YOU MADE MY DAY

     So, I have to share this story from something that happened yesterday.  It is just too darned cute.

I went to AAA yesterday for my usual oil change.  Got checked in, they had my car, when I noticed two young boys running around.  They were probably 5 or 6 years old and looked to be twins.  They were with Grandpa and he seemed to be spending a lot of time in the foyer of this business.

Anyway, at one point, the guy who was checking us in stepped from behind his desk and the first thing you noticed about him was that he had a prosthetic leg.  He was wearing shorts so it was totally noticeable. 

When he stepped from behind his desk the twins stopped their running around and stared at him with something akin to horror in their eyes.  They both stepped up to Grandpa and stayed close at hand still staring at the clerk.

Shortly the Grandpa moved on to another section of the room and the clerk was back behind his desk.    

A few minutes later I walked up to the clerk and said, “You ought to talk to those boys about your leg.”  He acknowledged that he noticed their response as well.  I then shared a story from my distant past. 

For a short time, while I lived in Fairbanks, AK, I was a Girl Scout leader.  One day I took my troop of 11/12-year-olds to the community pool to work on a swimming badge.   As we entered the lobby of the building another group was leaving.  They were a group of people who all had pretty severe mental disabilities.  Just like those twins, my girls hovered around me with fear in their eyes.  I went up to the adult of the group and asked if she could come to our next troop meeting and talk to the girls about her group.  She came, did an excellent job at explaining who they were and why they were in her care.  The girls seemed to get it and asked lots of good questions.

The AAA clerk looked at me, smiled, and then went on with his day.  An hour later, when I was checking out, he approached me and said…I talked to those boys.  They asked me what happened to my leg.  He told them, “I didn’t take care of myself, I didn’t eat my vegetables.”

I let out with a chuckle and went on my way.

I sure hope the message took with those boys, in a totally different way than I was expecting.

And thank you AAA clerk, for being so compassionate and caring of two young boys.  You made my day.

LOOKING BACK

             It’s that time of week again.  Time to sit at the computer and think about the week.  This week, it’s about a book.

          I’ve shared thoughts about books before, so sorry if this is boring for some of you, but for me, books open up tons of new worlds and often touches on memories that need to be refreshed.

          This week the book is Kristin Hannah’s The Women.  Once again, one of her very powerful stories.  The first book of hers that I ever read was The Nightengale which I finished reading in the jungles of Costa Rica.  Thankfully so as the end was so powerful that I couldn’t stop crying.

          Well, The Women has had the same effect except that I am not crying (At least not yet).  It is the story of a very naive young woman who joins the Army Nurses Corps and heads off to Viet Nam.  This story overwhelms me with the research that Kristin Hannah had to do to write such a novel.

          It hits me hard for several reasons.  First, it starts in 1966, the year I graduated from high school.  I remember well some of my male classmates heading out to that war…. some never to return, some so traumatized by their experience that they never returned in a different way.

          I remember the protests and the news coverage that was never ending in those years. 

          What this book opens up is the story of the women who served, not in combat, but who nonetheless were there and were impacted in the same way as the men. 

          And the memory the book resurfaces is of my Mom’s experience as a Navy nurse during WWII.  I grew up on her stories of that war, totally different from what I suppose was the male version of the experience.

          She served in the South Pacific: Philippines, Australia, Guam, and Papua New Guinea among others.  Always immediately behind battle lines.  She never told explicit details from the OR, but this book fills in those blanks.  It provides me an entirely new vision of what her life had to have been like.

          It also explains one mystery.  In 1970 Mom and I went to the theater to see the newly released movie, M*A*S*H.  We were there about 10 minutes when Mom rose up, rushed out and was furious.  The only thing she said was, “It wasn’t like that at all.”  She never explained herself and I had to go back later to see the movie with a friend.  I didn’t understand her fury until I read this book. 

          The description in the book of what went on in those field hospitals is really beyond comprehension and now I understand Mom’s anger….55 years later.

          I love the book, it tells a heroic, tragic, compassionate story.  And my mind lingers on how many men and women had this experience, who came home and lived through it.

          It explains a lot.

OH, THE JOYS OF TRAVEL

 

This past weekend I took a trip from Cincinnati to Seattle, WA, eventually ending up in Bellingham, WA for a friend’s wedding reception.  I made this very quick trip because the bride is a friend I have known since she was 3 years old.  I kind of see her as a ‘daughter by another mother.’

It's been a while since I did any flying and there was a time I used to love to travel.  I may have changed my mind as a result of this week’s trip.

Let me first say, before I get started on this rant….that the celebration itself was awesome.  It was held outside with perfect weather.  The entire Saturday and Sunday was well planned and absolutely glorious!!!  I was so thrilled and happy for my dear friend.  However, getting there and getting home was an entirely different story!!!

          It started with a confirmation email from Budget Rental regarding my car reservation.  In that email it confirmed that my pick-up time on Friday was 5 AM!!!  I was still in bed in my home at 5 AM!!!  I know for a fact that I did not enter that information.  Somewhere along the way the Budget system experienced a glitch….to put it mildly. 

          I immediately called Budget and of course got a representative whom I could barely understand due to a very thick foreign accent.  I explained my situation; she pulled up my reservation and confirmed that indeed my expected pick-up time for the car was 5 AM.  She assured me that the reservation would be held for 15 hours.  I did the math and realized I would be cutting it very close, assuming my flights would proceed on time.  I asked if we could change my pick-up time to 6 PM, she immediately said there were no cars available.  So, I stressed about that the rest of the day.

          Moving ahead, I arrived at the Cincinnati airport checked my baggage, got my boarding pass and headed for the gate.  Of course, the gate was 3 miles away and I had to get through TSA.  Next hurdle!!

In 2013 I fell at a West Virginia state park and broke my ankle.  Repair required surgery which included a screw in my right ankle.  For the first time ever the scanner at TSA picked up that screw.  They had me go through the scanner 3 times and then once with my shoes off.  That time I saw the scan and asked if that was my right leg where the indicator was.  She said yes.  I said, I have a medical screw in that ankle.  They had me go through one more time, then pat me down, looked through my shoes and then let me go on my way.

Finally, I got to the gate, sat down, looked at my boarding pass, and read the name, Martha Hall!!!!  WHAT THE HELL!!!!  I wasn’t even about to go back to the check-in desk, not walk 3 miles and then have to go through TSA again.  So, I sat there, hoping the gate agent could fix the mess, stressing out about something else for 1.5 hours.  He showed up 30 minutes before boarding time and said WHAT THE HELL!! Someone sure fucked up!!  And then fixed the mess!!!

The flight was fine.  Gorgeous weather, very little bouncing and nice seat mates.

Got to Seattle, went to pick up my car, hoping like crazy that my reservation was still good.  Got to the counter, there was a mile long line waiting for their cars and NOT A SINGLE AGENT AT THE COUNTER.  We were all standing around, looking around, wondering ‘What the heck!”  About 10 minutes later agents started showing up, 1 person at a time.  I guess they all went on break at the same time….or something???  Anyway, when it was my turn, the agent took my ID, processed my reservation and sent me on my way.  Not a word about the 5 AM pick up.

So, now I was 2 hours from Bellingham, it was 8 PM and boy, was I tired.  All interstate driving, so piece of cake.  Right??  Wrong??  If anyone reading this has ever driven through Atlanta, GA, you will know immediately what I am about to describe.  Interstate 5 in Seattle goes through downtown Seattle exactly the same was I-75 goes through Atlanta.  Nothing but car back-up after car back-up after car-back up.  No construction, no accidents, just volume of traffic that the road can’t handle.  I should have been in Bellingham around 10 PM, it was after midnight when I hit my hotel bed.  I was asleep immediately.

Next 2 days were perfect.  Now it’s Monday morning and I’m headed back to the Seattle airport.  I anticipate the slow driving time since I now know what I’m dealing with.  I plan to leave around 8:30 AM for a departure time from the airport at 1 PM.  I ended up leaving at 7:30 PM as I woke up around 3 AM and could not get back to sleep. Oh boy, was that even worse!!!  Of course I should have expected it.  After all it was Monday morning rush hour!!!

About 10 miles north of Seattle the traffic came to a stop.  And I do mean a stop.  The traffic crawled, crawled, crawled.  Again, no construction, no accidents, just volume.  I watched the time slipping away, I watch the gas tank getting emptier and emptier and I just knew I was not going to make that flight.  Finally, when you are about ¾ way through downtown Seattle, I-90 splits off from I-5 and the traffic cleared.  I got there in plenty of time and did not run out of gas. 

Story over??  Not quite!!!

I dropped off the rental car, went 2 floors up to catch the bus for a ride to the terminal and realize I have left my purse in the car.  I rush back down 3 flights, WRONG, look around and realize my car is not there, an employee comes by and asks me if I am lost.  The sweetheart got me on an elevator, got off the elevator with me and pointed me in the right direction.  The car was still there; my purse was still there and finally I was on my way to the terminal.

The rest of the trip went fine except the flight from Midway to Cincinnati was delayed.  When I finally got home, in bed it was 1:06 AM.  One really long, long day.

Think I’ll stay home for a bit.