Day 1 - Not a day for Windows

I am typing this on the plane over the Atlantic at 1:30am EDT and 7:30am Budapest time. We are due in around 11am local time to Budapest this morning. We have all tried to get some sleep, but right now, Jacks eyes are wide open staring at the ceiling of the Boeing 767 we are on. People are starting to stir because it is light outside, and a few windows were left open. Flying east, we speed through time arriving, losing 6 hours of time.

Yesterday was not a day for Windows. We had some failures and challenges. The good news is we are safe and healthy, praise the Lord.

The day started with my mom coming over to take us to the airport and help us get out of the house. It was a beautiful morning and we finished off the last of the food in the house and headed out. Our first leg was to head to JFK in New York.

While on the plane, I was finishing some last minute quoting activities to hand off to our team once we got to New York. I had done some decent work and was nearing completion when my computer started grinding on the hard drive. This was not right. The first “windows” problem of the day. I tried to shut down what I was working on and save everything, but my laptop was frozen as the hard drive was not doing very well. I left it running even as we landed, hoping it would somehow make it through and survive….no luck.
We had a scheduled 7 hour layover at JFK which turned into my computer troubleshooting time. The hard drive was trashed, no tools, no place to buy a hard drive, no internet access accept for phones. I found some tools at the Sunglass Hut and they let me take apart the computer and just try to plug and unplug everything hoping it might come back. I had help from the guys at Flexware. Even considered hopping in a cab to head to a local store or something. No luck. I ended up going down a path of “recovery” from the Sony manufacturer just to get something useable back.

So here I am with the installed stuff I got in 2006 on this laptop (I am typing in Microsoft Works), but at least have something working. I tried to repair the disk once I had it back up, but there are still physical problems on the drive, so I am working on borrowed time. Will try to rebuild on a new hard drive once I get to Romania and some better technical working conditions….
OK, enough on the computer.

The kids and Kim were great through all of this. Jack brought a tennis ball to toss around and we all took turns just playing catch in the airport. JFK is huge, so we all spent some time walking around. Around 6:30pm, we got a call from Gary Huff, our neighbor saying that there had been a huge storm and golf-ball sized hail had damaged a lot of houses in our area - INCLUDING OURS!! One of the outer panes of glass in our dining room had been broken by the hail! Another “Windows” failure!
We spent the next few minutes calling everyone…Kim’s mom and dad, my mom and dad, and neighbors. Shawn and Gracie called to see if they could use our house because their neighbors tree was laying on the power lines behind their house and they had no power. God works in mysterious ways.
I ended up leaving voicemails for our team on what my work on the quote said before I lost it….hoping they can recreate it. I will not have an internet connection for at least another 12 hours or so….so I wanted them to be able to get a start on it.
So, we boarded about 7:30 local time and finally got in the air about 8:45pm.
We are all happy to be traveling and glad to be safe. The food on the plane was not too bad, and we have friends on board. Andy Baker is on board along with Rob Muncy, both from Remember the Children.
Ok - over and out. More from Oradea, Romania.