We left Austin a week ago today but with all that’s happened it feels so much longer ago. We ended up getting snow early on Sunday morning and while it had started clearing up by mid-day, another front was directly behind it. My Uncle John was itching to fly his powered paraglider (PPG) before he went back to the oil field on Tuesday and because of the shifty conditions ended up crashing. It came as such a shock to the family because we had all had lunch together with him at Texas Land & Cattle only a few hours earlier. He fell approximately 250 feet (although the news is reporting 500 but I guess that makes for a better story) before he hit a telephone pole. My dad was filming him fly and ended up catching the entire thing on video from right before until he hit the ground. John was able to talk and walk around before asking to go to the hospital. John was taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital’s trauma unit where we all sat with him until he was given a room on the trauma floor five hours later. I guess the 911 call was picked up on the news scanners because all three news stations (CBS (KKTV), ABC (KRDO), NBC (KOAA) came out to the scene to investigate (John was already in the ambulance and no longer at the scene at this point). My dad was still at the scene during all of this (and is even shown in the news footage hoisting John’s equipment over a barbed wire fence) because he had to wait for the sheriff’s office to release John’s equipment after taking pictures. The sheriff’s office had never seen a mean “fall from the sky” and was concerned that the FAA might need to get involved. My dad informed them that PPG is not regulated by the FAA as dictated by a certain code and after over an hour he was allowed to leave. John fractured his L2 vertebrae (lower back) and has some compression fractures; mentally, he’s as well off as he ever was. It’s a miracle that he survived the crash and we’re all so grateful that he wasn’t hurt worse than he is. He was released from the hospital today and will be recovering for the next 2 months at my parent’s house. Even with all that’s happened he’s eager to get back to flying again. John is in contact with Fox News seeing if they’d like to air the footage before he posts it on You Tube. So I’m going to wait until after that time to post the entire clip. Until then, if you’re interested John shared the footage that my dad took with KKTV and they did an interview while he was in the hospital.
Last Thursday, I had my second interview with Fox. They had called when we were in Texas and I ended up getting it pushed back a day so I could attend. I thought the interview went really well. I was in there for an hour and 15 minutes and met with three different people. I was told that the position I had originally applied and interviewed for was now being given to the station manager’s daughter who wanted the position (nepotism at its best) so I was now being considered for the National Sales Assistant. I was supposed to hear something back on Friday but still haven’t. I know people are still dragging their feet returning back to the grind after the short weeks during holiday season but still. Friday afternoon I had a phone interview with the Sports Authority in Englewood (Denver). I decided to pass on the face-to-face interview because after mapping the location, it was 67 miles away – minimum 3 hour daily commute – and not worth it. Monday, I had a second interview at ITT for the Buyer II position again. I was only there for about 15 minutes while on a conference call with a manager that was headquartered in Virginia but I’m pretty confident I did well and projected myself in a way that I can’t over analyze. They said they would be making a decision by the end of the week and I should hear something then. I applied for a position with the YMCA as well and the req closed for that on Monday. I was asked to complete an application and send it back which I did this morning but haven’t heard yet. I really am surprised with the economy the way it is that so many companies are hiring right now. Not that I’m complaining.
Casey and I had a ton of fun during our week in Austin. The drive ended up being longer than we had anticipated. We thought it’d only be about 12 hours and it was between 15.5 and 16 each way. We took the southern route through Raton Pass but still hit an approaching snow storm in Colorado and freezing temps for most of the trip. While Stoli’s had plenty of experience with long car rides, this was Dude’s first trip and we’re relieved that he took to it so well. We finally arrived at Justin & Robin’s at about 10 pm local time.
Brooklyn and Emmett are so cute! And so much smaller than our kids. Our worries about Stoli were realized when we got there but she got better throughout the trip. We were even able to let them all out together for short periods. But because of their different sizes, tendencies, and personalities, for the most part they stayed segregated much to my disappointment.
Friday we had a late start leaving the house because Casey had to work some. Justin and Robin were sick that day so we got to spend the whole day together. Robin went out for an errand and surprised us all with breakfast tacos from Taco Cabana to hold us over till what ended up being dinner. We all drove to James & Lana’s new house near Lake Travis. For dinner we all went to a local chain, Chuy’s, for some of the best Tex-Mex we’ve had in a loonng time. When we got back we ended up just drinking and playing some Guitar Hero 3 (we brought our Xbox) before heading to bed.
Saturday was Casey’s (29th) birthday! Robin said it was his golden birthday since he was 29 on the 29th. Justin and Robin took us for a trip to sight see outside of Austin for a few hours. We walked around the river at New Braunfels and Gruene before getting ready for Casey’s birthday dinner. We went to the Salt Lick which is a BBQ restaurant out in the boonies. I seriously think has to be the highlight of the county because the sheriff’s office was directly traffic for parking. Its a good thing we went with locals because we would have been surprised the place was BYOB, luckily we knew this and had a cooler ready! James, Lana, Daphne (Robin’s sister), Joey (Daphne’s boyfriend), and Shane (Robin’s friend) came to help us celebrate! After a filling all-you-can-eat dinner we all went back to Justin and Robin’s for some more Guitar Hero 3. Stoli ended up trying to bite Joey so she stayed in the kitchen for the rest of the night.
For Sunday brunch, Justin and Robin took us to Moonshine. Its a cute little restaurant in downtown Austin that serves traditional breakfast foods with a twist. For example, there were green eggs (pesto flavored) and grits with green chiles. Everything was so good its making me hungry even now! We were pretty worried about how Stoli was going to do that afternoon because Robin’s other sisters Ginger, Candace, and Candace’s husband, Eric, were coming out to spend New Year’s with all of us, so we spent a few hours outside in the 70 degree sunshine beforehand. We introduced everyone one at a time and everything went great, Stoli was loving all of the attention from everyone. Justin’s cousin, Aaron, even stopped by for several hours and she was still a good girl. We were scratching our heads trying to figure out what set her off about Joey since he’s a dog person and the only thing we can think of is he had a beard. As usual Dude was his social little self.
Justin and Robin had to work on New Year’s Eve, so since Casey and James had to work part of the day anyway we went over to James and Lana’s with the dogs to hang out for a bit. They ended up being told to stop working around 1 so after that they took us to Pluckers for wings and beers. Casey and James ate so many wings if they had asked, they could have gotten onto the wall of fame (25 wings of piece – Buffalo Wing Factory needs that!). Then we went back to their house and played some Rock Band for the first time with our lead singer the Luscious Lana before heading back to Justin and Robin’s. For the rest of the night we just hung out taking turns playing Rock Band and drinking. We were all shocked that midnight came so fast and found ourselves scrambling for champagne to toast! James and Lana brought a ton of fireworks that we set off in the backyard (they’re legal in Austin) and had our own private show to bring the New Year in right! We stayed up till 3:30…
The next day most of us were a little, ahem, dehydrated from our celebrations and spent the day lounging around. We watched a lot of the History Channel that day. By the time Robin, Candace, and Ginger had finished preparing a tasty brunch for all of us we knew all about eggs, cereal, and orange juice. Eric, Candace, and Ginger had to head back to Houston early in the day so after saying our goodbye’s resumed sitting for the rest of the night.
Even after lounging all day we were not prepared for our drive home. On the way back, we took the northern route straight up 35 through Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Witchita until we got on 70 in Salina. The rest of the trip we could have driven in our sleep because we’ve made it so many times on the way out to Kansas City. We’re not so eager to be jumping back in the car anytime soon now as you can all well imagine.
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