Airlines + Bad Weather + Long weekend = a delayed return to Charlottesville. I left town on Thursday, planning to return Monday night and with all the freezing rain and snow occurring in areas north and west of St. Louis, I ended up getting reticketed for a Tuesday morning flight. I went, as usual, to St. Louis for work but drove over to Springfield, Ill. to visit my parents with my sisters for the weekend. We celebrated Mom and Dad’s fiftieth wedding anniversary together. It was fun — Mom got out of the hospital Friday afternoon and was full of energy the whole weekend (steroids do have that effect).
We accomplished quite a bit of planning for the anniversary party, including scanning photos from the wedding album. The party will be held in June in New York state at the same place where Mom and Dad had their wedding reception in 1957.
There was lots of news in St. Louis over the weekend with the ice storm shutting down power to half a million homes and making driving interesting (it took us four hours to get to Springfield Friday night). But the BIG story was the return of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby to their parents. Quite a thrilling news story. Oprah will host the families on her show today; I’ve Tivo’d it. I clearly remember when Shawn disappeared from the St. Louis area four years ago so to hear that he’d been found was stunning. People all over the nation will be captivated as this story continues to unfold.
It was an exciting weekend but I am very glad to be back where I belong.
