Note: It's a day late, but at the bottom of this post, you can see a picture of me, all happy to be back at O'Hara's Irish Pub and happy to be drinking a good old Dirt Wolf Double IPA.
1. My flight out of Newark Liberty International Airport today was around 5:30 p.m., so I had much of the day to get my clothes organized and quadruple or quintuple check that I had my identification in place, that I was checked in for my flight, that I had the keys to the Sube and the house, that my pills were packed, and that everything was in order with the rental car.
I left just about ten minutes or so later than I think I should have -- I had it in my shrinking brain that the airport was about 30-40 minutes away, but it's closer to an hour away. Traffic coming out of Valley Cottage was thick, a little bit slow and there was one complete slow down to a near stop on the Garden State Parkway.
The slowdown was because of all the people who slowed down to check out an accident scene in the lanes going the opposite way. Are those people called rubberneckers? I shrugged, said, "Oh, well!" to myself, and arrived at the rental car return and got the car off my hands about ninety minutes ahead of my flight.
I printed myself a boarding pass and a luggage tag, dropped off my suitcase, and saw that the TSA line was long. Oh, well! I don't enjoy being either irritated or impatient, so I let my mind wander and after about twenty minutes I got my belt and shoes off, put my electronics in a couple of bins, walked through the x-ray machine thing, and stepped over to to the end of the conveyer belt to pick up my stuff.
I gathered my belongings, started to make my way to a place to sit down and get organized, and it turns out I really needed that belt. My pants fell down.
I quickly recovered, pulled them up, got my belt on, noticed that no one seemed to have noticed my embarrassing moment, got myself organized, and made my way to the correct gate and onto the plane.
2. In New York, I had downloaded Debbie's and my audiobook copy of Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Bomber Mafia. Debbie had listened to it, recommended I listen to it, and it made my flight really enjoyable.
Basically, the book explores two different theories of how to bomb enemies in wartime. It would be a spoiler if I wrote what the two theories are and how the conflict between these theories played out in World War II. Debbie made the point to me that the book reminded her of Rising Tide in the way that book looked at two theories about flood control and the egos and personalities attached to those conflicted approaches. The Bomber Mafia also explores how ideas (or theories), no matter how scientifically they are worked out, are not always disinterested in a purely scientific way, but are also influenced by ambition, moral vision, and, among other factors, personalities.
3. I arrived in Spokane and experienced what for me as a major triumph: I didn't lose my parking ticket with my car's location written on it and I didn't lose my set of Kellogg keys while I was back east!
Consequently, after I paid for my two weeks of outside parking at a pay station in the airport terminal, I walked straight to the Sube, fired it up, and headed for Kellogg with a quick stop in CdA at Carl's Jr. for a cheeseburger and fries that left me feeling full, but not nourished!
Copper and Luna had missed me while I was gone. Really, there's no doubt that they regard me as their guy. As a welcome home gesture, both of them bit me a couple for three times (no serious injuries!) either out of affection or as a way of expressing their displeasure at my absence or a combination of the two.
I walked in the door about 12:30 a.m. My body was still on EST, so it was really about 3:30 a.m. for me and I'd been awake for about twenty hours -- I didn't sleep on the planes.
But, I was alert on my drive and I spent an hour, maybe an hour and a half, getting re-established with Luna and Copper until we finally all went to bed and once again Luna slept near my shoulders and Copper pressed himself against my lower leg and ankle.
It's a really good thing that we are all back together again.
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