Irish Odyssey: Day One

It's about two hours before Bill and I head down the road toward Spokane Airport, and the snow of March continues.  

My bags are packed---one has been unpacked a couple of times already this morning.  Out came extra sweaters, then, a pair of my dressier jeans, then some turtlenecks.  

Don't need those dressy jeans and three white turtlenecks is a little redundant.

I did the dress bag a favor because it has one gimpy zipper.  Why is it that we care about zippers at bad times.  Zippers just sit in the closet on whatever garment or bag they were assigned.  They do nothing for months or even years.

Then, they come out into the daylight, and someone starts forcing them into labor.  It's been so long since they've had to lift a finger, that resistance seems to be the best policy.

Of course, their owners often overburden them with that once a year or once every five years worth of work.

If their owners would just learn with the first packing that the entire closet does not need to go inside that bag or, in the case of tight-fittin' jeans, the entire cupboard does not have to go into that stomach. 

But their owners are clueless until the zipper resists.  It takes a couple of times of getting full-blown stuck enroute from zipper source to zipper destination for those dumb owners to learn that you can't fit a square peg the size of china in that little round hole of minute space available. 

Well, anyway, that's the message Bill's dressbag zipper gave me this morning.  

"Get rid of some of that stuff.   If not, I'll explode break open at a time you least expect it, and you're not gonna be happy."

I envisioned that zipper letting loose about the time I was walking up to check-in somewhere and having my closet full of stuff strewn all over Sea-Tac or Kennedy Airports.  

Not a pretty sight to envision.  So, the bag has an easier go of it now, and the zipper appears to be happy, now that it knows the workload isn't going to be quite as bad as expected.  

And, so, I'm ready to go, as ready as I'll ever be for such a journey.  Annie told me last night to check my purse once I get in the car and make sure there's a passport and money.

"If you have those, you can always buy whatever else you need," she said.  That makes me wonder why the heck I tried to pack the entire house into my two bags.

Well, my money doesn't exactly grow on trees, so I'll pinch pennies for the really good stuff and good times in Ireland. 

I had to run to town for a converter for when I plug in the computer and the cell phone charger in Europe.  Annie said she'd be bringing some too, but I figure we'll both be using laptops at the same time, so to keep things simple and harmonious, I'll have one of my own. 

When you buy those things, they're a bit like a passport.  You want to get your bang for the buck, so that means you need to plan more International trips.

But then again, I don't know if planning several International trips will more than make up for the hundred or so dollars invested in the passport and the converter.   Makes a good excuse, though.

Enough for now, here at the snowy Lovestead.  I'll probably finish off this first posting when I'm safe and sound in Seattle.

~~~~~~~
Made it to Seattle.  I did not see one person from Sandpoint during the two hours I spent at Spokane Airport.  That's pretty unusual.

But I did see Ray Jackoletti (sp?).  He's one of Mark Few's assistants at Gonzaga.

So, I walked up and asked him to autograph my little yellow sheet of paper with Dan Dickau, JP Batista and Dan O'Brien's autographs.  All signed at different times, and, no, Dan O'Brien was not a ZAG . . . a Vandal and Olympic Decathlon Gold Medalist.

Coach Jackoletti was very nice and happy to give me an autograph.  GO ZAGS!

The flight to Seattle went by really fast.  Dr. Jaeger, a Coeur d'Alene orthodontist, sat across from me.  We had a wonderful visit.  His son Eric was headed to a national hockey tournament, and he sat next to me.  Both great people.

We've had a bite to eat from Denny's here at Sea-Tac,  and now it's time to get some sleep before we have to get up at 4:30 a.m.

Long day of flying ahead, but a great reward at the end.  I intend to kiss the ground of the Emerald Isle at my first  opportunity.  It will be a wonderful moment.  Maybe Annie will take a picture.