It has been such a long time

Neil, Rebecca and I managed to make our way back from Halifax to St. John's on Tuesday.

A few weeks before our departure from Halifax we realized that with three of us traveling it would be as cheap to take a taxi to the airport as it would be for all three of us pay bus fares. Anyway, it turned out that that is what we did when the appropriate time arrived.

The taxi worked out quite nicely and we were able to make it to the airport in no time. It seems that leaving at about 9:00 AM is a pretty good time to leave as there is very little traffic heading out of time at that time of day.

Because our taxi ride only took about 30 minutes were arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Almost immediately after checking in and going through security we purchased some drinks and snacks and secured a table. Almost as soon as we were seated we proceeded to break out the cards and play a game of hearts. Within about a hand it was clear that I was playing poorly and taking far too many points. Not surprisingly, I was smoked in no time.

After our game of hearts we moved to the area near our gate and staked out a few seats. Soon after arriving in the new location Neil and I decided to play another card game. After a few suggestions we came up with War. As we were about to start we decided to modify the game by adding some elements from Cribbage, making the game Cribbage war.

Some of the modifications included that if the sum of the cards was 15 the win would go to the person who played the lower card and if two suited cards were played, and one of them was the jack, the trick was won by the jack. Eventually we modified even these rules so that jacks would only win if the cards were suited and we gave the winner the option to decline the cards (so you didn't have to take the 2 that you took with your 3). The other modification that we added, based on cribbage, was to have aces be low, so there value dropped rather significantly.

Anyway, even with these rules in place the game was still rather slow and tedious. We managed to keep the game going for the rest of our wait in the waiting area, through the pre-departure time on the the plane, during take-off, and through about half of the flight (before Neil eventually won). We then played again and I won (this second game was much shorter).

Playing war for about two hours really made things go quite quickly. Almost before I knew it we were in St. John's and waiting for our luggage. Though the luggage area was maggoty with travelers it didn't take us too long to get our bags. Almost as soon as we had our bags in hand we found Rebecca's Father and made our way to his car. Within another 10 minutes or so we were home.

As we returned home I was surprised to find my mother and father waiting for us. Almost as soon we were through the front door my mother asked if we would like some soup and muffins. As I hadn't eaten all day (as is frequently my practice when traveling) I was quite grateful to have such ready access to food. Furthermore, the food was really quite tasty. The soup was homemade chicken rice soup and the partridgeberry muffins were still warm (and seemed to have extra fruit).

Since my arrival I haven't been as productive as I might have liked, though I can't say that I am too surprised. Coming home for Christmas doesn't seem to be a time for great productivity, though I do really need to take care of a few things in the coming days.