Wednesday, January 6, 2010

In Salt Lake City...AGAIN!!! TRAVEL FROM PDX TO TUCSON!



Waiting in the airport....one of those love hate relationship you know!  True they have wireless in Salt Lake City but the passageways from one terminal to another care is colder than a landlord's heart!  When I am flying from Tucson to Portland, I freeze to death.  Going the other way it is not so bad because I am still dressed like Nanook of the North.  I have a good book...that is perfect but they also have a book store in this terminal E and I am so tempted to add one more to my bag.  I saw Stones into Schools setting out to suck me in.
Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan was released on December 1, 2009. Over the past sixteen years, Greg Mortenson, through his nonprofit Central Asia Institute (CAI), has worked to promote peace through education by establishing more than 130 schools, most of them for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
My family has a vested interest in education and my son works as an administrator in Shanghai American Schools.  He has also worked in Saudi Arabia.  He can attest to the fact that stone throwing is a middle eastern cultural way of expression.  You remember the stories of stoneings in the Bible resulting in people being killed.  Well it turns out they are not just stories.  The people in that region evidently are very skillful with stones.  I will be reading Stones into Schools soon.

Oh I suppose I should confess that we were late leaving PDX by 45 minutes.  That turns out to be plenty of time to browse and buy at the Powell's there.  I bought The Know It All for my husband (and myself of course).  This guy decided to read the encyclopedia and then write his own brief version of entries he found ...his website said "Part memoir, part Cliff's Notes to every topic under the sun, The Know-It-All is about the year I spent reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z (or, more precisely, from a-ak to zywiec). All forty-four million words of it. The book is many things...."  As you can well imagine he might not be really popular with his co-workers.  If you remember Cliff Clavin in the Cheers TV series...will no one wants to be him!  In fact the magazine MORE listed this trait as a sign of being old.  We tend to come off as KNOW IT ALLS.  Sigh!

Late planes are a problem these days but our check in at PDX was just so simple.  We carry everything on and still scooted through.   We always have our driver's license ready along with our ticket.  We check in on the computer the night before we leave.  The as we approach the belt we take shoes off, remove the computer from the bag and put it all in plastic tubs along with our coat, cell phone and even big belts.  You just assume that they want to be able to get as close to your body as they can without you going naked!  It works just fine for us.

Living the senior life style is so much fun.  We arrived home here in Tucson, the sun was shining and we  had drinks outside with friends.  After a lovely visit and great food we slept in our Tucson bed.  Friends have arrived while we were gone over the holidays so there is lots of catching up to do.  Life is good!

Have a wonderful day!

b
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1 comment:

  1. Well that actually sounds like a totally relaxing trip back to Tucson. And the warmth of having drinks outside with friends sounds dreamy!!! Enjoy the rest of your winter in Tucson!

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