On the Road Again

My kids started summer school this morning. After dropping them off, I was off to the airport for a trip to the east. Today, I flew into Atlanta. Flew on Delta (what else), on a very smooth 767. (It was the smoothest airplane ride I have ever taken. Much smoother than a certain ride on a small Cessna at the family farm in Nebraska some years ago. I still feel queasy over THAT ride!) Everything looked so green flying in, compared to the Golden (Brown) State. The Atlanta airport is HUGE, and was full of people. I checked into the hotel, and immediately logged on to follow the Giant-Dodger game. The Giants won, 3-2. Yay! But I really hate West Coast baseball when I am in the East. Several years ago, while visiting the wife's brother and sister-in-law in Boston, I stayed up almost every night to catch the West Coast sports scores. This East Coast timing is hideous. I mean, in the west, Monday Night Football is on at 6 and over by 9. In the east, if begins at 9 and ends after midnight. Who would watch it? Evidently, people do.

I am going to visit a former church intern and former church administrative assistant on Thursday, then fly on to Richmond, VA, for my denomination's General Assembly. I will be posting almost every day from GA, my thoughts and impressions. I have never been to one, and am only going as an observer. Should be interesting.

On the plane, I tried out my new Dell notebook with a Pentium-M Centrino processor. On the flight, I was able to watch three episodes from the old "Crime Story" series on DVD. (Thanks, Uncle Dave!) That's about 150 minutes of video, and the notebook still had over an hour left on the battery. Impressive.

The impetus for this trip was my mom's death. She died rather suddenly on March 7. She had been diagnosed with brain tumors and lung cancer in January. I thought I had more time to spend with her. I was wrong. So I am trying to get away by myself, to see some friends, but mostly to seek God's comfort, and to process this loss. I am also trying to make the best use of time I have been given, to take advantage of opportunities when they are presented. I miss my mom. And while I never called her very often, I now miss the opportunity to call her.

It has been a rough twelve months for me. Several close church members died- Jean and Rose. Several friends moved away, Adam and Amy, Isabel, Shirley, Marjorie. And now Ann has said she is moving to Orange County to be closer to family.

I also finished a position which I had held for six years on a Presbytery committee. This was not a loss, per se, as I was glad to finish the commitment. But the position did provide some satisfaction to me, I was involved, and I made a difference, and I was commended for my work. Just another kind of loss. All losses seem to add up, and need to be given their proper grief expressions. I am not very good at this. Is anyone?

Anyway, goodnight from the Atlanta Crowne Plaza Hotel. Until next time.