Yes It's Fall

Today was the typical Montana weather experience people usually talk about: 55 degrees at 6 a.m., beautiful sunny morning, clouds rolling in around noon and rain for a few hours. But sunny again later, although a bit cooler. Good thing I went with shoes today instead of the sandals I've been wearing all week!

Tom's Habitat for Humanity project was quite an adventure. We realized a few days before he was due to fly out that Manila was having the worst flooding in 40 years, from a typhoon. Typhoons aren't unusual, so it was surprising to have it cause such a disaster. Things were somewhat improved by the time his flight left, and he was able to stay in the hotel he'd planned on, but had hoped to take a few days for sight-seeing, and that wasn't possible. He spent the time helping out with disaster relief until the Habitat project was ready. Luckily that was in an area farther south, so it wasn't as affected.

He was heading to Texas when he returned to the States, so I'd booked his flight, and arranged a flight for James-Philip too that would have them arriving in Dallas at almost the same time. JP was laid off for October, so we thought this would be a good time for him to take a vacation too! Tom didn't have the flight info, but I figured he'd have internet access once he got to his friend in California. He did find an internet cafe in Manila, and I kept getting emails from - even after he was supposed to be flying! He said the airline just canceled the flight, and put him on the next one (24 hours later!). I was concerned he'd miss his flight to Texas, but in the end it all worked out.

He and James-Philip had a great visit, JP is back to work now, and I'll be heading there for my birthday and Thanksgiving. Then Tom goes to Mexico in January to work on that house and hopefully get it ready to sell.

Jon-Erik will be visiting for Christmas, after his class at Portland State U. finishes and before he takes the GRE next year. We visit often on Skype and using the Wii Speak as part of Animal Crossing, but it will be fun to have him around for a bit.