A "Heaven Sandwich"

We have just returned from what I can only describe as a "heaven sandwich" - defined as, "a six day slice of heaven, with a slice of hell on each side". I will explain...

Every year we take our six grandchildren on a trip. This year it was to be a cruise to the Western Caribbean which we organized a year in advance. The plan was to fly to Ft. Lauderdale arriving at dinner time, have a nice evening swim and dinner, enjoy the morning in the pool, and board the "Princess Caribbean" cruise ship in the afternoon for a cruise to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico.

Everything went according to schedule as we arrived at the airport at 6 am Saturday for our 7:40 flight. Everyone was on board, ready to take off, and the pilot announced "We have a problem and have to go back to the gate for just a minute". The minute turned into five hours. We then missed our connecting flights to Ft. Lauderdale, and finally were booked on the last flight that night at 10:30 pm. But sadly that flight was 1 1/2 hours late, and we arrived at Ft Lauderdale at 1 am, tired, but ready to go to our hotel and still excited about our cruise! But surprise - only 4 of the 8 bags we checked made it to Ft. L, and Delta informed us that the other 4 bags went to San Diego - yes, just 40 miles from our takeoff airport. And to top off this first slice of hell, they told us that they could not get the bags to us before the ship sailed on Sunday afternoon.

So after collecting 4 of our 8 bags, we arrived at our hotel at 2:30 am - a bit late to have a nice meal and go to the pool. The missing bags belonged to myself and three of our teenage grand daughters who had planned on this trip for almost a year. Since all four of us had only the clothes on our back, no choice but to go shopping for clothes before the cruise - but the "trip through hell" continued when we found out that none of the stores opened on Sunday until 12 noon, and we had to board the boat between 1 and 4 pm at the latest. So the race began - hire a van to take us shopping, come back to pick us up, then back to the hotel to get bags, and then to the boat. I shopped by myself and was able to get enough to get me through the first few days, but my wife had three teenage girls to shop for - a dress, underwear, bathing suit, etc., and
1 1/2 hours to do it in. A monumental job for girls that are used to taking an hour to make a decision. High stress stuff for grandma, but we did it. Our van driver picked us up at the mall (in a blinding rain and lightening storm - just another side note of this trip through hell), then off to our hotel for bags, then to the ship, with 30 minutes to spare. Thus ended the first slice of hell on the "heaven sandwich".










We then checked our group of eight onto the boat, and Princess took over - they gave us all the toiletries we needed, free laundry and dry cleaning with one day turnaround, and even provided me a full tux for the first formal night on Tuesday. They also assigned one person to track our bags and update us every day. Three days later in Jamaica, our bags finally caught up with us, and we were happy campers. The rest is history. The vacation was great and our grandchildren had a trip they will never forget.


















But after a week, it was time to go home and we again went "from heaven to hell".

Princess was very efficient checking us out the following Sunday, and we arrived at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale at about 10 am with a 3:40 flight out to Atlanta, connecting to Orange County, CA. I checked for earlier flights, but, everything was booked. So the eight of us relaxed at the airport waiting for our 3:40 flight. But yes, it was delayed an hour, then another hour, and so it looked like we had missed our connection to CA. But when we arrived at Atlanta, lucky us, our connecting flight was also delayed, so we were on our way home! Unfortunately this next flight was delayed also, and after getting on board at 9:30 pm (instead of 8), we were "ready to go". But the plane didn't move, and we sat at the gate for another 1 1/2 hours waiting for a co-pilot! He finally arrived and we were off, and everyone was happy.

But the happiness didn't last long...after taking off the pilot informed us that we had missed the curfew at Orange County (airport closes at 11pm) so they would have to fly us into Ontario and bus us back to Orange County airport. Lots of unhappy people, but by now everyone was numb and looking forward to arriving at Ontario , getting our bags, then on the bus and off to Orange County where our family was to meet us. But...remember this is the trip from hell.

We arrived at Ontario at midnight, and the first announcement made was, " Sorry about the delay, unfortunately the buses will not be here for another 1 1/2 hours". Now Delta almost had a riot on their hands. We were so exhausted, we just called our kids and had them come to Ontario to pick us up (an hour each way). The trip ended at about 3:30 am in bed...ironically almost exactly 24 hours after we got up on the boat and prepared to travel home. So the "final slice" of the sandwich ended, and we are now all home and will hopefully soon catch up on our sleep.

In closing I will say that if you cruise - go Princess, their customer service was outstanding. If you fly be ready for anything, and if this trip was an example of what the US airline industry is coming to, they are about to hit rock bottom.

Grandchildren - what a blessing

I normally write political blogs, but as we get ready to leave on a Caribbean cruise with our six grand children, I am reminded of what is really important in this life.

We have six great children and they have blessed us with six "great" grandchildren. Many years ago our grandchildren started visiting us every summer for a week or more (without parents), at our ranch here on the Central Coast of California. At that time they were young - ages 5-9, and we spent our time with scavenger hunts, trips to the beach, the county fair, and we just let them play. Then over the years they grew up and we became more than grandparents, we became their friends.

Four years ago we felt they were old enough to start seeing more of the world and we took them on a week vacation to the Olympic Rain Forest in Washington State, and it turned out to be the vacation of a lifetime for them. So we decided to dip into our savings and create some memories . Since then we have been to Hawaii, and last year a trip to New York City, Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Niagara Falls and my birthplace, upstate New York.

In three days we leave on a one week cruise to the Western Caribbean with these "close friends" - just grandma, grandpa and the grand kids. They are now ages 15-19 and still love spending time with their grandparents - go figure...but we love it.

There is something about a family that more than any other thing represents the best in our lives. I don't know how other families interact, but I do know that ours is special. I read something once about families that I have never forgotten:

"The family is the primary unit of social life. For many it is the primary source of satisfaction as well, but nothing guarantees this. To the extent that a household consists of people whose lives are lived primarily apart, there are few satisfactions to be had from family. There is nothing magically satisfying even about having children. If I am the father of a child whom I abandon at birth, I may be pleased if the child turns out well despite my absence, but that happy outcome can give me no meaningful satisfaction. If I pay all the bills for my children's upbringing and delegate the work wisely to good nannies, teachers, physicians, and housekeepers but otherwise have little contact with the children, I now bear theoretical responsibility for how things turn out, and perhaps I can take some pallid satisfaction in my role. But that level of satisfaction is trivial compared to that of the parent who has stayed up all night with the croupy infant, overseen the homework, imparted the discipline, dried the tears, and shared the daily discoveries of growing up. If you want the profound satisfaction from raising children, you have to pay the price, which means spending time with them."

Better words were never spoken...you have to pay the price, and that price is time sharing their lives with them. My wife and I have often discussed this subject. It really isn't money, it is time spent with children, and now grand children, that counts, and when that window in their lives closes, it is gone forever. An hour playing or working together, or even just talking at the dinner table, can have a greater impact than a week of television or videos games. Yes, the parent-child relationship will always be there, but the close bond, the feeling of satisfaction and the sense of accomplishment watching that child go into the world can only come from spending the time with them when they are growing up.

It's a simple formula, but in today's world of upward mobility, high-stress careers, constant push to increase material wealth and endless activities, the important thing to remember is that family is the basis for everything else.

Abandon ship!

The rats are starting to abandon George Bush's "Iraq War Ship", but the skipper has the sails pulled in tight, and so far he is holding his course.

Ten GOP senators are now moving toward the side of the Democrats who are pushing for the U.S. to begin redeployment's. Who knows what effect a vote in the Senate to "redeploy" will have. The House may follow suit, but what will happen then? I was a young man when the drums of defeat were beating in the press over the Vietnam War...there are definitely some parallels now. What baffles me is that General Petraeus was confirmed in the Senate 81-0, and the Senators knew he would be in charge of the "surge". They knew it would take until late spring to get all the surge troops in place, and all General Petraeus asked was, "Give me until September". Here we are in early July and the rats are ready to jump ship. Iraq is a mess, no question about it...but why won't these so-called congressional "leaders" give this brilliant general until September as they promised?

The pundits on each side have different theories...


The Democrats want out of Iraq immediately saying that: "The war is lost, violence is getting worse, the Iraqi military and police forces are not trained yet, the Iraqi government is not stepping up, and one more loss of an American life is too many". They may be right.


The Republican Bush supporters (plus the lone independent Joe Lieberman) are saying: "It will get worse before it gets better, but the surge is working. They point to the fact that many Sunni tribal leaders are turning against Al Queda, and the insurgents are moving to much "softer" and geographically remote targets, because of US army and Iraqi army pressure . The Republicans say the mainstream press and the Democrats are "invested in defeat" in Iraq, and they hate Bush so much they will do anything to see him lose. They also say the Democrats will suffer a huge political defeat if General Patraeus turns around the situation in Iraq". They may be right.


So the skipper of the ship is sailing into some very strong headwinds and rough water, and some of his crew are lowering the lifeboats and want off. If you look at history, this is when some presidents have looked around, and no one was there. A true test of leadership. As I say above, "Both sides could be right"...so George Bush may be a lonely man on this issue.


The few people that read this blog know that I am a Conservative Republican and most of the time a Bush supporter. Surprise...I was against the Iraq war from the beginning - I did not feel that Saddam Hussein's life was worth one American, and I thought the last thing this country should do was to spend 500 billion dollars to send this guy to Allah. I felt we could control him as a "tin pot" dictator using "the no fly zone", and our superior air power, which could destroy any new suspected military or nuclear research targets. Ask my son Mike, he was on the USS Ranger during the first Gulf War which was a total victory with almost no loss of life, but using a lot of cruise missiles.


But we are in Iraq, it is a mess, and what is done is done, so what should we do? Anyone that thinks terrorism is "overstated" has their head in the sand. We saw an example of that just last week in England. And my wife and I, and our grand kids saw the results of Islamic terrorism when we visited the World Trade center site in NYC last year. These terrorists will not leave us alone, even if we "jump ship" in Iraq.

So rather that throw "political bombs' at each other, let's pray that George Bush, General Petraeus, and all the decision makers that will plot this ships course the next few months will have the wisdom and fortitude to get it right in Iraq.

Pardon me

Pardon me...but I can't help but comment on this "Scooter" Libby situation.

Here is Hillary Clinton's comment on the pardon: "Today's decision is yet another example that this administration simply considers itself above the law". I wanted to respond immediately, but I was laughing so loud that my fingers could not work the key board.

Bill Clinton pardoned over 200 people including 147 "under the table" on his last day in office.

Today I heard this comment by a left wing pundit: "OK Clinton pardoned over 200 people but none were involved directly with him"...give me a break. Let's look at a few of them...

Marc Rich pardoned - he was wanted by the US government for evading over 45 million in taxes, and just by coincidence his ex wife donated over a million dollars to the Clinton library a few months before the pardon.

Henry Cisneros pardoned - Clinton's former HUD secretary who pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal officials

Roger Clinton pardoned - the Presidents half brother who was convicted of cocaine distribution in Arkansas

Susan McDougal pardoned - former Clinton business partner in jail over the Whitewater scandal.

Plus countless drug dealers, and other felons that in one way or another "supported" the Clintons. So you decide if none of the above "Were directly connected to the Clintons"

The beauty of our constitution is that it allows all citizens to speak freely...that's why I love Blogs. But for the Clintons to speak about "cronyism" in the Bush administration is laughable. The Clintons have written the book on "cronyism" and the book could be cast in bronze - Rodin would be proud.