After After

You know something? I know I ask you that a lot and sometimes you give me smart-alecky answers. But this time I’m just going to tell you before you can answer me.
You meet nice people where ever you go.
Momma met a guy in the breakfast room of the hotel on our recent family reunion and struck up a conversation with him. As I watched from across the room, I could see she was very involved with her conversation. “Look at that,” I said to my brothers and sisters sitting around me. “All of this family here and Momma has to talk to strangers.”
Patti laughed. “I don’t think she has to — she just wants to.”
“Did you enjoy your conversation with that man?” I asked Momma when she had finished and the man had left.
“Very much,” she replied. “He was very interesting.”
I didn’t have a chance to ask about the conversation because as often happens in gatherings where people haven’t seen each other in a long time, the conversation moved on to something else very quickly.
At one point during my stay in the hotel, I found myself in the elevator with a man. Feeling happy and social, and noticing how smartly he was dressed, I complimented him on it. “You look very handsome today!”
“Thank you!” he said and smoothed down the front of his shirt. “Are you here for the cruise?” he asked.
“No, family reunion. How about you?”
“I’m taking my wife on a cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary.”
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. I was confused about where I was and started to get off before I realized it wasn’t my floor. I stepped back on and so did the woman who had summoned the elevator. Then I missed my floor and rode the whole way to the parking level as I listened to this man brag on his two grown daughters. “…both of them are doctors,” he said with obvious pride.
He left the elevator with a, “Have a good day now.”
“You too,” I returned. “And enjoy your cruise!”
“I will,” he called back over his shoulder.
If you are friendly and smile, you meet nice people where ever you go. If you are cranky or in a hurry, there are jerks every where you go. Have you ever noticed that?
The night after, the day after the family reunion, hence the name After After, Momma had had a nap and it was time to play a little Skip-Bo. Patti set us up on the end of a bed, and even though Diane had never played before, she caught on very quickly.
“This is kinda fun,” she said.
“I know, right! I love this game!” I said. Then I thought to get a picture. “Momma. Show me how happy you are to play Skip-Bo again.” And Momma smiled the biggest smile ever, lighting up her beautiful face.

I got to spend a little more time with my handsome brother David and his beautiful wife Pilar as they brought dinner to the hotel room for us. And what a feast that was! I got to have all of my favorites all over again. Then we took a few photos and this is David, Pilar and Patti.

<<<<<>>>>>

I had an early morning flight.
I got up around 2 a.m. and as quietly as I could, I got ready and left without waking Diane. We shared a room and she wouldn’t be leaving until late morning.
When I got down to the parking lot and behind the wheel of the rented Impala, I poked the OnStar button.
“OnStar. This is Edward. How may I help you?”
Hey! That’s the same operator I had a couple of days ago, I thought. He must work the overnight shift, but I only said, “Navigation please.”
“Certainly. Give me a moment to pull up your co-ordinates.” I waited. “I see you are at the Hampton Inn in Galveston. Where are you going?”
“To the airport in Houston.”
“William Hobby or  George Bush?”
“George Bush please.”
“I’m sending it to your car now,” Edward said and I thanked him.
I head out of the parking lot, take a left and miss my next left turn. “Do you want new directions sent to your device?” the automated voice came over the GPS. I didn’t know the answer. I know. That sounds silly even to me now. But our GPS automatically re-routes us. I decided I would just turn around and get back on track. “Do you want new directions sent to your device?” the automated voice asked again.
Almost back on track, I ignored the message one more time.
“Good-bye!” the voice said.
“NOOOOO!” I screamed. “COME BACK!” It didn’t do any good. I pulled to the side of the road and called my favorite OnStar operator back.
“OnStar. This is Edward. How may I help you?”
And I had to tell Edward what I had done. “I wasn’t sure of the answer,” I confessed.
“A yes will work,” he said. “I’m resending the directions now.”
Back on track, the traffic was light and I didn’t have any more problems until I was within a few miles of the airport. Then I missed a turn.
“Do you want new directions sent to your device?” the automated voice asked.
“Yes,” I said quick and clear.
“Sending now,” and I breathed a sigh of relief. But it wasn’t long until the GPS had me going in circles. I don’t know if I missed a turn or what but after the sixth left turn in what seemed like only a few blocks, I pulled over and called OnStar again. And it wasn’t Edward this time. “I think I’m going in circles,” I told Annie, the gal who answered.
“I’m sorry about that. I’m sending directions to your car now.”
I had to make about four more lefts but eventually I saw signs to the airport and I had plenty of time to spare. I turned in my rental car and head to the upper level. At the top, on the left were doors declaring EXIT and Do Not Enter and the door next to it also declared EXIT and Do Not Enter.
I was inside and that was an exit but you could not go out? I was confused, but maybe I was just tired. I didn’t need to go that way anyway as the sign for the shuttle bus to the airport terminals was on the right.

I got through security just fine and found a seat near my gate where I settled in to wait for my flight.
And my flight was uneventful. The only thing interesting on my flight was a sign on the seat in front of me. It said there was a power supply located between the seats and it had a picture of a plug on it. Cool, I can plug my Nook in, I thought. But I couldn’t find the plug.

We were seated three wide and I had the window seat. “Where do you think the plug is?” I asked the gal in the seat next to me and pointed to the sign.
She read the sign started looking around, between the seats and couldn’t find it either. “I don’t know.” Then she turned to the guy sitting next to her and asked him. He made the same search the girl and I did but couldn’t find a plug either. A flight attendant was coming towards us.
“Excuse me,” the man said catching her arm. He pointed to the sign on the back of the seat. “Where is this?”
“Under the seat, between the seats,” she answered and hurried on.
He reached under the seat and felt around. He found the plug then he did something that confused me. He pulled out his power cord for his phone, which had a USB end on it, and tried to plug it in. To me, the picture says conventional plug and I wasn’t surprised when he couldn’t fit it in. Even the girl next to me tried to plug it in for him but couldn’t fit it in either, and you can’t look. Short of getting out of your seat and down on the floor, there just isn’t enough room to bend over and look.
“That’s okay. Thanks anyway,” he thanked her and tucked his cord away.
This time I flew to Newark, New Jersey and had a three hour layover. I found a place to have a slice of pizza and they had power supply outlets right there at the tables. I plugged my Nook in and worked on my story while I ate.
My next and last flight was on a prop plane with only about 50 passengers.

        The man in the seat next to me was traveling with a long haired dachshund puppy.

“We just lost one of our dogs,” he told me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. Losing our pets is hard.
“He was old, fourteen, and he got on the table and ate a bunch of chocolates, but he had other issues anyway. I went the whole way to Albuquerque to get this new puppy for her.”
Now there’s a man who loves his wife.
The flight from Newark to Scranton was just 50 minutes from wheels up to wheels down and being a smaller plane, we didn’t fly as high and you could see the fall colors, which didn’t translate well to photographs.

We hit some turbulence. Instead of being scared I reminded myself that even the roads on the ground can be pretty rough sometime too.
Mike was waiting for me at the airport.
“Wait until you see what just happened,” he said to me.
“What?” I asked.
“Wait,” he said.
Out at the Jeep I see we have a stone chip. “How did that happen?”
“A dump truck passed me on the way to the airport,” Mike said. “I don’t know if it came off the truck or if he kicked it up.”
Doggone it! And our Jeep isn’t very old either.
One of the little shops in one of the little towns we passed through had furniture stuck up on the wall.
“Mike! Go back around so I can get a picture of that.” Mike, being the good sport he is, went around the block for me.

“Do you want me to pull over at that brick building we saw on the way down?” he asked.
Bless his heart. On the way to the airport there was an old brick building that sat kind of on a curve. By the time I saw it, we were past it and I didn’t get a picture of it. Mike remembered I said I wanted to take pictures of it on the way home.
“No, I’ll just shoot it on the fly.”

“There’s a place to pull over.”
“Okay then,” I agreed and boy was I glad he did. Something I hadn’t seen from the road was this cool old iron spiral stairway.

“I want that spiral stairway,” I said to Mike.
“You can’t have that. It belongs to someone.”
“Maybe they’d let me have it, or sell it to me,” I suggested. I wasn’t suggesting stealing it.
“What would you do with it?” Mike asked.
Someday, I hope to have a cupola. A glass room on a second level as a reading or writing room with a desk and a big, comfy, overstuffed chair. This would be perfect for that.
I guess I can always dream.
With that, let’s call this one done.