Back in Kansas

John and Becky are back in Kansas. We clicked our heels three times (each) Thursday and found ourselves in a long check-in line at Oakland airport due to the high security alert caused by would-be terrorists in London and/or a power outage at the airport. Nevertheless, things moved along more quickly than first impression suggested, and we had plenty of time waiting at the gate for departure time. The plane was only about half an hour late leaving, and only about 15 minutes late arriving. The Kansas City airport was the most congested I can remember ever seeing, including at any Christmas we ever flew the last 20 or 30 years. This made about the same level of congestion as a normal day at Oakland or San Francisco. It was drizzling, humid and close to 80 degrees. The house, when we got to Lawrence, was nice and cool. Today we tried to get up at a decent hour (i.e. about 8:00) but we were both so fatigued we ended up sleeping until noon. I suppose this was a cumulative fatigue that we didn’t notice building up during the visit in CA. I went around this afternoon picking up mail for home and office, the sun out and temp around 91 with not too awful humidity. This evening we’re just sitting around wishing we were still in CA.

More in a future article – maybe even some pictures!

San Francisco Evening

What a terrific San Francisco evening! Becky and I at Kim’s place, along with her roommate, Katy. We did a little Costco shopping after sleeping late; then Becky and Kim did some Safeway shopping. Then Kim and Becky put together a great meal – pasta, salad, garlic bread, cantaloup and peaches, wine. We sat around the table with this fantabulous meal, made perfect by Jeffrey’s new second CD, “Pick It Up”. Wow, Jeffrey! The food and the music, a truly memorable San Francisco evening. After the meal we sat around in the living room, Jeffrey’s music still playing. I thought a cappuccino would top it off nicely, but Kim and Becky reminded me we have to get up early in the morning for Kim’s doctor appointment. So, I decided to at least post a little article here about a terrific San Francisco evening. Can’t get much better than this. And, wow, Jeffrey!

The Fool Who Asks

Without going in to particulars, I’ll just say that I was recently struggling with a dilemma that was escalating to undesireable levels of psyhchological distress. It was a situation where I was trying to decide whether to ask for a special favor. I knew that asking would not only be futile, but would also be embarrassing and demeaning. On the other hand, if I could get the favor, it would be really great.

In the course of some number of days during which I agitated over whether to ask for the favor or just let it go and move on, I stumbled across a collection of “quotations” I had saved once upon a time in an obscure subdirectory on my computer. It was a pretty pithy and amusing collection, and included this:

“The person who asks may be a fool for five minutes. The person who doesn’t ask will be a fool for life.”

So, I picked up the phone and asked.

Turned out, my premise was totally incorrect. What I was asking for was routine and did not even amount to a favor – it was freely available to anyone, simply for the asking.

So, there y’go!