ttt for our friend!

Hi Iva Mae,

I've talked some about it over on "Saving" (or Household Finance"), I think.

Stopped for coffee and bathroom just before bridge, arrived at airport abut 5:30, put in time till about 7:00, cost $15.00 to check bag.

When we got to the checking area, I put some things into the tray, including shoes, as I saw others do ... and rang the bells and whistles, red light flashing - the whole bit.

So took off belt, which they suspected, dumped keys from pocket, bags of Canadian and U.S. change ...

... and an old farmer's pocket knife of Uncle's that I carry quite bit ... and hadn't checked.

The guy was nice ... I could take it back to the car - yeah - in London. Too bad my checked bag was gone. I should have asked whether I could check it and collect it in 10 days on my return. Some say that at some locations travellers can mail such things to themselves.

Still turned on the warning lights ... so they gave me a light frisking and guessed that it was metal in the back brace. They rubbed the soles of my feet and ran a swab with chemicals over each palm, three times.

I guess they liked my smile ... cause they let me go.

There as rather a long treck to the farthest end of the tunnel, assisted by about 5 pedways ... and I found, part way there, that I could have had a free ride on the Skytrain.

I hear that exercise is good for one's constitution.

It was a 4-hour and about a quarter flight, aisle seat, young lady companion that I talked with a little. Had juice, water, coffee. Had made a sandwich - think that it's still on the kitchen table: wasn't in the bag ... and my water-flushing pills are there, too, I think - they're not here.

Didn't have to wait too long for baggage, Kathryn arrived in the meantime and drove me from the airport, not a long way from the main part of the city, to the northern area where she lives.

I hadn't had a lot of sleep the previous night - had to vacuum and tidy the kitchen, scrubing the floor,as lanlord is to check furnace and feed the cats. Didn't sleep a lot on the plane, and Kathryn tired, so we went to bed before much talk.

In the morning we went to Jerome, an old copper-mining town and now quite a touristy place, with jewellery and various artistic endeavours. Spent the night in Flagstaff, over 6,000 ft. above sea level (Phoenix under 1,000').There was a snowbank ahead of the car in the parking lot, I picked up some, it was icy, then picked up some soft snow, made a snowball and threw it close to Kathryn (she said she had to duck or it would have hit her).

At the desk, in a discussion about how old a child was, and when one could claim to be in swecond childhood, Kathryn said that it was any father who throws snowballs at his daughter. We went out for Mexican-style dinner, had a good sleep, after I spent some time on the motel computer, and went to see the Grand Canyon in the morning.

It's a fabulous sight - some of the oldest rocks are believed to be over 100 million years old, it took something like 8 million years for the Colorado River to dig the channel 5,000 feet down to its present level, and the average width of the gorge is about 10 miles - 18 miles at the widest. Grad Canyon Park 227 miles long.

So I think that the folks who say that the world has been around for only about 6,000 years got it a bit wrong, somewhere.

We came home last evening, had supper and went to bed. Kathryn started about 6, I was with her till she went to her office, then had some more sleep (needed my beauty sleep), and read some of her books for a good share of the day, much of it sitting near her in her office.

We went out to another Mexican dinner with her good friend over most of the years that she's been here ... and she lent me her laptop computer, which we hooked up on our return.

An update has just been announced for the computer, which ill shut it down in 4 min., so ...

... night, night, everyone.

ole joyful