Clean House & Company

Hello again! Aha ~ three days in a row. Don't they say if you do something three days in a row it becomes a habit? We shall see ~ we shall see...

The day started with cleaning up the guest bedroom ~ clean sheets & dusting furniture & all that. There's a little lady named Peggy who works with Mark's sister, Mary, in Costa Rica and the Methodist Mission, who was largely responsible for taking care of Papa (Mark's dad) during his last months of life. This dear Peggy now has cancer, and Mark has arranged for her to come to Moffitt Cancer Center for treatment. She and her daughter, Dot, will be arriving in Tampa this evening, and staying with us for at least a few days.

Next came cleaning up the kitchen ~ putting dishes away and running the dishwasher one more time. Then making a pot of homemade vegetable soup that will simmer on the stove all afternoon. Sure smells good!

We arrived at the airport around 7:35, and Dot's flight was to come in at 8:11. Mark had not had anything to eat all day, so he got a Whopper while we were waiting. We stood at the tram exit until about 1/2 hour after Dot's flight was due in, then moved down to luggage claim. No Dot. She wasn't answering her cell phone. Then Mark's phone rang and she told him she had gone to the red side luggage belts, when she should have gone to the blue side ~ what can I say? Mark told her to stay put and he would find her and bring her to where she needed to be. Meanwhile, the airport "person" put all remaining bags on a cart and wheeled them away. I ran after him and told him we would need to claim one of those bags when we found the passenger, so where could we find them? When Mark and Dot showed up, we had to go to the airline office and claim the luggage. Exciting? We're not finished. Mark took Dot's luggage to the car, while Dot and I trekked over to the red side now, to wait for Peggy, whose flight was due in about 8:50. When Mark came in, he checked the monitors for flight updates and discovered Peggy's flight had been delayed until 9:15. At about 9:30, I went down to baggage claim to see if she may have walked passed us and gone there on her own. When I got there, all bags had been cleared away and there was no-one around at all. I walked over to the airline office and asked if Peggy's bag was there ~ and it was! I called Mark & said I had found the luggage ~ had he found Peggy? He said he had. Now wouldn't you think that meant she was with them? That's what I thought, but when they walked up to me, there was no Peggy. I said I thought he had found Peggy! His response was that he had ~ she was still in Ft. Lauderdale. Communication is not his strong point, ya think?

Well, we were at the airport until nearly 11:00, trying to contact a supervisor, who seemed to have vanished in thin air, and trying to get Peggy's luggage released to her daughter, which was easier said than done....but it was finally accomplished. The airline gave Peggy vouchers for a hotel room for the night, supper, breakfast, and lunch! The next flight into Tampa on that airline is tomorrow at 7:50 p.m.

We finally made it home around 11:30 and all had a lovely bowl of homemade vegetable soup. Dot went to bed, Mark listened to a little guitar music and I updated my blog.

Another day with the
Russells at Richmond Place