Life has been hectic

since Tuesday evening. I was left in New Haven as expected, as Adrian left to go to Ukraine for the election. I got a call that evening around 6:00 from the girl who was supposed to take me to the airport the next morning saying that she was too sick to take me. I quickly got off of the phone with her and called Adrian, catching him literally as he was getting on the plane to London. He gave me a few things to try. I'm not going to go into details here, but let's just say it was stressful for me to figure everything out since I was in a strange place and the only person I knew was no longer in the country. (PLEASE don't feel bad Adrian, I am REALLY HAPPY that you went.) Needless to say, I was much relieved when I arrived at the airport in Hartford safe and sound in plenty of time. Once I got home in Omaha, I walked into my house and went to turn up my heat. The thermostat read 48 degrees. I had it set at 50. I turned it up to 65 so I wouldn't freeze and then quickly realized that it wasn't working. I went downstairs, looked and sure enough the pilot light was off. I called my dad just to make sure I wasn't looking in the wrong place, and I wasn't. There were some instructions on how to relight the pilot which didn't work. My very nice neighbor Jim came over and we tried together to get the thing working. The thermocouple was bad, so I ran to Ace Hardware, showed the nonworking thermocouple to a guy there and told him that I would like to find one that worked. Just under $6 later, I arrive back home with a new, 'working' thermocouple. Jim installs it and we again try to light the blasted pilot. No luck. As it turns out, he is having somebody over to his place to look at his furnace the next day (today) and we should be able to have them come over and look at mine too. I take a warm shower and then hide under my down blanket for a little while. The temperature inside the house continues to slowly drop. I am warm. Jim's wife, Joan, calls me and asks if I am warm. I say yes since I am under down and I am warm. She then asks me if I want to come over and spend the night there. I say yes again. As I come out from under my down blanket, I realize how cold it really is in my apartment. I scurry over there, not yet packed for my trip to Denver today, and eat some good food in a warm, friendly environment. I slept well last night and had a good breakfast. I return home to get packing and out the door for the long drive and see that the temperature is down to 38. Boy am I glad I didn't stay there last night. It took me a while to get my stuff loaded in my car, but I was moving quickly as I was freezing, and I was on the road for real at 9:30. As I am driving, I realize that my car is getting crappy mpg's. This, I figure, is probably because of the very strong cross wind that is blowing like crazy. I can also hear the wind blowing through my door. I think this is because I don't have my door closed all the way. I get off at an exit in Lincoln to fix my door and realize that I cannot get back on the highway there. Not a big deal, but I took a detour through Lincoln. I make it to Lexington before I have to stop and get gas. I should have made it to north Platte. I don't know how much farther it is. If you want to know, look it up yourself. I get across the state line and stop for a quick rest stop. Boy am I glad to be back in Colorado. I get gas again in Sterling. Traffic has slowed down to 55 and the road isn't apparent under the snow and ice. After taking it slow for a little while, it starts to clear up again (the road, that it). I eventually get back up to my 80mph speed and make it the rest of the way into Denver and back home. It is good to see my dad and my cat. Now that I am here, and I have been for a little while, I feel like sleeping my life away. I am so tired. The stress can go away for a while. I have a million people to see and I can't wait! I think it is snowing in the mountains. I hope I can get some good pictures of the front range to show all the people who aren't in Colorado how nice it is here. Oh, and the furnace is working. It turns out that the instructions on how to relight the pilot aren't very clear, and an expert is needed to get it back on. (The thermocouple really was bad, though. It is what caused the pilot to go out in the first place.)

Goodnight all.