I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK

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.

:hug:

Wow! Sounds like you need a vacation from your vacation.

I am so glad your partner got to see her cousin's mom.

The bag nazi story had me rolling. If you get a chance, ask PassingFair about the folding scissors nightmare she had on a cruise.

It is so very good to have you back! :hi:

makes me soooo look forward to September when I have to go through Immigration to get into your country :eyes:

and anything else you may think would be suspect...

although security did let my partner's metal nailfile and a corkscrew go through. they did see it and said it was ok... go figure :shrug:

they also let my little sewing kit go through - complete with folding scissors...

but NO LIGHTERS!!! big no-no - I might be a shoe-icider, flick my bic and blow up my reeboks...

in my big suit. I lost a good scissor before. I learned my lesson there. A friend of mine who went to the States some months ago told me about the immigration these days ... Oh boy, nothing I am looking forward to.

As I don't smoke, I won't have those problems :)

the cells are filled with propane and used for cordless curling irons. They flagged my bag and took 20 minutes to figure out what to do even though I told them countless times just to throw the damn thing away. After 20 minutes they finally agreed with me; funny thing is when I got home I found that there were 2 more of them in the bottom of my same carry on bag

we finished unpacking the luggage (the bags we checked through) -- going through all the little outside pockets, cleaning it out etc.

In one of the pockets of my luggage I found 2 more lighters, my partner found a couple more in a pocket of her luggage.. bwaaa-haa-haaa

I posted about it above - but the so called security is a joke because they find one thing but overlook the fact that there might be more in there (mine was propane heating cells for a cordless curling iron)

one detector my partner went through let her pass, a short time later after having a cigarette she goes through the same checkpoint, but a different machine and it flags her for the foil in the cigarette pack...

I understand why we need airline security; however, it seems so inconsistant to the point that if you needed a lighter or small propane cells to do your dirty work - just put a bunch of them in your bag since security might nab 1-2 of them but will overlook all of them. Perhaps if we spent more on airline security and less on the war - we would really be able to fight terrorism since I truly believe that terrorists on airplane are still a great threat to us than anything in Iraq

However, it's pretty well stated and well known that lighters and matches are verboten on planes. I don't see how it's legit that you should complain that they were confiscated. What's troubling is that they missed 3 of them and the matches.

the knapsacks hadn't been used in over a year since we went camping last spring - we just didn't 'search' all the pockets/and tiny corners enough before packing books and other things to take on the plane with us as carryons.

so I'm not really complaining - just commenting on how far and how many security checks we went through before they were found. Meanwhile, when I opened my luggage there was a notice in it from TSA that my checked luggage was searched - so they went through it, and left/missed the two lighters that were in a side pocket

the matches are ok to take on a plane - up to 4 books of matches..

the "logic" when that rule was initiated is that if the shoe-icide bomber had a lighter he would have been able to blow up his sneakers, but was stopped from doing so because the matches wouldn't light quickly enough...

it's not my logic - but that's the reasoning from TSA

I missed a lighter going in to Tampa in March.
The TSA folks were great though, I've never had a problem with the women and men in the T2SA (T2=thankless task).

their job...

we chatted with one during a layover - she came and asked us for a light for her cigarette...

she told us the TSA agents aren't allowed to carry matches or lighters. she mentioned that people had been fired for grabbing a lighter out of the dump bin, using it to have a smoke and then putting it back into the dump bin when they went back inside.

for the most part they are the front-line peons, very much underpaid and forced to deal with the public while trying to reconcile conflicting "rules"..

been there done that when I was in social services - what I resent is the snotty-nazi attitude, give some people a bit of power and they think they are ruler of the universe....

picked up the dogs from the kennel - they were happy to come home.

note to self: when making double batches of homemade dog biscuits - put them in the freezer if they won't be eaten within a couple of days. had to dump about 10 dozen biscuits into the garbage because they had white moldy stuff growing on them..

and we thought we were smart making up double batches... ahh well, lesson learned - the dogs will have to get by without cookies until tomorrow when I can stop and pick up 'store-bought' cookies to last until the weekend...

meanwhile - three dog pillow covers have been washed and are now drying. three dogs have had a bath and smell much better. The kennel we board them at is very clean, but no matter how clean - dogs always come home smelling like a kennel

the only thing left for me today is to reassemble the dog pillows and change our bed...

my partner is a bit more ambitious - she's going to do laundry....at least some of the laundry