sorts of things between the shop and the house. We took the doglets to
Steven's house where they will be staying while we are away, finished up
the packing, sorted out a few more sick computers, wrapped the final
Christmas presents, left notes everywhere and just generally tried to
tie up a gazillion loose ends. Frank went out to the shop at one point
and slipped down the concrete steps that were totally frozen over....
That could so easily have been the end of this trip and we were, once
again, very fortunate that he was not hurt.
I had some things I needed to do last night online and was a tad worried 
when I could not get online. My Macbook was already asleep in the safe 
and I wondered whether this little computer would actually work.  It 
does, but there were a few bad moments there.  I know that I would also 
be a good thing for me to get away from the computer for a while, but 
this is the way I do things, write my memories and experiences down at 
the end of the day after the lights are off and Frank is gently snoring. 
:)  Besides, I need somewhere to dump the few photos I take...
We were lucky that we did not latch the gate last night as everything 
was frozen solid this morning - we would have had trouble getting out of 
the yard, let alone down the road... but we did, and with icicles 
dripping off many places of the car we carefully headed down the road to 
the airport.  What a lovely time of the day that is, especially in this 
weather.. almost no cars at all, and those that are out are all driving 
slowly and carefully.  The bridges were salted and the roads just fine.  
The airport was still asleep apart from one short line of people on a 
different airline.  After about an hour of waiting, a guy who had 
obviously forgotten to check his hair in the mirror and who did not look 
fully awake, opened up the Delta line and we started the process.
We were late in taking off, wings got all iced up and we had to get 
de-iced again, three people were taken off the airplane and their 
luggage had to be taken off too... we never did find out why.  But after 
about an hour delay off we went into the night sky.  I firmly believe 
that I will not suffer from any menopausal hot flushes........ i get 
enough of them each time we take off in an airplane!  My palms go all 
sweaty and even though I am not hungry at all, my stomach grumbles and 
groans.  My brain tells me its all ok and even the worst scenario 
is....well, out of my control - but that message does not go any further 
than the neurons that created them.  When it was time to get off the 
plane we were very surprised to see that we had to climb down a very 
narrow steep set of stairs, straight on to the tarmac and then walked a 
way and up some more steep metal steps into the airport.  Hmmm -had not 
seen that for a while.
The airplane from Atlanta to Ft Lauderdale was a jitterbug!  It sort of 
wiggled around as if it had a soft spot in the middle like one of those 
airport buses that have a concertina middle..... That plane jiggled 
around on the ground like a kid who needs to go to the bathroom - one 
foot to the other, non stop.  Everyone was sort of looking at everyone 
else with an unasked question in their eyes.  No one got off though and 
the flight was smooth and good once we got off the ground.  It was 
greatly improved when they announced that Delta was giving free wifi 
connections on all flights till 2 Jan.... I just could not resist!  Out 
came the laptop and yes, I sent a couple of emails from 38000 ft up in 
the sky :)
The clouds looked like something from Disneyland - all fairytale like 
and a very pretty clean cotton-wooley white with a lovely pink and 
orange glow and the sun woke up.  Pretty.  After landing we jitterbugged 
for a good way to the gate, grabbed our luggage (the only turquoise 
color in there), found a taxi and headed to the hotel.  It is beautiful 
and warm here - and before long we found ourselves sitting outside at a 
dockside restaurant, beers in hand, smiles firmly planted on our faces, 
squinting against.........yes, the sunshine!!  Everything felt so good 
right then and so its been for today.  After a delicious lunch, a couple 
of beers, a beach walk we headed back to the hotel to catch up on some 
of the missed sleep from last night.
And so the first day of our time away has come to an end.  Tomorrow we 
will be exploring Ft Lauderdale by Water Taxi - $15 per person for a 
full day of coming and going with stops all over Ft Lauderdale... sounds 
lovely and the weather is going to be just great too - 78 degrees!!
Here is a link to a few live camera's of the Panama Canal.... we go 
through there on the 24th December - starting at the first lock around 
6am and out the other side at around 6pm...  
.http://www.panamacanallivecam.com/gatun-lock-cam/.  Maybe you would see 
us going through there too.  We are on the Celebrity Constellation 
cruise ship.
I will try to put up some photos, but think that the connection on the 
ship will just not allow it - so will probably only get that right once 
its all over.
Ok- enough rambling out of a 'nothing much' day :)
love and light
Annie
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