Traveling

Friends,
I wish you the very best for 2011 and hope you and your loved ones have a tremendous year and that we all have success in our battles against cancer. That would be the best thing that could happen in this New Year!

Over the holidays, I was lucky enough to travel from the DC area to Arizona to visit with family. It was a great trip, but I did notice that traveling with cancer as my associate made me look at things a bit differently.

First, the Airlines have a strange way of communicating with passengers. As we were on our way to Dallas, the pilot interrupted my playing of “Angry Birds” with an announcement that there was “a little weather in Dallas”. His announcement went something like this: “ladies and gentlemen, we are expecting a smooth flight today, but there is a little weather in Dallas which may cause some slight delays as we approach the airport”. So here I am thinking that I need to get to places where there is no weather. I did not realize that the National Weather Service has issued a cease and desist order for places like Florida and Arizona who lure tourists with promises of good weather. After listening to our captain I now realize that sunshine is NOT weather, therefore states cannot talk about good weather because there is either a “little weather”, which means you have a risk of being killed by a tornado, or no weather at all. Having cancer has cured my fear of flying into a “little weather” so I can now “weather” the storm as I hope to get to a place with no weather.

When we landed in Dallas, the flight attendant said “We’d like to be the first to welcome you to Dallas”. So I thought, okay, you can be the first so go ahead. There was not another sound about welcoming and all we were told was to stay in our seats until the aircraft had parked at the gate. After we got off the aircraft, someone inside the terminal said “Welcome to Dallas”. So I am thinking of how to break the news to the flight attendant that she was not the first to welcome us to Dallas, even though she professed a desire to be first. I don’t like breaking bad news to people so I decided to skip the issue. Next time, I’ll be sure to give permission to the flight crew to welcome us to our destination, so they won’t be left hanging when they would like to be the first to welcome us.

The car rental experience got me a little exasperated. The car was fine, but the options for entertainment left a lot to be desired. Like me, you have probably heard that maintaining a good sense of humor is one of the keys to fighting diseases such as cancer. With this in mind, I asked the rental agent if our car was equipped with a radio that would pick up comedy stations. He replied “Sure, your car is equipped with serious satellite radio”. Well, he obviously didn’t understand my request. I reiterated that I did not want serious radio, but wanted comedy as it helps to cure cancer. He again said that is no problem, that the car has serious satellite radio. By now I am totally frustrated and getting very angry, just what I don’t need as I battle cancer with asparagus, Ginger (the Gilligan Island’s Ginger), avoiding Saran Wrap and, I had hoped, a bit of comedy. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get this guy to offer anything but serious radio, so I decided to use the standard AM/FM. I later found they charged for this serious radio (it must be used by Police Investigators, Coroners, and the like). If they charged for serious radio, the comedy type was probably too expensive anyway, so in hindsight, I am probably lucky they only offered the serious kind.

I wish you all a tremendous 2011 and want us to all meet here same time next year!

John