I don’t care if I break some rules to reproduce this story here in its entirety instead of just noting a link. This story, well, it’s about that elusive element in us – the best of what we should be. Perhaps it is the Good Particle . . .

Here’s the LINK.

Here’s the story:

(CNN) — If Kerry Drake missed his connecting flight, he wouldn’t get to the hospital in time to say goodbye to his mother.

Drake got the news on the morning of January 24 that his mother, who had been ill for years from rheumatoid arthritis and had been especially sick the last four months, was dying.

To get to his mother in Lubbock, Texas, the San Francisco resident booked a United Airlines flight, with only 40 minutes between connecting flights in Houston. When his first flight was delayed, Drake thought he would miss his connecting flight to Lubbock, the last one of the day.

Sometimes, airlines go the extra mile

He started crying, obviously distraught. The flight attendants brought napkins for his tears, said they would do what they could to help, and most importantly, got his connecting flight information to the captain, he told CNN.

When he got off the airport train and was running toward the gate, “I was still like maybe 20 yards away when I heard the gate agent say, ‘Mr. Drake, we’ve been expecting you,'” he said.

Continue reading This story . . . United Airlines →

A bit of prep for St. Patrick’s Day

Two packages came. I opened mine; it was a shirt.

This shirt:

What do you think is in Der Bingle’s package? UPDATE: Der Bingle tells me LZP said they were the last two in the store. Der Bingle also announced that he’d be hanging up the shirt at work for people to see on St. Patrick’s Day. He said he thought that would be better than going around pulling his shirt open and his tie up to flash folks. And besides, it makes his getaway easier if he has to fade into the crowd if the Notre Dame fans get to revved up . . .

We have a wet snow outside. That means we have heavy snow outside, which is not technically heavy water, but feels that way. It is going to be 48 degrees on Sunday and in the above-freezing 30’s as it works up to 48. So, shovel again? Well, I think we should take it under advisement for a few days, be certain we are making the correct decision.

I will probably call a meeting in a couple of hours to start analyzing the situation; we’ll be gathered around the fireplace, munching on snackie foldovers, sipping sodas and going through our options. We do have one young person here who is looking at the shovel with the idea of exercise, so we’ve suggested he make a narrow path along the main sidewalk and the little sidewalk up to the door. He says the snow is “light, not packed”  – he is not old enough to realize any snow is lighter when it is not packed down and that this is, actually, heavy snow. I suppose he will learn in a few years. Right now we are, some would say, taking advantage of his naiveté.

I have been getting myself in a good mindset for my doctor’s appointment  –  7:40 in the morning on the day of a predicted snowstorm. That is: today’s appointment.

I had an uncomfortable feeling about it – you know, those numbers that don’t lie coming back from a  reputable  lab. . . I couldn’t pinpoint the feeling to the appointment, but there it was in front of me and there was that feeling. But I got there and the doctor said I had done everything right and if another specialist were to look out of the blue at my current numbers, he would say everything is fine.

Well, I confessed to the doctor I had been wary and then said that maybe my premonition had to do with flashing police lights in my rear mirror. He laughed and told me to drive carefully. So I did. I came upon an accident with three crumpled cars and busy police – but no one yet directing traffic – and wound my way past on the shoulder.

I got home safe and thought, “Well, what!???”

Later I went to the bathroom and discovered that in the dark of the morning I had put my underpants (not panties) on inside-0ut. Ah, yes. Never deny a bad feeling.

February – to someone my age, it is Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s birthday, as opposed to President’s Day, and shoeboxes fashioned into construction paper-covered Valentine receptacles.

C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands referred to it as “a trying time of the year.  The leaves not yet out, mud everywhere you go.  Frosty mornings gone.  Sunny mornings not yet come.  Give me blizzards and frozen pipes, but not this nothing time, not this waiting room of the world.” I think we’re a month of so behind Lewis’ English weather here in Northern Indiana – the mud abounding  and leaves not out seems more like March to me. And we have blizzards in March, though we know the snow melt will come fairly quickly. March can still be very much winter.

Still, I do notice that you cannot ignore the change in the intensity of the sunlight as February approaches March, so, yes, March is a beginning of spring. However, while it is here,  February is that month when the holidays are tucked away and we can rest and wait. And, hey, I realize that ain’t bad. In fact, now that it is March with taxes looming and outdoor work right around the corner, I find that I’m not so sure about leaving my February hermitage behind. February might very well be procrastinators’ heaven.

Now it is over. Time to rev up. I have noticed, however, that people accept this revving up notion at different times.  Some times I am the early revver, getting annoyed by the slugs around me, but more often I am the slug who feels the nudges of the dastardly early revvers and snarl that I need a minute. That is a big, fat lie; I meed likes days or weeks, but I try to buy time with my “minute” cliche.

There are so many papers among my parents things; some have been passed from my right hand to left hand and back like soldiers digging holes and refilling them. Today, while going through stuff again, I noticed quite a few newspaper clippings in one envelope, which contained old, old scraps not needed for these present times. You know, when you’re rummaging through things, thinking, “Okay, Mother, where’s the manual for the gas heater?” . . .  Well, stopping to browse isn’t going to warm your tootsies.

But, today I stopped. Among the yellowed obituaries, I think this is the oldest one:

He was my great-great grandfather. Oh, and there’s a typo – it should be Briar Creek. His wife was born in Vermont, moved to New York and then came out to Indiana. She walked . . . I’m a wimp; I complain when the gate we’re leaving from is at the end of the terminal – no matter that I’m going to be halfway across the country in less than four hours.

Oh . . . the redheads at the Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse say they have a program that will toughen me up.

A nice person-Brandi – was better than a shot of Brandy today. Sprint’s tower upgrade is going to continue until – wait for it- some time in March. That is the official line Sprint is having its employees relay to customers. Oh, woe is me, BUT Brandi helped me adjust my phone settings so that  I can maximize my signal and use my wifi and a free app – MagicJake – to get me through this month.

What sent me  into the store to complain again was an event worse than a dropped call. I was using my son’s more powerful phone to leave a message wit h a doctor. The recording asked if I wanted to review my message and, although it is out of character, I did.  Every other word was dropped. That could have been a fine kettle of fish.

Last week my phone started dropping calls and/or people could not hear me. I went into the Sprint Store and they told me the towers were being upgraded. I said, “Okay.” Well, a better response might be, “Oh Crap.” Yes, my phone, or phonie, as I am wont to call it because I am some sort of nutcase, is still giving me fits.

I looked this issue up on the Internet and guess what? Yes, there are many, many stories about people experiencing this problem and being given The Towers answer. And the stories talk about loooooong time periods of tower upgrade.  I am getting a little worried here.

Obviously, there will be updates – not to be confused with There Will be Blood  . . . quite yet.

The book I just finished was good reading until the end; in other words, in my opinion, the author wrote well, but wanted to have A BIG PICTURE plot as well.   In the last short chapters, everything was neatly wrapped up – or buried, as it were – think  four old ladies who pushed an equally old man down a hidden tunnel, for starters. And then there was the character who explained everything by referring to information unearthed by a private detective in the 50 year interim between the first 98% of the book and the last 2%.

I think I’m going to look at the TV guide; I feel like a movie tonight. Yes, I know. Netflix. Actually, I have got my sleeping hours off-kilter and need to stay up until 11 pm in an attempt to get straightened out. I’d better watch while sitting up; you know, make the old college try at it.

OSCARS?? I didn’t know the Oscars were on.I haven’t watched the Oscars in years, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

I’d better write this right now, before I get caught up in some Saturday morning to-do. While checking my email, I saw that on one of my rare forays into Facebook, I had sent a friend request to Kathy Young, who is a very, very nice lady here in Kendallville.  She had sent me an acceptance notification and I popped over to her Timeline and found she likes  “Backroads Girl”. At first I thought it was a book and clicked over to investigate. It turns out it is a Facebook page.

I scanned down the page and found a poem. I’m not a physical risk-taker, but it reminded me of some moments in my still undignified, past 60 life.  The first one that popped into mind was Socmonkeyjawea and the firepit dancing, but we can gloss over that.

Here is the poem, as cited on Backroads Girl. It is by Mary Oliver.

Don’t you dare climb that tree
or even try, they said, or you will be
sent away to the hospital of the
very foolish, if not the other one.
And I suppose, considering my age,
it was fair advice.

But the tree is a sister to me,
she lives alone in a green cottage
high in the air and I know what
would happen, she’d clap her green hands,
she’d shake her green hair,
she’d welcome me. Truly

I try to be good but sometimes
a person just has to break out and
act like the wild and springy thing
one used to be. It’s impossible not
to remember wild and want it back. So

if someday you can’t find me you might
look into that tree or – of course
it’s possible – under it.

– Mary Oliver