At the End of the Rainbow

Thursday evening and this morning I had my room to myself. Hathaway left Thursday around noontime for her long weekend. It was nice to have uninterrupted free time on base even. :) I first did my laundry, since that would be bad to have a week's smelly shirts & socks hanging on the rail of my closet all weekend... :)

After dinner at the galley and finishing the laundry, I decided I'd go check out the B&N on Rosecrans... and found a thoughtful collection of C.S. Lewis writings, a copy of Mere Christianity from a friend, and a suggested Navy reading list book for my pay-grade called "Ender's Game". My roommate from Great Lakes had raved about it as well, and it was on the summer reading table.

This morning I took really slow. Woke up very early, but slept in again until about 7 or 8 am. For the first time since I got the car, I walked all the way to Denny's, with my packed laptop bag for the flight home. I walked the familiar, skinny, flower-draped, chain-link fence path between the base overflow parking and the condos. After passing a shipmate, I noticed a single mother mallard, frantically quacking as she waddled the tight path in front of me. I quickly caught up with her, as my strides were slightly longer than hers... and thankfully it was right when there was a grassy opening to a place between the condos, so she was able to deviate and avoid being devastated by being overtaken; don't think she could fly.

At Denny's I Had my usual, and the waitress commented several times about my "healthy" choices, hoping I'd enjoy them anyway... lol. I then walked back to the base entrance where I waited for the 923 to take me down the street a ways to the airport entrance. Only had to wait about 20 minutes... that's not bad for being a shot in the dark. But before it came, a taxi almost caused an accident feet away from where I sat. That sure woke me up from my relaxation and music-listening on the bench.

Anyway, there was no crash, but lots of yelling and honking. Relieved, I got on the bus, and got off about two minutes later, just steps from the airport. I was quite early, so after I got to my gate, I finished watching a movie I had just started the other night and had a snack at the only cafe this side of security for that terminal. Chicken noodle soup & a lemon bar.

The boarding went smoothly... I was busy reading Ender's Game, and was among the last to board. But I had an aisle seat on row 22, so it went just fine. Sat behind a family with three little kids who squirmed and colored in coloring books, and did rather well... but the flight only lasted 2.5 hours total. Reminded me quite a bit of what it was like to fly when I was little. I simply read in my book the whole time and I'm now about half-way through it.

When we came in to land in the gleaming city (it was only just partly cloudy with lots of beautiful afternoon sun... and a refreshing 56 degrees!), as we looked out our left-side window, there was a bright and distinct rainbow right outside. It was so close we could only see a small portion of the downward bend! And we saw more of it as we continued on... it was like landing at the rainbow's end, which is pretty much what I think of my stay here this weekend. :)

Welcomed home!

Jp

PS. And for dinner that was waiting when I got home (Meg & Jason helped get it ready) we had Mom's spaghetti with Italian sausage sauce... and after some sitting & chatting, and discussing plans, we sat down and watched "Wait Until Dark" 1967, (Audry Hepburn). A thriller about a blind lady... made me jump in my easy chair. Stayed up a bit too late... played a long overdue game of Phase 10 with Meg! ... and lost by a card. Ah, what fun! And my bed feels like one big pillow!