Hello and welcome back to the wonderful holiday world of the Dogpound. I hope everyone in the pack had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving; spending it with all of your loved ones and eating more food that you should at any one meal setting. As for me, in a few days I will be hitting the road to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her family in Ohio. I cannot remember the last time we were all able to get together for this particular holiday, so I am really looking forward to this visit. Actually, I just got back from a long trip….I flew rather than driving….to see my oldest daughter get married.
Now, it has been several years since I last flew, and I was not really sure what to expect when I arrived at the airport. As usual, from the get go, I had a small problem. I could not get my ticket from the kiosk. I swiped my credit card…”Cannot find you.” So it prompts me to tell it where I am going…”Cannot find your flight.” One more time, it prompts me to enter my name and birth date. “Do you really exist?” Only kidding…it did not say that, but it still refused to acknowledge that I had a plane ticket. So, I gave up and walked up to the counter for help. She found me [Yea!] and she proceeds to process my baggage. Now, you know they charge you for the privilege of bringing luggage…at the tune of $30 per bag. I had two of them…one for my clothes and one with all of my camera equipment. Tina…the one getting married, wanted me to bring my movie camera so the whole wedding could be captured. I have one of those old palm recorders [which is rather bulky compared to today’s standards], coupled with all of the accessories, plus my other camera, which made that bag pretty weighty. The clerk asked what all was in there, and she raised a big eyebrow when she found out. She suggested that “maybe” I should take the camera with me. I told her that probably would not be a good idea, trying to carry all that stuff with me onto the plane. She shrugged and essentially indicated I had been forewarned. I figured the risk was low since it was old stuff and not really worth the effort to steal. [Good news..everything made the round trip!] With that out of the way, I get into the security check out line…with 50 yards of roped: off lanes that go back and forth like a snake till you get to the nice man at the counter that checks your ticket and license. I finally get my turn, and he tells me that I am in the wrong line. What? He tells me that I had been pre-approved and I can go to the other line where you don’t have to undress down to almost your underwear. I did not know that was an option even though it was printed on my ticket [as I said, I have not flown for a while]…but I told him I was not in any mood to go back and wade through another line of travelers just to avoid taking off my belt and shoes. So I stayed in this line, and I was rewarded with a nice pat-down by a male TSA officer. I offered to let the female TSA officer help him out, but he did not take kindly to that suggestion. Not sure why. LOL
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurus [This is a good one to think about.]
That is all I have for now. Traveling wears you out, and I need to get some good shut-eye. As always, be good, do good, play safe, and remember to count your blessing each and every day.
JR
