Back from Little Rock

Let me just start by saying that most of my trip back home was good. It was an eventful trip, to say the least.

Josh and I flew in to Little Rock (pictured above) on Thursday night, a non-stop on United from Dulles. When we got to LR, Josh's luggage was there, but mine wasn't. So I made a claim and found out my bag was in Charlotte. CHARLOTTE, as in North Carolina. How a bag on a non-stop flight with about 20 people on board got to Charlotte, I'll never know. The only comment from the person on the other line about how it got lost was "Dulles is a very big airport." Um, OK.

So, I had to go out and buy a new suit for my Uncle Robert's funeral. Including shoes, belt, tie and toiletries, I spent about $250, which United is going to pay if I have anything to say about it.

But it doesn't end there. On the return flight, we were supposed to leave Little Rock on Sunday at 1:41 p.m. Well, we didn't leave until about 4, and there was nobody at the gate to tell us this. If I hadn't checked the flight on my iPhone, we'd have never known. At least my bag arrived this time.

But needless to say, I'll probably never fly United again.

As for the family, Sue isn't doing very well at all. She's having a bad time with the chemo and, despite having only two treatments left, says she's not doing anymore. Somehow we have to change her mind. I know it seems bad now, and after seeing her with my own eyes, I'm more worried about her than ever. But she's got to change her mind and attitude if she's going to beat this thing.

Brenda's doing well, still going to college, and is on track to graduate in May. She's finally on a diet, NutriSystem, and she seems to like it. She knows she has to lose some weight for her health, and if she plans to get a job after college. She has to pay those loans back somehow.

Ron's happier than a pig in sh*t, too. I bought him a new TV, a 20-inch Samsung. He had a TV, but he had fiddled around with it when he first got it, and now through the cable he was seeing a lot of snow. I warned him that he'd face the wrath of God if he fooled around with this one.

While we were at Ron's setting up the TV, a fire broke out on the second floor of his building, the Albert Pike Hotel. Kind of freaked us out a bit because at one point, we tried to go down an exit stairwell and it was filled with smoke. Never been through anything like that and don't care to again.

The fire was brought under control pretty quickly though, so everything turned out OK.

That's pretty much my trip in a nutshell. Back to the Rock in May. Before that, Cheryl and Val will be coming out to see the Cubs and Nationals play at the end of April.

Now if we can just get Sue on the right track ...