wendy’s on the way, because we had stopped there earlier to get a burger !!!
Ginger’s brother, Eric, had gone upstairs in the log cabin ,where we were having the party, to be on the watch-out for Kathy’s arrival from a window…Once he announced that she had pulled up,well, “pulled up” is not real fitting ~~ she came squealing into the parking lot on two smoking tires and the first thing she did was call Mark’s cell phone… Of course he had been instructed not to answer it and when he didn’t, she called Ginger’s phone… Still no answer, so the next thing she did was lay on the horn for what seemed forever…. By now my sister is BEYOND seeing red, so Daleen said “just go to the door and get them” ~~~ all of this time you have to imagine the language coming out of my sweet sisters mouth ~ to which she replied she wasn’t going to the *$@* door, how inconsiderate they were for doing this and I think was ready to pull away when Daleen said that she would go to the door with her….and opened the door and started getting out, before Kathy could throw it in drive and peel rubber once again !!! ha ha ha
All I can say is that I saw red, as in F-I-R-E, smoke coming out of her ears, nose and mouth when she threw the door open ~~~only to be greeted with “SURPRISE”………….Had my face not been the first one that she saw, she might not have immediately put it all together, but she was as shocked and surprised as I’ve ever seen her. This hardly describes all of the frustration she suffered before getting there and in the parking lot, but it was one of those “priceless” moments that I’ll remember forever..!!!
Leon has his 60th coming up in Feb. and honey, I’ll be happy to give you a big party, but it will be a long time before I want to do the surprise route again. It is just too hard for me to keep a secret and I don’t know if I could pull another one off again…
It was all worth it for the worlds most wonderful sister, but once is enough…..We had a great time, good food and the best friends there ~~~ what more could you ask for…?
This past weekend the board of directors of both United Airlines and Continental Airlines voted in favor of merging the two airlines into one entity. The new airline will be know as United Airlines. However, the livery will be that of the Continental Airlines paint scheme with the word United on the fuselage. The CEO of the newly merged airline will be the CEO of Continental, while the United CEO will become the non-executive Chairman of the Board.
The proposed merger is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter following government approval.
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