Grace, the Flight Attendant

"Good morning, my name is Grace and I will be your flight attendant today!", she said as the door slammed on the Delta flight to Memphis. The curious thing about this was Grace had to be 75 years of if she was a day and reminded me of the sweet little old lady that was the owner of the cartoon character, Tweety Bird that was in constant peril of Sylvester the Cat. In my eight years as a flying road warrior, I've seen some older ones but she was the oldest. In my opinion, it's quite fitting that we would have Grace as our attendant in as much as how the equipment seemed to show a lot of age and wear.

Watching and mulling over the significance of the elderly lady as a flight attendant, I noticed something lying in the seat next to me. It was a part of the overhead reading lamp fixture that had fallen off the console above my head. I decided to reinstall it myself rather than reporting it to Grace. Given their record of maintenance problems, I didn't want to risk delaying the flight.

In advance of serving refreshments, Grace announced with much detail that we would be limited on beverages because of some malfunction involving the ice machine and that somehow this had caused  an hour delay the evening before because the mechanics were trying to fix it but failed and they  were  having to order parts and on and on and on.....Whew!  She not only apologized for that but nearly fell on the sword explaining that there was a shortage of beverages as well. "I have a few Cokes, four Diet Cokes and three Sprites." What was next? Would she take the blame for the Haitian earthquake too?

Now, I'm beginning to think that if Delta is flying granny around the USA on planes that have parts falling off, refrigerators that don't work and potties that are not available, just how bad is the general condition of this plane? In the past five weeks, Delta has either delayed or completely canceled flights for me on at least five occasions for equipment maintenance problems. How old and how worn are thousands of planes flying the friendly skies? Honestly, this alarms me very much.

The North American International Automobile Show

Having been to the North American International Automobile show in Los Angeles four years ago with Darlene, I had always thought I would love to see, what I thought was the mother of them all in Detroit. That was four years ago and in different financial times but a lot has changed since then.

Anyway, I made my way to downtown Detroit, assuming it would be super crowded, however it was not nearly as insane as I had thought it would be. After finding a spot in one of the local garages, I walked through a gaggle of groups from the Teamsters to a bunch of Lyndon LaRouche supporters, all of which wanted to talk to me and anyone else who happened by them and plea their cause. Fortunately, I was able to dodge all of them, buy my (say it ain't so) discounted senior citizen ticket and go in to check out prototypes and production models of several companies.

Somehow, it wasn't nearly as blown out of proportion as I had imagined and was not nearly as overwhelming as the show was in L.A. a few years ago.

Most all the companies for whom you see cars on the road were represented plus a few other smaller firms entering into the American market. For the most part, the themes hinged on things like hybrids, Green technology and some form of electric. Some of the newer companies were Asian and were totally electric in concept. It seemed like you couldn't get past a display without encountering a vehicle dolled up in some garish green color. There were little "commuters" that seemed no more than golf carts with roofs and doors on them or motorcycles with four wheels and a windshield. Most were two passenger vehicles and sometimes had the second seat behind the driver.

For the most part, there didn't seem to be a lot of physical change in cars and focused primarily on engine technology. Ford seemed to be a little more lavish in their models, perhaps because they had not participated in the government "bail out" and didn't have the perception of Big Brother looking over their shoulders like Chrysler and GM did. While Ford threw a lot at the Fusion, Focus and Taurus, GM was not shy in the presentation of the Camaro and Corvette. People like Honda and Toyota were introducing crossover vehicles that looked like huge sedans. They were wider, longer and higher than the typical car and looked less like an SUV. They were a little more roomier for passengers but hardly a utility vehicle.

While it was great to see the new cars, nothing in particular seemed to grab me by the collar and shake me. All the companies had their wares on display, well lighted with anorexic models hovering over them, but the "Wow!" factor just wasn't there.

Brrrrrrrr

You can click on any of these pictures to make them a little larger.

Just as I was thinking things couldn't get worse with all the weather dipping into the thirties and some places into the double digits around home, I got that call from the office in St Louis.

"Got a job for ya," says Steve.

"Oh, where to?" I asked.

You could almost hear the smile on his face when he said, "Sterling Heights............Michigan." That would be a bedroom community of Detroit.

My brain temperature dropped about 10° just on the announcement, alone.

Anyway, long story short, I'm here in the frozen tundra for a few days....hopefully, not weeks or heaven forbid, months.

So for the first weekend here, I took a trip over to Windsor, Ontario. With temps down around 12° early Saturday morning I took the tunnel and took a ride south along the river on a parkway. The river had a nice flow to it and the giant frozen ice chunks bumping into each other reminded me of a cold winter decades ago when ice flows made it down to Louisiana and you could hear the noise from the Vicksburg/Vidalia bridge.

Venturing out east of town, I rode along the countryside by fields covered with snow. The roads were straight and in squares so it reminded me somewhat of the prairie and farm lands of south Louisiana except they were totally white with snow.

Not being able to speak Canadian, and not sure that I would be getting much of a deal on my U.S. money, I elected to turn back around after 20 miles or so and come on back to the U.S. via the bridge, after picking up a few souvenirs for the smallest grandchildren.

It wasn't much of a trip but at least I satisfied the curiosity regarding the hassles of international border crossings. It really wasn't much of a big deal and involved no more than the gate keepers on both sides asking me why I was crossing, did I have any alcohol, tobacco or firearms, where I was from, what I did for a living and how long my visit would be.

Cold as it is, far from home as it is and missing everyone, it's still good to have a job when some are not working. Besides, I was being way too blessed staying home cooking and eating too much.

Day 2; Sunday, January 10, 2010

When I got up for breakfast this morning, it was 3 global warming degrees outside.

I'd always heard of Motown and now I've seen it and it took what I thought was forever to get me out of it too. At the heart of it was the Motown Museum where they even had to have bars over the windows and doors and gang scribbles were the only examples of fine art to be seen.Yep, right there on Barry Gordy Avenue.

Downtown Detroit is showing some signs of life even on a Sunday afternoon. There was this little circle area that had a public skating rink in it where some people tried their luck at staying up on two feet. I saw no need to risk breaking another bone (like I did trying to climb a mountain in Oregon) and never considered renting skates. I did see some folks hit the ice HARD and they'll remember it tomorrow.

Another highlight of the day was a tour through Mexicantown. Yep, they have one of those too but still wonder why in the world they'd want to come to this ice cube. Apparently it's been a part of the city quite a while. There are a number of streets that bear Spanish names. One particular way I knew I was there was the guy who thought he was a bullfighter standing in the crossroads of two four lane streets. He stood in the middle, waving the cars by and barely being missed by oncoming traffic from both directions. I thought, surely he was going to get run over but eventually joined a buddy on the corner much to the relief of the drivers. I don't know what he was on but whatever it was made him 100% bulletproof.....car proof too.


Snow was still deep (probably 6-8 inches) and I did some walking in it but after a few minutes, the novelty wore off and I crawled back into my car and found my way back to the hotel.

A Cold Winter's Ride

Any excuse is good enough, I suppose. Christmas morning, I left Dutchtown at 5 AM on Boudreaux, headed 250 miles north to my mother's house. It was relatively cold but I had ridden in 38° weather before because it usually became a little warmer as the sun rose. This time, it was a tad different because the further north I got, the colder it became.
Cruising through Mangum, LA, I blinked when the LED sign at a bank announced 34°. I have to say though, it really wasn't that uncomfortable especially if your gear includes a t-shirt, two light sweaters, a hooded sweat suit jacket, thick leather motorcycle jacket, jeans, thick Doc Marten boots, regular socks, thermal socks, goggles, leather chaps, a neck warmer, stocking cap, cold weather ski gloves, cotton liner gloves and a lined helmet. In other words, I looked like the Michelin Man and felt like a sumo wrestler. Maneuverability could have been an issue if I had to make some quick moves. Even with the cold weather gear, the toes and fingers do get a little cold traveling at 65-75 mph for a couple of hours at a time.

The irony in all of this is 6 weeks and 3 thousand miles ago, I was riding 50° warmer. (Maui)

Why do that, you may ask. Well, ...hmm...I guess I just love riding that thing and will use the most flimsy excuse in the world just to get on it and ride.

Bah! Humbug!

I started dreading Christmas last New Years day but for what it's worth, "Merry Christmas". I still believe it's just a pagan holiday that someone tried to Christianize, but I pick my battles.

Happy Louisiana

Recent survey's have revealed that Louisianians are the happiest people in the nation, nudging out Hawaii. New York finished out dead last (imagine that) below some of the other more crowded states.

Here's my theory. Louisiana is plagued with flooding, hurricanes, pollution and an endless supply of elected officials who risk going to jail to steal a few thousand here and there.

Over the years, we've had populist politicians who have raked us over the pit for so long, we naturally believe we're going to take it in the backside one more time. Hence, we have a much lower expectation for the future. One side effect might be the party atmosphere found here even in front of disaster. Many of us live by the, "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die," attitude.

The more people you have rubbing up against each other, the greater the misery factor. Centuries and even decades ago, when people couldn't take more regulation and stepping on each others' toes, they simply picked up, crammed their junk in a cart, wagon or a ship and headed west. Unfortunately, the Westward Expansion has run out of territory and possibly we've shrugged our shoulders and said, "What the heck, we'll just live with it!"

Laissez les bons temps rouler, anyone?

Worthless, absolutely worthless.

For six weeks, I've been absolutely worthless, cooking too much, eating too much and riding around on Boudreaux the Harley. Did I mention, spending way too much money?

After three weeks of vacation and another three that the office didn't have a place to send me, I had not worked since October 30, in spite of being on the payroll. It was welcomed when I received a call telling me I'd be in La Porte, (Houston) Texas for a couple of weeks. The bummer was that I would be training with a guy who, as it turned, acted like he was doing me a favor for showing up to work. For reasons too deep to go into, I was supposed to meet him Saturday and work but got a call a little after I arrived informing me it wasn't going to happen. Bummer! I had canceled a trip back home and an annual motorcycle ride to visit and spread a little cheer to the guys up at the Louisiana Veteran's Home in Jackson, LA.

So, after I found myself free Saturday I took a ride down to Galveston and Sunday, I visited and had lunch with my Aunt Lettie in a retirement home up in Tomball. It was good to see her.

Here's a rave for you. Asking the desk clerk at the Hampton which Mexican restaurant was the best, he recommended Valdo's Seafood Restaurant just up the road on Nasa Boulevard. Although it was a slow night, the staff was attentive and polite. I chose the Fajita Chicken and Spinach quesadillas with charro beans and rice served with fresh hot baked bread. It really was that good, so raves to it and the desk clerk who sent me.

A Dutchtown Christmas

Getting together for the holidays can be somewhat of an effort with scheduling, some out of town and some with other priorities.

My immediate clan gathered together for chili, snacks and a grand old time this weekend.

This group contains ( not necessarily in order) Darlene, Darren, Donna, Hagan, Janet, Jacqueline, Henry, Kate, Robert, Rebecca, Devin, Blaise, Hadley, Nick, Jared, Laurie, Jaime, Susan, Chris and myself.

Merry Christmas.

Henry the Biker

Henry brought his mom and dad by late Sunday afternoon for some gumbo. Well, Henry wasn't too hungry but the rest of us sure got into that pot.

After dinner, we went outside to battle the mosquitoes (Something wrong with having to fight mosquitoes this late in the year) and try on a Harley. In another couple of decades, I wouldn't be surprised if Henry wasn't riding one with regularity. Let's see....I'll be......hmm....a VERY old man then.

Sugar Pumkin

Miss Hadley dropped by early Sunday afternoon to pay Nannie and me a visit. Nothing cuter than a one year old just now getting comfortable on the legs. She doesn't talk much other than the "Dadda" and "Mama" words but has a decent vocabulary in American Sign Language. She's quite capable of expressing "more" of anything, complimenting it with the sign for "please."

She's definitely not deaf but her mom and dad read that teaching them sign language at an early age reduces frustration in her own attempt to communicate.