Icy streets in Dallas, Snow in London

It’s cold this morning in Dallas, but the streets appear to be passible, and I don’t anticipate any problems getting to work. Unlike some folks in other parts of the world, who (apparently due to something Liberals call “global warming”) are have some genuine difficulty with unusually cold weather.

I got an email from a fellow in the UK (interesting guy named Martin Avis who writes an internet marketing newsletter) who was complaining about the weather in London today, and it’s effect on the trains. When the locals complain about the train service in London, it must be REALLY bad.

Having been in London three time in the last three decades, I was consistently underwhelmed by the dependability, reliability, and timeliness of their trains. In stark contrast to the trains in Germany and Belgium, which *always* arrived and departed within one minute of the scheduled times.

Which reminds me of my 1st trip to London, about 30 years ago. We arrived at the train station early (about 5am for a 6am scheduled train to the airport), and we were looking for a place to eat some breakfast. I came across a middle-aged man pushing a broom, and asked him if there was an open restaurant nearby.

His answer consisted of at least 50 syllables, not one of which I understood, although I’m certain it was all in English. Probably laid on the accent extra thick after noting that I was a Yank.

At 7am, we went to a ticket window to inquire about the 6am train and we were told that the train was never going to arrive, since it had derailed about 10km outside of London. The lady who told us that did not seem to think that sort of problem was at all unusual, or even remarkable enough to bother notifying anyone waiting for the 6am train. We had to take a taxicab to the airport, but we did manage to arrive (barely) in time to catch our flight. Interestingly, the taxicab fare was about the same as the train fare would have been. Since we were leaving the country, we tipped the driver with all of our remaining English currency, about 30 pounds. He did a heroic job of getting us there in time.

The 2nd and 3rd trips (2nd for business, 3rd as a stopover for a North Sea cruise) were not an improvement. The trains were consistently so late that I had to plan to be at my destination at least one hour early in order to make it no more than an hour late. At least I was able to take a chartered bus to the cruise departure. But by the 3rd trip to London, I knew better than to rely on train transport.

The trains were not the only problem, of course. The prices for everything were so far out of reason that I don’t understand why anybody would want to live in, work in, or even visit London. The only bright spot was that taxicab travel was inexpensive and an order of magnitude more dependable and comfortable than the trains.

I have no particular desire to visit London again.

Funny thing happened on the way to El Paso…

I got on the plane, put my stuff in the overhead bin, and sat down & fastened my seat belt. After a few minutes, a female voice started droning on about the various safety features, yada, yada, yada. I was well on my way to zoning out (in a mild funk about having to fly anyway) when … “our flight time today will be one hour, twenty-one minutes, and fifteen seconds.”

“Huh?” I wasn’t sure I’d actually heard that right. Must’ve imagined it. I started to drift off again.

“yada, yada, yada… our cruising altitude will be thirty-six thousand and three feet, five and one-half inches.”

“Huh?“ Looked around, but nobody else appeared to be reacting. But this time, I’m pretty sure I heard it right.  Stewardess gotta be bored out of her ever-lovin’… “place your own mask on first, then assist any children, or other adults acting like children.”

All right, I get it. I opened up the safety information sheet, read through it, and located the nearest exits like a good boy. Guess it worked, eh?

I adjusted the neck support as best I could, and tried to settle in for a one-hour, twenty-one minute, and fifteen second nap.

40-year High School Reunion

I’m about 5 book reviews behind (yes, I read a lot), but life just happens while you are busy making other plans. I’ve been really busy the last couple of weeks, and the next few weeks will be even busier, but I just have to write about this weekend while the memories are relatively fresh.

I just got back from my 40-year reunion of my high school, and I have a number of mixed emotions from that. I was disappointed that there were a number of people I had hoped to see who did not come this time. I was a bit depressed to see how everyone had aged — with a few notable exceptions.

And I was really glad to see a few folks that I hadn’t seen in 40 years. Melissa, especially. She was one of the few classmates to age quite gracefully. I think that, if anything, she is even more beautiful now than she was when I had that awful crush on her back in my senior year. And still scary-smart. And still one of the most pleasant people I have ever had the pleasure to know. She was one of the three girls that I had a crush on (not at the same time), and the only one of the three that I actually worked up enough nerve to tell about how I felt. She was relatively gentle in disabusing me of any notion that I had any chance at all, but I was still devastated. For about 15 minutes, anyway; I had a pretty clear idea even at that time that it was a really long shot, and looking back now, I can see that she called that one about right. She had been voted the girl Most Likely to Succeed, and I asked her if she thought she had lived up to that. She replied that she had succeeded past her wildest expectations. She’s working as a programmer in linguistics applications, married to a fine artist, and has two daughters who are now grown and pursuing their own careers. She still has that wonderfully infectious smile. I can’t help but be happy for her.

Patty the cheerleader didn’t look like she had aged much, either. I never had a crush on Patty, but I did consider her very attractive back in the day. She still is. Married, widowed, and remarried, she is now doing very well as a Realtor.

Lea and Rosemary (my other two teen-age crushes) could not be there, but I did get to visit with them both at the 30-year reunion, and I’ve heard from others that they are still doing well. Rosemary is a busy family-law attorney, and Lea is making quite a name for herself as an artist. I recall that they were both surprised (and amused) when I told them what a crush I had on them back in high school.

I was really disappointed by the absence of my best friend Roy. We have pretty much drifted apart, but I really expected him to be there, since he still lives only a couple of miles from the old high school.

Zoomer was there. He now has a neurological disorder that has made it difficult for him to walk and use his hands, but he was in good spirits, and appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself. Funny how time alters perceptions. He greeted me with great enthusiasm and a hug as a long-lost friend when I got there, but I recall that he was basically the class clown, and he seemed to take special delight in tormenting me my senior year. As a joke, he nominated me as a candidate for “Most Handsome”, which got quite a laugh (I had one of the most severe cases of acne of anybody in my graduating class). If there had been a category for “Nerdiest”, I might have won that one.

Then there was Andy. Andy just barely remembered me, but I remembered him quite well. Back in 7th grade, we got into a fist-fight. I won, which is probably why he doesn’t remember. He signed my yearbook anyway.

It was a time of melancholy mixed with celebration. It’s sobering that about 5% of my graduating class (of 438) is now deceased, and more so to realize that in ten years, that will be closer to 20%. It was interesting to drive around the old home town, but I haven’t forgotten why I left, and I have no desire to ever live in the desert again. It’s good to be back home.

Now, back to real life…