Postcards from the Pacific Northwest

[nanila]

Grandma and Grandpa teach Keiki how to make a grass blade whistle.


Behold the wild Keiki in the grass.

It has taken three days of my six-day trip here to sort out my parents' internet connection, which is a bit longer than I'd hoped to spend on it. The important thing is that it seems to be working now. There was an intermittent problem which took a while - and multiple calls to service provider & visits by technicians - to fix. They ended up replacing all of the coax cable ends and connectors from the pole to the wall socket in house and that did the trick. The last tech also found a problem with the incoming signal from the roadside, which has presumably been affecting all my parents' elderly neighbours whether they knew it or not, so that should get fixed as well. Probably after I leave, which is non-ideal, but it will hopefully end up helping to vindicate the World's Most Expensive Tech Support Trip.

Last night I made the mistake of going to bed at 21:30, which meant I was wide awake at 04:30. It's going to take a lot of cups of tea to keep me awake for another 2.5 hours. I'd better get started on that.

ETA: Forgot to tell the best part of the story so far, which is the bit where my parents meticulously recorded my flight details on their wall calendar...on the wrong day. This resulted in me popping out from baggage claim after my (delayed) 9.5 hour flight and an hour's slog through immigration/border control with my suitcase and a delirious baby in a pushchair and not finding my father, who is usually strolling up and down the Arrivals hall.

I got out my mobile and dialed my parents. Dad answered after three rings. "Hello?"
"Hi Dad, it's me. Where are you?"
"I'm here!"
"Okay, where?"
"What?"
"Where, specifically, are you? Are you in Arrivals, or the car park, or outside?"
There is a long and ominous pause.
"I'm at home. Aren't you arriving tomorrow?"
"...No, Dad, I'm in the airport."

NB: My parents live over an hour's drive from the nearest international airport. That was an expensive taxi ride.

I'm sure this memory will be funny eventually. Like in five years or so.

Comments

Not schadenfreude, not really

[ed_rex]

I'm sure this memory will be funny eventually. Like in five years or so.

To third parties, it's actually kind of funny now, if only in a sort of pained, I hear ya, sister! sort of way. Not so much for the expensive taxi-ride, but for the expensive, long-distance tech-support trips that were only supposed to take a couple of hours out of one's trip.

I hope the other three days prove (or have proven) to be considerably more relaxing!

Re: Not schadenfreude, not really

[nanila]

Heh, thanks for the sympathy! Today was much more relaxed, for sure. Soon we'll be on our way home, hopefully now to be able to video-call and use e-mail as a viable form of regular communication.

[cmcmck]

Things like that never seem funny at the time, but........ :o)

[nanila]

At the time I was pretty close to having a meltdown. I'm just glad I kept it together enough after the cash machine refused to dispense any money and both my cards got locked out to go to the taxi rank anyway and ask if they took cards. (Thankfully they did.)

[gwendraith]

The airport mix up will be a funny story to tell for years to come, but a bit frustrating (and expensive) at the time :)

Really sweet pictures :)

[nanila]

I plan to get a lot of mileage out of the story once I can tell it without getting visceral flashbacks. :P

I have lots of lovely photos. It's proving difficult to curate! :)

[silveradept]

The wild Keiki are difficult to capture on film. Well done.

[nanila]

Indeed, the wild Keiki are frequently a blur of motion. Thank you. :)

[cxcvi]

My parents live over an hour's drive from the nearest international airport. That was an expensive taxi ride.

And all of this in the name of tech support?

[nanila]

Ostensibly, yes. Although there's a strong element of, "We'd really like to see you but we're too self-deprecating to ask you to take time out to fly over and visit" as well.

[omnipotent]

Wild Keiki appeared!

Keiki used CUTENESS!

It's super-effective!

(The above may not make much sense if you haven't played Pokemon haha)

Adjusting back to your own time zone is gonna suck. I'm sorry. *hugs*

How stressful that your folks recorded the wrong date. I'm glad things were okay regardless. I agree, someday it will be funny, just not today. *moar hugs*

[nanila]

Heh, he does use CUTENESS to his advantage. Lots.

Thanks. I'm doing OK with jet lag. I had a dip in energy about 2 PM today but liberal application of caffeine helped. Weirdly, not getting any sleep on the flight & bus ride also helped as it meant I slept very soundly last night.

Thanks for the sympathy. Next time, I'm pre-booking a shuttle to and from their house...! *hugs back*

[ironed_orchid]

Oh dear. I'm glad you were able to get a taxi.

Sounds like your trip was useful with some good moments, and quality grandparenting time. Hope that ti results in regular skype dates.

[nanila]

Thank you. The taxi services are really efficient & reliable, just super-expensive for a long ride like that.

Our first Hangout (got them a Chromebook so Skype doesn't work) is this Friday. Fingers crossed for a good connection!