May 27, 2016
Dear Everyone:
I am slowly preparing for a cross-country trip.
“Alice” is going to host a “Wild and Woolly Wood Women” gathering
at her home in upstate
New York. “Jeannie” and
I will fly out from
California the first weekend in June.
“Frankie” will drive up from
North Carolina
and we’ll all spend the better part of a week getting in each other’s
way, just like we did when we were kids.
The following weekend, “Richard” and “Marshall” will join us.
It will be just like old times.
So I’m getting ready to travel again.
This time, I decided to make myself a back-support cushion to replace
the one I lost the last time we all got together three years ago.
That was a commercially-made cushion with
Velcro
strips along one side and an elastic band that let you attach it to a
chair.
I had acquired that cushion year’s earlier, while I was still working,
to give my back a little extra support while sitting in one of those
god-awful conference room chairs.
It worked just fine.
The only problem was a tendency to leave it behind when the meeting was
over. It was easy to overlook
because it was black, just like all the chairs.
I even went so far as to embroider my initials on it so people
would know it was mine when I left it in yet another conference room.
Like so many other people, once the meeting was ended, I couldn’t wait
to get out of the conference room.
I’ve noticed the same thing seems to happen on airplanes.
As soon as the plane touches down, even as the
flight
attendant is begging people to “remain seated until the plane comes
to a complete stop at the gate”, people leap up and start getting ready
to disembark.
And a kind of
herd mentality takes over.
I start rushing, just like everyone else, to gather all my
belongings and be ready to jump out into the aisle as soon as the row
ahead of me clears. That’s
how I overlooked the cushion, by being in too much of a hurry.
I keep trying to remind myself that it’s OK to let the people behind me
get off the plane before I do.
It’s not like the plane is going to take off before I can get
clear of it. And rushing off
the plane does NOT make your luggage appear any sooner in the
Baggage Claim Area.
Honest.
So the cushion, complete with my embroidered initials, was left on the
plane. When I asked about it
on the return trip, I was informed that the airline automatically sends
all “Lost and Found” articles to
Houston. It seemed like
too much of production to try to reacquire it.
Easier to just buy another cushion from one of the Really Big
Office Supply Warehouse Stores.
But that would leave the original problem of easily overlooking it in
the stampede.
So I decided to make a new one, this time in a bright color, and
with a handy strap that I can slip over my wrist, or hook onto one
carry-on item or another.
At the fabric store, I looked for some kind of canvas, or other really
sturdy fabric, preferably in as loud a print as I could find.
I wound up with a rather nice dark turquoise denim that should
hold up well to a lot of abuse.
The fabric store also carried a wide range of foam padding.
In all, it was a matter of a few hours to cut the fabric, sew it
all together, stuff the foam inside, and finally stitch the last seam in
place. And I discovered that
the handy strap, which runs along the length of the cushion, also allows
me to just slip it over the handle of the suitcase while rolling it
along.
And if it gets overlooked (again!) and winds up in Houston, right next
to the first one, it only cost a few dollars to make so, oh well.
In political news…
Did I mention that
Donny the Trumpet called me on the phone last month?
Actually, it was a robocall with a recording in which Donny
announced that “California has a
closed
Primary system!!!” Like
this was some kind of accusation.
“You must register as
a
Republican for your vote to count!”
In truth, my vote counts regardless of my registered affiliation,
which happens to be
Independent.
In fact, my Vote-By-Mail Ballot arrived in the mail recently and,
indeed, the only persons that I can vote for in the Primary are about
seven Independents that I’ve never heard of, plus a write-in.
So I’ll spend some time next week researching the Independent
Seven, fill out my Ballot and take it to City Hall.
They keep a big metal box, with (I swear) chains and locks all
around it and a slot in the top to drop in your Ballot.
This saves relying on the
US
Postal “Service”.
Meanwhile, for those of you just returning from Intergalactic Travel,
Emperor Donny has strong-armed enough “uncommitted” delegates to ensure
that he is the “presumptive” nominee for the Republican Party.
The Career Politicians in
Washington,
D.C., are having kittens.
They’re all running around like so many
Chicken Littles,
crying, “Unity! Unity!
Unity!” They still
don’t get it.
Donny isn’t the Problem.
Donny is a Symptom of the Problem.
The Problem is that the Voters are fed up to here with the Career
Politicians. The Voters are
telling the Career Politicians, “You’re all behaving like a bunch of
Spoiled Brats! So we’re
giving you the Biggest, Baddest Spoiled Brat since
Henry VIII.
Deal with it!”
Love, as always,
Pete
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