Pppppffffffffurrrttttt!!!!!!
That was a big wet "Raspberries" to all those Contractors who wanted to break my budget...may all their wood be full of knots...
I have LOTS of time for planning and plotting out here on The Love Boat...
Along with my various duties aboard ship, and all the work I still have to complete in order to renew my Paramedic License, I managed to set up material orders for all the stuff needed to build the shell of our House....a huge advantage of drawing everything out in detail in "Sketchup" is the ability to quickly make up a Take Off list...
I sent my steel list out for bid via email and found a steel building supply house right down the road in Navasota was the best deal...the facts that they roll the sheet steel and fold the trim right in their shop and that my money will be going to pay my Neighbors paychecks pretty much made the difference....there was only a few dollars between all the bids I got, as steel prices are pretty much commodity-driven....a coil of sheet stock costs everyone about the same...
Lumber prices bump up against the same issue...a few cents is all that separates the various yards pricing for any particular item....so finding a NEARBY yard or Big Box store is the key to happiness...the closer the better...and with several yards in nearby College Station or Huntsville, I figured I could wait til I got home to drop off a list....
Coming home....how I LOVE the sound of that....
The homebound trip was sweet....a chopper to the beach...a short wait at the Hilton for the Air France flight to Paris, then a few hours layover till the flight to Houston...long enough to grab a shower and a sandwich in the Lounge...catch up on a few emails....and this time, do a little shopping at the Duty-Free...it seems Precious Bride has developed a hankering for some Pear Brandy I brought home in a wee flight-bottle one trip....a gift from the flight crew...so I wandered the concourse and was duely dazzled by all the goodies...
I found Precious Bride her nectar and toddled back to the lounge to....well....lounge until the flight...
Long-haul flights are more or less Suspended Animation time...I try to stay unconscious as much as possible...a Cattle Class seat is as good as First Class if you sleep...
Landing in Houston Intercontinental can be quite thrilling....with 3 parellel runways on the North side of the airport, you can get into the unusual state of having planes on either side of you throughout the descent and landing...quite a view...!
...and the whole "Customs and Immigration" experiece has undergone a real revolution these last few years with the introduction of the "Trusted Traveler Program"....for $100 or so you register and undergo a security vetting, and if you pass muster you get to check in via a computer kiosk that reads your passport and checks your finger-prints so you can then stroll glibbly past the teeming masses, yearning to breath free (the Teeaming Masses, not Me)...say "Hi" to the CBP Agent at the exit gate...if you travel "Carry-On Only" you don't don't even see the baggage area...you have a separate path right out into the "Meet and Greet" hall....so the whole process can be over in as little as 10 minutes...
SCHWEEEET!!!
The "Stink-Eye" from the crowds as I go by just makes it that much better....welcome to the USA, y'all...
Precious Bride was waiting for me and even after 30+ years of her picking me up at the airport, the sight of her across the rotunda still makes my heart skip a beat...my Doctor says its either Atrial Fibrillation from all the coffee or a Second Degree Heart Block (Mobitz 1) but I like to think its LOVE...
Either way...I gets all fluttery....Tee Hee...
With no Kids in the house now, the homecoming Happy Dance now revolves around the Pack...and tho Ceasar Millan would not approve of all the excitement, even he would not be able to deny the absolute joy our dogs are expressing
Naturally, I stack the deck a little...and every time I return home from a deployment, I bring a "Kill" to share with the Pack...some rib-bones from Rudy's Barbeque are especially appreciated, and if I forget to stop off or our supper plans did not involve something meaty and greasy, I keep a couple of "Emergency" Slim-Jims in my sea bag. A secondary plan can always be some McD's french fries, but they lack a high enough animal fat content....a weak substitute for the greasy goodness of a Slim Jim...
You see, I take my responsibilities as Pack Leader very seriously and YES....I am a weenie....
You want to make something out of it?
Unfortunately, as the year is about to end, Precious Bride is up to her eyeballs in work and could not accompany me to the Ranch....we took two short days for ourselves and then I was off to build us a house.
Terry
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