Murphy's Horseshoes

 Murphy's Law states simply that if anything can go wrong it will. Anyone with life experience knows that Murphy was an optimist. Further adventures enroute to home demonstrate this truth.

Did not sleep the night before nor that night, Up at 2 am, at the Regina airport by 3 am. No problems getting my boarding pass and a seat in an exit row. Arrived in Toronto where I had an enjoyable 7 hour wait for KLM to Amsterdam. More on that later. 

Toronto to Amsterdam was 7 hours. Felt like forever. Longest flight I've ever been on was Beijing Vancouver 11 hours. I'm getting old. No internet so actually finished two books. Arrived Amsterdam for a 4 hour layover to fly to Warsaw. Went through passport control to enter EU and found my gate C15. Sat to wait. Got a text that the gate was changed to C5. Went to new gate to wait.  15 minutes later I was paged to the desk. Reached for my passport and boarding pass as that is what they usually want and found them gone. No panic as I knew where they would be, on the bench at C15. Except someone had found them and turned them in to the desk at C5. Horseshoes, I tell you.

Arrived Warsaw at 11am, and my checked suitcase was missing. Failed to make the transfer in Toronto. I hate that airport. They only had 7 hours and still screwed it up. Took 15 minutes to register at lost baggage. They have it down to a fine art. Masha's highschool friend David met me at the airport. My bus to L'viv left at 7 pm. I was so tired I was incoherent. 

David found a hostel in Old Warsaw called Oki Doki. Crashed for a few hours as I could finally sleep. Caught the bus and had good wi-fi to the Polish border. Tanya spent 10 hours waiting to cross the border in August so she told me to message her when we were through the border and she would buy my train ticket from L'viv to P'yatikhatki based on my arrival in L'viv. Took 45 minutes to cross both Polish and Ukrainian border. Part horseshoes and part Murphy's Law as there was no wi-fi in Ukraine so I could not contact Tanya. 

The bus stopped at the L'viv train station and I had wi-fi again. Apparently Sasktel does not connect to European mobile networks so using my data pack under roaming conditions does not work. Murphy again. I messaged Tanya and she sent me a train ticket within minutes. This country is in a war for its very survival and everything works like normal in many places. Certainly not at the front or in the occupied communities. With Russia targeting electrical production and distribution infrastructure, systems will not work like normal in many places now I expect. 

I had 6 hours to wait for my train so signed into the lounge where it was comfortable. "Where are you from?" "Canada". "(thumbs up) Trudeau!!". No wi-fi on the train so slept 18 hours. Arrived home at 6:30 am Monday 26. Showered, ate, slept. Lost a day somewhere as Friday came and I thought it was Thursday.

Got an email Tuesday saying my suitcase was in Warsaw via Paris. David will pick it up when he gets back to Warsaw on 31st. He will hold it until we get there with Lucky. 

It was good to see Tanya after three months of being alone, and Lucky was very glad to see me after 8 months. He gives hugs but no kisses. He hates kisses. If I hold his head and kiss his nose, he will give a little flick of his tongue in response. We took him for a walk yesterday and will again today.

Lucky was excited to see me but no kisses.