Tampa bits and pieces……

Boy, I’m tired.

Got down here to Tampa after a rather bumpy ride on Southwest Airlines.  I have not flown on them for a long while. Today  I remembered why. Fortunately the flight was only about half full and it was direct. To go on one of the airlines I need miles on would have meant a stop in Charlotte or Atlanta. Not required or desired.

It made my older sister Lynn quite angry though, that I slept through most of the flight-only waking up for the sharpest of down drafts. Seems they all bothered her and she was just about a couple minutes away from reaching for the Prozac-or some reasonable facsimile thereof.  Later in the rental car she asked me how I dealt with it.

“Simple-I’ve seen worse. In a smaller airplane. The airplane is big, it has plenty of airspeed and if you noticed the pilot was changing altitude to try to get out of it.”

“How did you know he was changing altitude?”

“You did not feel the nose come up and feel the engines increase power?”

“No”.

Reason number 344 why I am glad I got to fly.

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Its raining here in Tampa. We finished up about 7 pm today-finally found a decent hotel-seems I forgot that the Yankees are down here for spring training. According to the desk clerk hotel room rates skyrocket here when that happens. Oops. Fortunately for me, he combined my government rate with a AAA discount from my sister into something that was acceptable. And it has free Internet in the room.

There is lightning and there are warnings of tornadoes. Accordingly, the cable TV is out save for the Hotel movie-vision and Univision. There is probably some sort of lesson in that particular development-in that I am in Florida-in the United States-and now I can only watch Pay per View or Spanish TV.

Which would you choose? I’m going with Will Smith.

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 I long ago decided there are certain professions that I just could not do. One is being a doctor or a dentist. Second is probably that of politician-ergo it is probably fortunate for me that I am lugging so much personal baggage that there are not enough Skycaps to see it all to the curb. The third is Funeral Parlor director. The person we spoke with was a real professional. Who artfully worked his way through the practical details of how to deal with the remains of what had once been a living person. With a great deal of tact and patience. While neither of us wanted to discuss any of it. All the while having the shadow of my father lurking over us-if we did not get those details right.

He’s been doing it for 30 years. How anyone does that-I do not really know.

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I am going to call a Catholic Church here to ask that my sister be remembered during a Mass this week.  With the logistics of arranging to get her home and for burial-it would make me feel better if she could have Christian service of remembrance within a short time of the event.

The funeral director knew how to get that done too.

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I gotta go to bed.  Good night and good luck tomorrow. At least we are not in Miami where the power went out last night.