First week home

It's been a little over a week since I hit the beach and flew home. I encountered the typical travel bullshit one is forced to endure when traveling more than 15,000 miles, or half way round the planet. Drank too many beers in Perth, checked in with two other crew and the ticket agent mixed up our baggage tags and tickets. Found out you cannot fly from Sydney Australia to Los Angeles California with a ticket that says Santagio Chile. Go Figure.

Found another flight to Los Angeles, but not before spending 8 hours the Qantas Business Class Lounge in Sydney. They have wonderful, hot showers, fluffy towels and tons of champagne. Discovered tons of champagne gives me a splitting headache, despite mixing it with liberal amounts of OJ.

Made it to Minnie and managed a seat on the last flight out to the Copper Country. PW, LP and one of my neices picked me up and for the first time I can remember, I slept when I got home. Slept for a day and a half, except for eating a few times.

Since then, it's been the break of relatives. My neice was here when I arrived. MIL and SIL arrived two days later. A day after they all departed, FIL and his fiancee arrived. They've been here a few days and just today I got up at six am to drive an hour South of here to go copper mining. Such are the makings of a vacation here in Copper Country. One day you're at the beach, soaking rays, the next you're swinging a rock hammer, or dredging through a muddy tailings pile, looking for bits of red metal. If you watch the Travel Channel, you just might have seen a show on this particular mine and how they let touristy types (and wayward Geologists turned Geophysicists) mine their own copper on Saturdays. It was fun, dirty and a good workout. The folks have some copper to take home and I have a sore back.

Tomorrow, we plan a bit later start to head North into the Keweenaw Peninsula, eventually reaching Copper Harbor. We'll hit the beaches along the way and the gift shops in town. Maybe dinner at the Harbor House. FIL expressed an interest in stopping at The Gay Bar for T-shirts and a beer. I'm always game for that.

A few more days and they'll be gone, but tomorrow, we may have a surprise house guest for a few days as some of our friends-a couple who just moved downstate last week, have just announced they are probably moving back up here immediately and the husband needs a place to crash while he looks for housing-they just rented out their house as they left! Good thing they didn't sell it, eh?

So, anyway, not much else going on, other than I've decided I am mortal and cannot put a new roof on my house, by myself, in less than 3 weeks and survive to return to work. I was destined to either die, or be seriously maimed for life in the process. Now I just have to figure out how to scrape up the cash to get it done while also paying for my oldest son's first semester of college...

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Good news is I now have one of my chimneys lined with stainless steel and can fire up the wood stove this winter (next month). Gotta love that wood heat, especially with the cost of fuel oil this year. Plus, I LOVE making wood. Cutting, splitting, hauling, making kindling-all of it. I don't know why, but I just love it. Something about axes, mauls and chainsaws, I guess...
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That about wraps things up. Time to hit the rack so I'm fresh enough to drive all day tomorrow.

Peace