Planes, Trains, Automobiles...Trams, Shuttles, Buses, and Cabs

It took all of the above modes of transportation to get me where I was supposed to be in Ireland after 3 days of unexpected delays and traveling...but I am getting ahead of myself. First let me apologize for taking so long to update here. I got home from the trip at 11:15 Monday night after being up for 24 hours. Tuesday and Wednesday I caught up around here with the dogs, laundry, housework, etc. Then yesterday I basically crashed from the jet lag. I slept 11+ hours for the past two nights, and finally feel normal--or what passes for that with me, anyway.
On Saturday the 13th, (I now see why my dad feared that number) my friends Judy, Lauri, Bonnie, and I boarded the Chippewa Valley Airport Service shuttle at 9:15 AM and headed to the airport in Minneapolis. (I coincidentally was sitting in front of a guy who heard me mention that my daughter was a social work major--it turns out that he was one of her professors and advisor in the SW department at UW-Eau Claire!)
After a smooth check-in at the airport and getting through security, we checked the flight board and saw that our 2:30 plane to Newark was not on schedule. To make a long, all-day story short: due to storms and high winds--up to 75 mph--out east, planes were delayed, stacked up, and unable to take off or land. By 5:30 PM, ours had been delayed and then cancelled. So what do we do now?? As an infrequent flyer, I was blown away by the fact that best-laid plans can be destroyed by the whims of Mother Nature and the airlines. I have seen on TV the mobs of travelers stranded at airports during the holidays, dealing with blizzards and over-booked flights. "Poor saps," I'd think. Now I was one of them.
We worked with a determined young man from Continental named Said, and he found two seats on a flight to Newark on Monday the 15th. TWO DAYS away!! The four of us looked at each other; at that point Lauri and Judy decided to cancel their trip. We would be missing much of the tour we had booked, and two of us would still have to find a different flight to get there. Bonnie and I took the seats on Monday's flight and added two days to our stay in Limerick with Katie. With long faces, we got on the 6:00 shuttle that we had boarded with such excitement that morning, back to Eau Claire to figure out what to do next.
After pizza and 2 pitchers of beer at Sammy's with Lauri and her husband Paul, Bonnie and I went back to their house for the night. Between e-mails and phone calls to our travel agent and the tour company, we learned several things: neither business would do anything for us as far as reimbursement or travel vouchers regarding the days we would be missing with the tour. When we arrived in Dublin, the tour would do nothing to help us catch up with the group, who by then would be all the way across Ireland in Killarney. They had their money, so why help, right?
Continental had given us a voucher for a cheap rate at a hotel near the airport, so Sunday afternoon Bonnie and I drove to the Cities again in my car and spent the night there. We headed to the airport early Monday, just in case we could catch an earlier flight. No--instead, our 2:30 plane was delayed another two hours--causing us to miss our connection from Newark to Dublin. :( This is crazy!! The gate agent managed to get us seats on the 9:50 flight to Dublin, and we took off for Newark around 5 or so. It had taken us 2 1/2 days from first setting foot in the airport to actually get on a plane!!
It was raining when we arrived in Newark, and we hustled to get on an airport shuttle that would take us to the terminal we were flying from. We soon discovered that the flight to Dublin was also delayed--we were waiting for 69 kids from the North Carolina State marching band to arrive on another flight; they were going to be marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin. At 11:50 PM we finally took off for Ireland!!!
I dozed off and on during the night, but was pretty groggy when we landed a little after 10 AM, Emerald Isle time. Bonnie and I got our luggage and headed to the information desk. We bought a bus ticket that would take us into the city, about 20 minutes away. After getting off that bus, we went to the tourist center and a nice girl named Sinead told us about an internet cafe that stores luggage. We bought tickets for a sightseeing bus that goes around the city and lets you get on/off at various places. (More on that later) We also had to plan how to get to Killarney by that night. Katie had offered to come to Dublin to get us, but I assured her that we were big girls and would figure it out. Through various conversations, we learned we'd have to take the tram--like an above-ground subway--to the train station, and we could take a train to Killarney.
We spent about 5 hours touring Dublin, then located the tram pick-up spot. We stood there not knowing what to do! Where do you get a ticket? A girl in her early 20s heard us wondering aloud, and she told us how much it cost, then took our Euro coins and led us to the ticketing machine. She got the tickets for us--a sweet and helpful girl, contradicting the signs all around us that said "Beware of Pickpockets." We jumped on the tram, and no one even asked us for our tickets; we stood up all the way to the train station. By this time we were running late, and we ran in to get our tickets. We raced to the turnstile and didn't know what to do there either; a man took our tickets and put them in the slot for us. We hurried to get seats and flopped tiredly into them, just minutes before the train departed. Whew!!!
The trip to Killarney was 3 1/2 hours long, and until it got dark we were able to see some of the countryside. This was the Ireland I had come to see! Most of the houses in the country seemed to be painted a yellow/gold color. The hills and pastures were green, but not the deep color that later spring will surely bring. At each small town that the train stopped in, a voice announced the name of the place in both Gaelic and English, then said "Thank you for traveling Neither Here Nor There." After a few of these announcements, we decided that "Neither Here Nor There" was either the name of the train or the route. How quaint!!
At 8:30 we finally arrived in Killarney! It was raining, and we quickly grabbed a cab. It drove about a block and a half to get us to our hotel, 5 Euros worth!! The driver was very nice, and I tipped him a handful of change--not knowing yet that tipping isn't customary there.
The Killarney Avenue Hotel, where our tour group waited. We had missed 3 days with them--but we made it!! To be continued...

Two Exciting Things

Usually I lead a typical average life like everyone else, but the next couple days will be exciting for me. Tomorrow I will go over to Menomonie to sign the closing papers for our house in Elk Mound. Yes! Someone finally came along who apparently sees in it what we did. After almost 3 years on the market, dozens of showings, several offers, one other near-sale, and numerous trips back and forth, we will be down to owning three properties instead of four! I have been nervous for the past few weeks since accepting the offer, afraid that something would happen to mess up the deal. We were there last month to pick up the rest of Katie's stuff that was still there, and I knew when I left that it would probably be for the last time. This time there were no tears, no sentimental dwelling on the good memories of the twelve years we spent there. It is time, and it's a relief. I will sign at 3 PM tomorrow, and Fred will go over for the official closing on the 16th. Which brings me to my other cause for excitement: I have to sign early because on Saturday I leave for Ireland!!! My friends Judy, Lauri, and Bonnie will head to the Emerald Isle with me for a week of sightseeing, shopping, and carousing! We leave Eau Claire at 9:15 Saturday morning for the Cities; fly to Newark that afternoon, and on to Dublin that evening, arriving at 7 AM Sunday, Ireland time. After reading Katie's blogs and seeing the pictures she has taken, I can't wait to experience all of it myself. I'm eager to see if the redheads outnumber the blondes and brunettes, and after a few ciders, maybe I'll be possessed by the brogue of my ancestors! I could cross "Cheryl" off my tour name tag and change it to "Fiona." It will be a blast to participate in an actual Irish St. Patrick's Day, and I have three different green shirts packed for the week!
I already gave Fred his present from Ireland. I wanted to get him a Harley shirt from the Dublin Harley-Davidson, but they aren't open on Sundays, and our tour leaves there Monday morning. So after exchanging several e-mails with a nice lady named Louise McMahon at the Dublin H-D, I had a shirt shipped here. It arrived last week, as you can see in the pictures. Now I'll have even more room in my suitcase for the stuff I buy myself!
Well, I still have to make a list of instructions for Fred and take care of other last-minute details. I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about when I return, so I'll leave you with this:

A trans-ocean ticket she bought her
To the country of green hills and water.
Of Irish descent,
To Limerick she went
To visit her lovely wee daughter!

The trip will be worth all the hassle,
To see Burren, the Cliffs, and a castle;
After Guinness so big
She might dance a jig
And maybe a leprechaun rassle.

She'll take in the scenes of Killarney
And the infamous Stone of Blarney--
But a kiss there won't be
For on it guys pee;
('Twas nice of someone to warn me!)

A lifetime adventure for sure,
With friends on a fabulous tour.
Two days with Katie,
That little Patatie,
Can't wait to spend time with her!!

Taxes Shmaxes

They say that only two things in life are inevitable: death and taxes. After my experience this morning, I believe that death must be the much simpler of the two.
Fred does our taxes using Turbotax, so I really have very little to do with the complicated issues involved with deductions, owning three houses, etc. All I have to do is the girls' taxes, using the 1040EZ. Yes, they could do their own, but since their W2s have always come to our address and I need their taxes done before filling out financial aid forms online, it's just simpler (ha!) for me to do them. Sometimes I wish the EZ form was EZ-er for government-document-challenged people like me, but generally I have managed without getting a visit from an auditor.
Last year Erica's W2 went to her address in Madison, so I told her she should do her own taxes. She grumbled and procrastinated, but did get them done online by the April 15th deadline, happily receiving a $162 refund for her trouble.
Then in November, Fred and I received a letter from the IRS stating: "We received a tax return from a taxpayer using the same Social Security number as a dependent you listed." Uh-oh. Erica had mistakenly claimed herself as an exemption, and obviously this error would cost us a lot more if we didn't claim her (which we rightfully can) than it would cost her to amend her return. So, I called the IRS and after gritting my teeth through numerous menu selections, actually got connected to a real guy named Bartholomew. Bart told me that Erica needed to file an amended 1040X to correct the situation. Ok, no problem--except she hadn't made a copy of her taxes when she filed online. Another uh-oh. She requested a tax return transcript, because an actual copy of the return costs $57!!! Amazing how her putting down a "1" instead of a "0" was becoming increasingly more complicated and expensive.
This morning I sat down with all the forms, worksheets, and instructions to straighten things out myself, just to make sure we didn't end up getting audited or something. Maybe it's just me (probably), but what would have likely taken most educated adults five minutes to correct left me, after 45 minutes, in a lather of frustration and profanity. The form referred to instructions I couldn't find, line numbers that didn't match, and this doozy: "enter method used to figure tax." Huh?! Is that like showing your work with a story problem?
After going as far as I could without smashing the calculator, I deduced that instead of a $162 refund, Erica owes $122 plus interest. Fred is going to have to look at the whole thing and may come up with something completely different. All I know is that next year when tax time rolls around, she will be married and her tax status won't be my problem. Then I can just go back to messing up our checkbook.