What a day. I am not in Barrow, as I should be by now; but rather, I’m at home, typing up my daily dispatch. If I was in Barrow, I’d now be in Itinerant Housing. And my dispatch would have a different ending.

The day began with our taking photos of Raudi – we do this every year – this was her 20th birthday. She wanted nothing to do with having her photo taken. I think she’s gotten used to what she considers to be the good life, hanging out in the enclosure and eating.

I put her away when we were done – came back up to the cabin and finished packing my bags. As we were heading out the door, I get a call from Kaylene, my travel partner who was going to accompany me to

Raudi's 20th Birthday & Shadow's 3rd

Barrow. She said she was bowing out because her dog was spayed yesterday. She has Petunia and six others to care for. Well, that was the end of that discussion.

Pete printed up my boarding pass information. We noticed that there were two departure times. He called the airline and were given a third departure time. Fourth world, for sure.

Pete dropped me off at the airport. Erin of Read on the Fly provided me with a hand cart. I stood in a long, long, line and waited to check my bags through. I finally realized that if I stayed put that I would not make my flight. I went over to a skycap; Tony Moreno was his name – he talked to several people and then got me into a shorter line. What a wonderful guy. He seemed to really like people. The others, I wondered why they are in the line of work they are in.

I checked my boxes and then ran off in the direction of TSA and my gate. It was slow going, not because of the number of people but because they had to check out my duffle bag. The fellow doing the checking, he did not pull everything out because he realized that he’d have to put everything back into it.

I get to gate C-7 – it was the furthest gate away. Two flight attendants are standing by the door. That was it. I asked if I’d missed the flight and was told it was cancelled.

I next spent considerable time in the customer service line – the two clerks doing time were moving very slow. And there was just one person directly ahead of me. I finally gave up -- I had enough. I located Pete (and even this was difficult) and we came home.

We stopped twice so that Pete could get information about getting the truck differential fixed – then stopped at the Meeting House where I unpacked three boxes of books given to me by Read on the Fly and Pete finished putting up shelving.

I suppose I could have gotten a later flight to Barrow. Instead, I will again attempt to go there the first week in May. It turned out not to be the day I expected. Glad, of course, to be home.

Next: 104. 4/15/23: Lifetime Achievement Award