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We're back from vacation...
the good and the sad and the bag-nazies
the sad: we were suppose to go to my partner's cousin's (2nd cousin) place up in northern California as part of the vacation. Sadly the cousin's mother was in the hospital (in L.A.) dying of cancer. We did drive down to Los Angeles on Monday to see her, spent a few hours at the hospital. She passed in her sleep on the following Wednesday. Funeral etc. was this past Sunday, but that was our travel day to head home. But my partner did have the opportunity to see her and spend a couple of hours together.
vacation in general: with our plans changed, our friends in Morro Bay were more than happy to put up with us for the entire week. We spent a day at the Morro Bay Rock and drove around to other "tourist" spots. We also went to the Monteray Aquarium and Cannery Row. Mostly we hung out locally, and this was just fine with us.
Our friend, Dick, is still recovering from a nasty bout in the hospital last fall. he's retired, his wife (Lenore) is still working as an elementry school teacher. Dick is able to move about, but not as well as he use to - and this has gotten him a bit depressed. They've talked on and off about getting a cat, not only because they like cats, but also because having a pet in the house often helps someone who is depressed/recovering...
We've encouraged them to adopt a cat for quite awhile, but they have been hesitant as their daughter is allergic to cats. (Daughter is married, with 2 kids and lives in another town). On the 4th of July we went to the daughter's house to find she had a cat. Guess the allergies aren't too bad...
With this bit of information - we redoubled our efforts to encourage them to get a kitty of their own.
On Friday evening (7/9) Dick and Lenore did some serious discussion over adopting a kitty. Dick pulled out the newspaper and scanned the Pet Section - he saw a couple of ads for kitty adoption groups with web sites. So we popped on line and started checking them out. There was a group called Feline Network that was having an adoption event at a Petco nearby on Saturday (7/10) and it was decided we would just "go look".
They started out by looking at kittens, but there was no "instant connection". There was an adult Calico (2-3yrs old) they fell in love with, this one also had a buddy (1 yr old a tortise-shell)who didn't do well at adoption events so wasn't there. The Feline Network had a photo/bio sign up, and they would cut the adoption fee if both were adopted together. So Dick says "we shouldn't split them up, we should adopt them both". From the look on Dick's face we think he expected Lenore to be the 'sensible' one and say something like "do we really want 2 cats?" - but Lenore just paused for a couple of seconds and said "OK, let's get them both."
About a 1/2 hour later the paperwork was filled out, my partner and I paid the adoption fee as part of their wedding anniversay present. Lenore and I went into Petco to get "supplies". The foster family with the tortise-shell was contacted and they were on their way down to Petco with that cat and soon after we were heading back to the house with 2 cats.
The cats are doing well, for the moment they have everything set up in a downstairs bathroom to give the cats a 'secure' place to hang out. It's going to take a few days for them to get use to their new home, but they have ventured out of the bathroom here and there for short periods to explore.
The bag-nazies (aka TSA)
I've instituted a new rule in the house - no traveling on planes during an election year - especially when the repubs are in trouble. ARRRGGHHH!!!
We check into Philadelphia Airport on Friday (6/30) morning. Got our boarding passes, checked our luggage with no problem. Then we had to go through security.
My partner's knapsack gets "flagged". She's pulled aside and has it searched. She hasn't used this knapsack since last year when we went camping, and the bag-nazies find a **gasp** a lighter in one of the side pockets. This gets confiscated.
My knapsack goes through with no problems.
Next stop is Dallas/Ft Worth. We have a 2 hour layover, so we locate our gate, grab something quick to eat and go ouside to have a smoke. this means we have to go through security again when we come back in.
My partner goes through security and gets flagged again, and this time my bag also gets flagged. Well, they found another **gasp** lighter in my partner's bag, and find **gasp** 2 lighters in mine. We didn't even know we had them in the knapsacks as we haven't used the bags in over a year. Oh well, the TSA confiscates the lighters, but we had matches and this was ok.
Next stop is LAX, layover there was too short for a quick smoke. We basically got off one plane and onto the other and flew to San Luis Obispo. Rented the car and drove to Morro Bay.
The Flight Home: 7:15 am (Sunday 7/11) we're checked in, got our boarding passes, went through security with no problems. San Luis Obispo airport is very small. The boarding area/security is all jammed into one tiny space and the ticket counter is essentially in the same room We are watching the departure screen and notice that our flight is now DELAYED. My partner leaves her stuff with me, and goes up the ticket counter to find out how long of a delay as we have multiple connecting flights to make. 4 hour delay due to mechanical problems with the plan. ARRGGGGG. this won't do. So my partner waves over to me to grab our carryons as they are working on a new itinerary.
New itinerary in hand we now have to go back through security again. This time we are both "flagged" for special screening. the TSA guy chuckled a bit when he saw us going through again as he was aware of the delay, and knew there would be people coming through "again". He tried to wave off the 'special screening', but his co-worker decided to be a bag-nazi. So we had step aside, get frisked, and have our bags searched. They didn't find any lighters, but the bag-nazi was having a problem opening my camera case. The case has a velcro tab, and a zipper. The bag-nazi did figure out the zipper but was having problems with the velcro closure, so I reached over to try to explain how it opened and was snottily rebuffed. About 5 minutes later the bag-nazi figured out how to open the case and cleared it. Then they wiped down my sneakers and it triggered something. They tried another wipe and even though it still triggered something they let me have the sneakers bag with a mumble about problems with the machine's calibration.
So we finally get on the plane and head for LAX (our next connection with a 3 hour layover). The connecting gate is waaaaaaaaay over on the other side. We opted to walk to it by going outside so we can have a smoke. Down we go through the baggage area where we are stopped from leaving because the airport is on "lockdown". Who knows why - the TSA guards won't say, but in a couple of minutes the lockdown is over and we go outside and head for the other gate area. Nicotine withdrawal averted, we go in and pass through security with no problem, grab something to eat and go to the gate. about an hour later my partner leaves her bags with me (to avoid dragging them through security) and runs out for a quick smoke. When she comes back, I'll do the same. Well, almost an hour passed and I was getting nervous. Thankfully, she showed up and was quite perturbed.
She had her smoke and went through the same security checkpoint, but a different line than the one we had come in through - the metal detector beeped and she had to empty her pockets. This metal detector supposedly picked up on the foil from the cigarette pack. Looks like another problem with calibration... by this time I said screw it - I'll wait for our stop in Chicago to have a smoke....
in Chicago we didn't have enough time between flights to run out through security and back in again - so it was jump off of one plane, run through the airport and get our connecting flight.
Finally we land in Philadelphia, our luggage arrived with us (thankfully) - got the shuttle bus to the parking garage and by midnight we were driving home. made one stop in our town to pick up milk/juice for the morning.
We got home around 2 a.m. and were immediately greeted by our cats, sorted through the mail, listened to the answering machine, somewhat unpacked and collapsed in bed. our neighbor who had been watching the house and taking care of the cats left us a fresh 1/2 gallon of milk, juice, and some eggs. :)
In a couple of hours we have to go pick up the dogs from kennels.
Rest of the day will be spent giving the dogs a bath as they tend to smell like a kennel, wash their pillow coverings, unpack and collapse.
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