Another Road Trip

We're getting ready for a little trip to Arizona again - since we missed Christmas there we decided to go for 'birthday' season instead. Here's hoping the weather holds as it has been and we can get through the mountain passes without incident.

Having grown up in Arizona where weather basically doesn't interfere with anything, I have had trouble all my life adjusting to the notion that weather can, in fact, REALLY mess up your plans. When I lived in Alaska there were more trips that ended in delays and cancellations than trips that went off without a hitch. And even when we lived in Oregon and tried to drive down to Arizona over Christmas we were occasionally met with road closures and icy conditions. (I thought that an interstate highway would be maintained sufficiently that this couldn't happen - but boy was I wrong!)

So I've been thinking about past travel disasters. And there have been a few.

The first year in Alaska that we tried the Arizona-at-Christmas trip should have been the warning I heeded about travel - it was with a baby and an Irish Setter. In the stopover in Seattle (overnight) the airport was so busy and full of people that it was very difficult to hang on to a baby and a dog - and some kind woman came along just as the baby was slipping out of my arms while the dog was pulling me to the door and offered - of all things - to take the baby. Well, that wasn't going to happen! She was so earnest in her offer to help that there was a little tug of war there until she realized that maybe she could help with the dog instead because I sure wasn't handing the baby over to a stranger in a crowded terminal! That was the trip where weather caused our plane to overfly our destination and we ended up, after a full day of up and down flying - with the baby throwing up each time - in Ketchikan. The dog had to stay the night at the airport (we came back to the terminal first thing in the morning to find her crate open and her missing - but the first airline employees had rescued her, taken her out for a run, and were sharing donuts and coffee with her in the back room) and we walked to the nearest hotel and tried to find diapers and baby food - I was not prepared, as I should have been, for such a delay. The next day we all boarded the plane again, taxied out to the runway, sat there for several hours, and returned to the airport - bad weather again. We had to go looking for more diapers and baby food. The next day we tried again - no luck again. More diapers and baby food. We ended up taking the ferry that night and finally got home.

On another trip - this time trying to get home to Portland - there was an ice storm and all flights were cancelled. It was 4 more days before we were actually able to get another flight.

One time I was directed to the wrong 'bus' in the huge LA airport and ended up in the wrong terminal just at flight time.

When we tried to go to Wisconsin, through Chicago's O'Hare airport several years ago, we missed our connection due to weather and had to stay over in Chicago that night, finally getting to Wisconsin after the event we were trying to attend was over. (They won't let you retrieve your luggage in such circumstances - so we were in yesterday's clothes and just a mess when we finally did arrive to meet a bunch of relatives I'd never met before. Oh yes, that was the icing on the cake.) We missed the connecting flight on the way home too - also because of a rainstorm - and had to overnight in Chicago again. (Or maybe THAT was the icing on the cake.) That WAS the most miserable trip on record!

And people wonder why we don't fly anymore.

So - road trip! I'm excited. Let's hope for decent weather.

Some Observations on this Rainy Friday

We are having dreadfully rainy weather here in the northwest - just lovely if you don't have to be out in it, which I don't at the moment.

And so I have some time to share a few observations from this past week. (An idle mind is a terrible thing.)

On my drive to work I pass a junior high school with one of those electronic signs that give parents and others information about things relevant to school - early release on Wednesday, no sports on Wednesday, canned food drive this week etc. - but it is timed so slow that you can only read one, maybe two, 'announcements' as you drive by before you are past and can't see it anymore. So I've been puzzling for some time now at the admonition to 'Be aware of winter.' In the first place, with everything gray and bleak, late sunrises, and temperatures in the 40s I don't see how any of us could NOT be aware that it is winter. But more significantly, I can't understand why my being aware of it is going to help. Finally today I caught the next 'frame': Conditions. I think they want us to drive carefully???

I succumbed to the laziness of daytime TV the other afternoon (another casualty of bleak weather) and watched the Duggar family as they welcomed baby #18 on reruns of "17 Kids and Counting." Perhaps appropriately, the show was sponsored by a birth control pill. I doubt the Duggars would approve. Wonder if they know?

Also on TV, there is an ad for Microsoft's new operating system about "I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea." The ad has a guy talking about how "some time ago, I thought about..." and shows 'him' in a flashback, depicting him as about 30 years younger. Did it take Microsoft THAT long to release a version of Windows that had features that their customers actually wanted? Do they really want to brag about that?

I'm glad the weekend is here!

A Catch Up on Pictures

I've been taking pictures like mad, as always, but have somehow managed to get out of the habit of dealing with them then - I'm months behind! But in the nature of chronicling our lives, I wanted to post some of them, so I got busy this evening and picked a few out.

We both took time off over the holidays, Todd and Dillon (our grandpuppy) came up for several days over Christmas, and Mark and I spent the rest of the days taking grand walks and lunching - our favorite things to do. Several ferry rides were involved. Very nice. We walked around Lake Union and lunched at Duke's Chowder House, we hiked at Larabie State Park and lunched in Fairhaven, we street-hiked in downtown Seattle and lunched at Anthony's, we strolled along Alki Beach and lunched at another Duke's Chowder House (yes, we really like their chowder,) back to Seattle for lunch at Elliott's Oyster House (we like THEIR chowder too) and, well, you see the pattern. We actually hiked at Point No Point lighthouse and beach without finding a place to eat, if that's any help. What with all the hiking, we hoped to break even with the lunching. Of course that never actually happens but we've always been known for our rich fantasy life.

Anyway, we had some great weather - cold but nice for pictures, so I needed to share some:

Another New Year

We actually got a "New Year" card from a long-ago acquaintance this year. It referred to the winter's solstice and the "sun's rebirth 'round the sky again." It was a wish for peace on earth and peace within.

Hmmm.

I don't think we're exactly on track for peace on earth this year - or anytime soon. But I think peace within is something to wish for people.

And as I sit here, feet up in front of my fire, purring cat in my lap, the sun shining in the window behind me, I think it is something I could achieve. I am going, generally, in the direction I want to go. I am doing it with people I love and enjoy being with. I have plans and intentions and things to look forward to. I'm surrounded by beauty and inspired to creativity. I am learning to quickly substitute happy thoughts - and I have many - whenever my mind wanders to unhappy memories. I have help and determination and resources to apply to the needs that remain in my life. I have challenges to meet and interesting problems to solve and plenty of thought-provoking reading to do.

It's going to be a great year! And I wish you all the same.




(Regarding the peace on earth part, there was an article in Newsweek on "The Death of Theocracy" that I recommend. I am not, generally, in favor of war, or of the US invading any other sovereign nation. But I can't imagine what our world would be like if we were all 'governed' by lunatics straight out of the dark ages who believe they have a cruel and wrathful God behind them.)