Saturday

Sept. 22, 2001

climbing

I awake, dreaming of a long sandstone ramp that leads to the top of something. It's decorated with ancient-looking markings. I climb it again and again, exhorting young people at the bottom to join me.

I was awake at three in the morning, taking an Aloe Gel cap for a bit of reflux I blamed on the food and wine.

We slept sort of late for us. I'm thinking about getting up and thinking it's odd FFP isn't getting up when he does.

I sit in my office. I do a few things on my work computer to get ready for the trip. I watch CNN. I can't help myself. What about the religions adverstising on these programs? That is strange somehow. Not that they adverstise. But with WTC images. Do you think the Pentagon is forgotten? If the terrorists hadn't hit WTC would everything be different? Could we put the images away like Oklahoma City? I think so somehow. And think it odd.

FFF picks up cleaning. And goes to work out. I sit in my office. And don't seem to be accomplishing much. I talk to Mom. Her biopsy isn't Friday but Thursday. Don't know when she'll get results, though. She is a little confused. She used her vaporizer last night but forgets what to call it, over and over in the conversation. She has typed up a schedule for their appointments for the week. I guess she used Word. She had trouble 'finding the blank page' and 'printing, because it didn't say print anywhere' but she got it done. She thinks maybe I can see it from here.

FFP makes me a salad. He makes a big salad for both of us. He is eating vinegar and oil on it. He's dieting assidously. I'm not but I benefit from the fish and vegies and salads he makes. I'll be healthier (though fat) anyway. Maybe.

We do errands. I pick up Dimetapp to ease the flying this week. A lot of things say 'no drowsy' but I'm actually looking to get drowsy, thank you very much. I replenish my Immodium supply. Sometimes travel does that to me. And I buy two batteries for the digital camera so I can avoid taking a charger and a transformer for it. At home again, I sort through my toiletries and emergency stuff and set aside things that can't be carried on...nail clippers, pocket knife, etc. I haven't started packing clothes. I make sure that I have money and credit cards and stuff, all sorted and ready to go. There is a certain level of feeling that I have that things should go back to normal. People should travel, eat out and fly as a patriotic duty.

Does the CNN tag "America's New War" bother anyone else? I'm also wondering if a reward makes sense. I can't imagine anyone who supports Bin Laden and would die for him suddenly deciding to take money instead. (And pretty much guarantee being hunted down to die anyway.) I can't imagine anyone not in his spell who had info not giving it up to authorities for nothing but maybe some protection of anonymity. Meanwhile, people are scamming collections of money for the victims and stealing identities of the dead off that poster wall. And looting the mall under the World Trade Center. Yes, human beings are a great and wonderful lot.

FFP makes a spaghetti squash casserole. I discover he's been buying fat-free shredded cheese. I wondered why it didn't taste like much. When we were shopping this afternoon, he let me buy some real, sharp cheddar cheese and some little packets of Laughing Cow (La Vache qui Rit) cheese. The cow is my ultimate protection against starving on airliners. It saved me in 1991 when an equipment scare and the subsequent landing in a wrong country meant no food for many, many hours. I felt guilty slipping my little one ounce cheeses out of their packages when the people around me had none. I didn't share, though.

I got nervous today and decided it was too much coffee. It was six by then so I drank a Jack Daniel's and water with my dinner. FFP played some CDs. I turned the TV on for wallpaper and read papers. A Flintstones cartoon showed a stone age plane and a stone age hijacking. I'm not kidding.

We watched football. Well, I read old newspapers. I read or heard somewhere that a lot of airlines were going to ditch serving food. Wow...that encourages me to fly and save the industry. As it is, we often transfer in Dallas with no time to buy anything and then get stuck without food. Yeah, yeah, I know lots of people have worse problems. But if people are really treated like criminals and starved well what's to tempt us to go on vacations? I hope that in a week's time I'm writing journal entries that say, "Don't worry folks. Come on in. The traveling is fine. Or, at least, no worse than usual when most others seemed not to be bothered and I didn't like it much." Hold that thought. I love to be other places. (Though I love it a thousand times more for fun than business.) I don't crave air transport as the way to get there. Never did.

Well, never is too strong. I remember my first flight. I was 17 or 18. My friend Peggy went along. I loved everything. The plastic glasses, the feeling of going someplace very fast. My ears still adjusted on their own then. I found the flight wonderful. I don't remember the airline. It could have been Braniff. Remember Braniff?

a shop window Austin...in a better time

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace..."

John Lennon, "Imagine"

Meta:
We'll just be keeping Lennon's radical lyrics here for a day or two.

JUST TYPING
Packing.
Suddenly way more significant than it should be.
It's just some stuff.
To take to the airport.
A place that's suddenly way more significant than it should be.