IT GETS WORSE!

Wow. Two posts in a few hours. What fun!

Let me backtrack. The reason I paid nearly $1,500 to fly to Des Moines last night in the first place was because today’s flights from Atlanta were all filled due to the Thanksgiving holiday. I had to meet Dave McDonough here (he was flying in today from Chicago) for a meeting with a third person we will call Myrtle. We will call her Myrtle because lots of people from Trustmark read my Blog and if I used the real name they will then try to figure out why in the world we were meeting with her.

This was going to be a three hour meeting. So, with my hotel last night, my airfare, a rental car, gas, meals and parking at the Atlanta airport, we (as in Trustmark) have about $2,000 and a day and half of my time invested in this plus Dave’s time and expense.

After my wonderful flight up last night, I left the Embassy Suites this morning about 9:30 to drive to the airport to meet Dave. It was while waiting for him that I wrote the Rate Rape post that is below this one.

I knew we were likely screwed when I drove to the airport and could barely see due to the fog.

Of course, Dave’s flight that United reported on their website as being on time, was two hours late when I got to the airport (hence the time to vent at Delta with my last post). I called Myrtle and told her we would be late for our luncheon.

Then Dave called at noon and told me he was in Kansas City. They had run low on gas circling Des Moines (due to the fog) and so they were refueling and he should land by 1:45. I called Myrtle again.

Since my plane was scheduled to leave for Atlanta at 5:45 and Dave wouldn’t arrive until 1:45, I decided, in violation of the experience of 30 plus years of flying, to turn the rental car in while I was waiting. No sooner had I done that then Dave called me back and said they had cancelled his flight completely and now they were going to bus him to Des Moines and he would arrive at 4, but his return flight to Chicago was at 430 so we agreed he should just fly back to Chicago from Kansas City.

I called Delta to get an earlier flight-of course there are none, either booked or empty.

I then went to Avis and asked if I could get the car back for the afternoon so I could go to a museum (I assume they have museums) in Des Moines and to make sure I had transportation if things deteriorated more, which they always do.

They said they had already rented the car. I said that I had just turned it in less than 5 minutes ago but they claimed to have rented it and that there were no more available since the planes were all being cancelled and folks had rented cars to drive out of the fog to the nearest airport.

Note to self-YOU ARE AN IDIOT. YOU KNOW YOU DO NOT TURN IN A RENTAL CAR WHEN THE WEATHER IS GOING TO HELL FOR EXACTLY THIS REASON.

I called Myrtle and cancelled the meeting. Thus, assuming my plane is on time, a highly unlikely probability, I will have spent 9 hours in the Des Moines airport. The good news is I wandered around and found this very nice Business Lounge with wonderful work stations and nice chairs and it is a space provided for free by the airport authority. Nice people these Iowans.

While wasting way too much time looking up random things on the Internet (such as “What does it mean to be retired?”), I came across this incredibly irritating article below:

November 19, 2007, 1:55 pm
Wealth Fatigue Syndrome
The maladies of wealth come in many forms. Affluenza. Sudden Wealth Syndrome. The Lottery Effect.
Now, there’s a new kind of rich affliction: Wealth Fatigue Syndrome. According to this article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, more and more of today’s wealthy are suffering from boredom and emptiness following their big-ticket purchases.
“For the super-rich, houses, yachts, cars and planes are like new toys that they play with for five minutes and then lose interest in,” a psychoanalyst named Manfred Kets de Vries says in the article. “Pretty soon, to attain the same buzz they have to spend more money. All the spending is a mad attempt to cover up boredom and depression.”
He adds that when someone has and spends so much money, “Feeling any sort of excitement means taking more and more risks, financially and physically.”
Money, in other words, is like a drug; the more you have, the more you need to get a buzz. When a first-class plane ticket no longer satisfies, today’s wealthy board private jets. When that feels common, they buy a private jumbo jet. And so on.
We all like to think that wealth makes you happy. That belief is a core part of our culture. Yet the real impacts of great wealth are far more complicated.
For one thing, great wealth brings new problems. Maybe you don’t have to worry about cleaning the house (the maid will do it) or paying the bills (the private banker’s job). But now you have to worry about hundreds of friends and relatives asking for money. And your investments crashing. And your kid turning into a spoiled brat. And the question of whether your girlfriend or boyfriend loves you, or your money. According to one recent survey, more than 10 percent of millionaires say wealth creates more problems than it solves.
Consumption is a whole other treadmill. Like the article says, many of today’s wealthy are buying ever-larger boats, planes and homes in hopes that once they get that G550 or 250-foot Feadship, they will be content. But that’s not human nature — especially for the wealthy. There is, quite simply, never “enough.”
Now, most millionaires and billionaires I’ve met are happy, contented people. (At least on the outside.) But money isn’t the reason. To them, money is simply a tool for advancing their goals and aspirations. Those who look to money to fill a void or create meaning in their lives are almost always disappointed. Often, money is simply a magnifier — if you’re already a contented person, and see money as a means to an end, then it does make you happier. But if you’re already unhappy, money can make things worse.
Not that anyone should pity the wealthy for their troubles. Yet too often, the media tell us about all the predictable benefits of being wealthy, without mentioning the nasty side effects.


The whole article is bizarre, but the real thing that sticks in my craw is this statement:

According to one recent survey, more than 10 percent of millionaires say wealth creates more problems than it solves.


Duh. If this ten percent would give their money to worthwhile causes instead of feeling bad by spending it on themselves, it would solve huge problems. I just can’t understand why people that have more money than they can ever spend won’t use it to solve some of the world’s problems. It seems so ridiculous.

Great-they just announced two more cancellations. That’s all I need is to next hear Delta has canceled their only flight out and not be able to get a car to drive to Tulsa or wherever I would have to drive to in order to get out of the fog and get home tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

RATE RAPE

Two posts ago I said I thought I should be the Grand Emperor of Delta. Now I feel like the Grand Dunce.

In that post I talked about a whirlwind border to border trip across the nation I had just finished. I flew 6,984 miles and paid $1,402.39 for the ticket. It was a coach ticket but I was upgraded to First Class on all segments because of my status with Delta.

That translates to 20 cents a mile to fly First Class and they threw in about 20 bags of crackers and cheese.

So far this year, I have traveled over 130,000 miles on Delta. I think that qualifies me as a good customer.

So, yesterday I had to fly to Des Moines for a meeting today. Delta’s rate for this short (1486 miles) round trip for a good customer like me:

$1,468.60 or

99 cents a mile. Five times as much and it was in one of these tiny commuter planes designed so that every time you get up to go to the one tiny bathroom (more on that in a minute), you are required to bang your head as hard as you can on the overhead compartment.

So, I’m on the plane en-route to Des Moines and I have to pee as I always have to do whether I am in a plane or in bed. I get up, bang my head, and walk to the back. No one is in the lavatory so I go in. They have a folding door that to open has to be pushed and then it opens into the lavatory accordion style.

I wedge myself in, push the door shut from the inside, pee, flush and wash my hands and pull the door toward me to get out. There is a guy there waiting to go in so because Mom taught me right I hold my arm in the door opening while he walks in so that it does not shut in his face. Of course, he must really have to pee as he immediately pushes the door shut. You get the picture. The one small problem is that in addition to him being in the lavatory, so was my arm.

I yell. The woman sleeping in the seat by the lavatory jumps. He opens the door and I extract my arm, return to my seat, bang my head and sit down.

All for 99 cents a mile.

But, I have three pieces of good news. I didn’t want to put them in my last posting as I wanted that to be about Mom for her birthday.

But, our friend Janice Newton, wife of my best friend Mike, the world’s almost best dancer, was on TV. Click here to see it. In the video screen let the 10 second commercial load and play and then you will see Jan's segment. Congratulations Janice! First you and Bobby Flay and now this!

And, click on this press release to read about my new role now being official. And yes, Kathy Mull, I know that I need an updated photo.

And finally, remember when I was whining about entering the photo contest and not doing the rules correctly so that I thought I was disqualified?

Well, my photo of a Father and Son (I said grandfather in error in my posting) in Mumbai, India was one of the finalists for the week. Go here to see it. When you go to the site, you have to go to number 12 of the photos to see it.

So, the three things above made up for Delta and their 99 cents a mile head banging experience.

HAPPY 92ND BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM !!



MOM HANGING HER FALL WELCOME WREATH AT HER APARTMENT LAST MONTH

On a farm in Kansas 92 years ago today my Mom was born as Madelyn Dorothy Mick. What a happier place the world is as a result.

My Mom, who is known by everyone as "Mickey", from her maiden name, has made so many people laugh for so many years. She has given herself unselfishly to her family, her friends, her church and her community.

She is the most positive, happy go lucky person I know. She can stare adversity in the face and say, as she would, "Oh, what the hell. This too in time will pass".

She has been to hell and back this last 8 months yet she never complains and she is determined to do her therapy so she can be driving her baby, the Lexus we gave her, once again. As you can see from the photo above, she is almost there.

She will do anything for anyone and she doesn't take no for an answer if she is trying to help someone. Example in point is when about three years ago, Gustavo and Dorte were visiting from Copenhagen. Gustavo was in the US as part of his diplomatic career monitoring the US elections on behalf of the European Union. They wanted to see Mom and they drove to Kingman.

She wanted to treat them to dinner and took them to a Denny's in Kingman. Denny's is one of the nicer luxury restaurants in Kingman.

They sat down to order and Mom said to the waitress "They would like some wine." The waitress said they didn't serve wine at Denny's but my Mom would have none of that nonsense. "Look," she said, "this couple is from Europe. Europeans drink wine with their meal. You have to bring them some wine."

Despite the protestations of Gustavo and Dorte that they didn't need any wine, Mom was going to get them some wine.

After a couple of interactions between Mom and the waitress, there was about a ten minute delay when the waitress had disappeared. She returned carrying two little bottles of wine that appeared to have come from a mini-bar of a motel near there, although I can't imagine there is a motel in Kingman with a mini-bar. But Gustavo and Dorte had their wine and Mom was happy because she had once again, accomplished what she has done all her life and that was making others happy.

And while I was not there, I am sure that when they left she had the waitress laughing with them.

About a year and a half ago I wrote this post for Mothers Day. I won't repeat it all here, but if you want to know my Mom and get a good laugh this Sunday, I invite you to read it.


WHERE DOES THE TIME GO? MOM, POP, MY BUNNY AND ME AT EASTER, SO MANY YEARS AGO

Thank you Mom, for the wonderful life you have given and continue to give me. I sit at my computer at 5 in the morning on your birthday with tears in my eyes as I reflect on how lucky I am to have you for my Mom. Happy Birthday! I love you.

THREE AND A HALF WEEKS WORTH OF STUFF

When Alice is asking my daughter why I am not posting on my Blog, it has been too long since I wrote.

So I wrote all of this post while on the plane tonight and before I had a chance to get to a hotel and post it, Elaine left a comment on my Blog asking me where I had been. So it is definitely time to write.

Then Andrea “Tagged” me and said the rules are as follows:

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their Blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your Blog.

Okay-let’s face it. I’m not sure I know six people who have Blogs other than the ones Andrea has already tagged. And it feels impolite to do this to some of the gang whose Blogs I read.

So, I will list the fact/habits and let it go at that.

1. I read yesterday in the 50 years ago section of my home town newspaper that we were going to implement dial phones in our town in another year. Yes, that is right. We did not have dial phones. Our number was Red 272 and if you wanted to make a call, you picked up the phone and the local operator (Mary Lou, whose daughter I dated and who I also sold a new car to) would say Hi and you would ask “Can you call the Kuykendalls?” Their number was Black 390 but Mary Lou knew everyone’s number so she would stick a plug at the end of a long cord in the switchboard and push a button and their phone would ring. My friend Kit would answer and I always knew Mary Lou might be listening to what I told Kit about her daughter or anything else.
2. If I didn’t know my Mom better, I would swear I was born as a cow. Or in Wisconsin. I love every kind of cheese there is. I can devour a big box of Cheez-its in 10 minutes flat although their brand proliferation strategy of extending it to white cheddar, spicy and all that other stuff pisses me off.
3. I bumped into an old colleague, Kathryn, today in the Delta Crown Room. It is the 3rd time I have bumped into her at an airport in the last few weeks. I was even on the same plane with her to Milwaukee recently. After we hugged goodbye so she could fly to Miami and me to Chicago, I suddenly felt very sad for her because she travels so much. So I thought to myself “Hopefully she will retire soon and not have to travel so much.” As I walked to the bar to get my 8,679th package of Biscoff cookies from Delta this year I realized how stupid that must sound coming from me.
4. I was so frustrated last week with the W hotel in New York that I wrote an email that resulted in a $45 credit and 16,000 points for future stays. It pays once in a while to be assertive (a mild form of how I acted).
5. A week ago yesterday I was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Freedom from Hunger which I wrote about on this Blog six weeks ago. Although I have known for some time that I would become Chairman (assuming they didn't vote no), last Saturday was still one of the nicest honors I have received in terms of how I feel about it. That is because of the good they do in the world. It beats repossessing cars, selling funeral insurance or being the CEO of a health insurance company, just a few of the odd things I have done in my career.
6. I have been able to spend time with my two wonderful grandsons and their parents twice in the last month. See photos below.

Here is Wes trying to walk in his brothers cowboy boots.

And here is my crazy Landon, always laughing, always being silly. He was on a swing modeling his crazy hair.



And of course, I saw our third grandchild while Andrea was in the country by staring at her belly. And so, here is a photo of our first dual citizenship baby who will make her/his debut in late January.




Since I did my last posting three weeks ago, I have flown to Washington, DC and back, then to Las Vegas and back, then to Las Vegas again, then to Sacramento, then from Sacramento to Atlanta, then to Chicago, then to New York, then back to Chicago and I am now on a plane again to Chicago. And I have been home more than normal during that time period. I should be the Grand Emperor of Delta airlines, don’t you think?

But, two of those trips were to see my Mom. Doesn't she look great for being 92 a week from today?



I had my physical this week and he told me I was in great shape “for my age”. I hate that expression, I’m not actually that old-wait, please refer to item #1 above.

What really irritates me about this Doctor is he is the exact same age as I am. And he is a different doctor than the one in Chicago that told me the same thing last year. Don't they take courses on bedside manners? How would they feel if I said "Wow, you are a really good doctor-for your age?"

Everyone reading this should read Alice's Blog". She recently wrote she saw Kenny Rogers in a restaurant and the reason she knew it was him was because the woman he was with had real jewelry and fake boobs. Anyone that can write that funny should have her Blog read more. Go there.

I entered the Atlanta Journals photo contest today. You are allowed to enter a photo of an animal, a photo of people and a photo of landscape or buildings. See below for the photos I entered. I know you will agree I should win.

Unfortunately, after I entered and submitted the photos, I saw you had to include the date you took it and the place it was taken or you were disqualified. I did neither and you cannot go back and change it so I have disqualified myself. Life sucks at times.

I have 171 unanswered emails in my inbox. So rather than answer them, I sat around looking through 13,000 photos to enter the contest only to realize I was instantly kicked out of the contest. And now I realize that one of the three photos is on my desktop at home, not on the laptop I am doing this on so I will only be able to show you two of the losing photos below. I will add the other loser on Tuesday night when I am back in Atlanta.

Wait-maybe I can talk my WOTH to send it to me via email and then I can add it here. She will only have to go through 13,000 to find it. On second thought, watch for it Tuesday.

Here are two of the losers (but almost winners). Hopefully it will be obvious which is of an animal and which is of landscape.






As I sit here on Delta typing this, on a Sunday, I realize I forgot my security pass to get in my office in Chicago and the keys to get in my desk. I have a dinner tonight for a Board I am on and once I arrive in Chicago I was going to drive to my office to put on a suit and tie (it is that kind of dinner) since I can’t go to the dinner or tomorrows meeting in the jeans and old shirt I am wearing. But I need the security pass and keys to get in. I am going to have to be creative.

Brinke and Ann Marcuccilli from Lake Forest, one of my colleagues and good friends, are on the same plane that I am on. They are in the very last row up against the lavatory that is broken. I asked them if they requested those seats. They didn't think it was funny. They said they were on Frequent Flyer tickets and that is where they put them. The smell was not pleasant when I walked back there.

I was in the Crown Room before the flight (after bumping into Kathryn) and had just finished writing a long email to Brinke about a trip to India we are going on together in a couple of months. I sent it to him, walked out of the Crown Room to get on the plane and there were Brinke and Ann who were returning to their home in Chicago after a few days in Sea Island. First I bump into Kathryn and then I bump into the Marcuccilli's. I’m always bumping into people I know. I wish I would have known he was sitting there and I would not have had to type the long email to him.

Why can’t I remember to take my keys to the office? This is not the first time this has happened. What makes it more pathetic is that I sent myself a reminder email to take my keys but of course that email is in the 171 I am behind on.

Sitting next to me are a couple who, before they fell asleep, I learned were from Peru (him) and Costa Rica (her). Ah! A Spanish speaking opportunity I thought. I immediately engaged them in a lively discussion “en castellano” about both of their countries, sharing with the Peruano that I am going to be in Lima two weeks from today. They both fell asleep while I was impressing them with the subjunctive mood in Spanish. I hope they were tired from their all night flight up from Lima and not my conjugation.

So I think I will go to sleep also. I will close with an interesting photo I took in the middle of the hot Mohave Desert 3 weeks ago.

The question is, given the blue skies no matter where you looked, Where did this little cloud come from and where was she going? By the way, this is very close to where they tested the Atomic Bombs when I was a kid. Conclude what you may.



UPDATE-UPDATE-UPDATE

Thanks to the effort of my WOTH (for those of you that have not read my Blog before, this is Cathy, the Woman of the House and my saviour this morning), I was able to get the other losing photo on to my laptop and now on to my Blog. I was determined to do this because I love this photo-to me it is evocative of the universal love of a grandfather. I took it on the shore of the Indian Ocean in an affluent suburb of Bombay (or Mumbai if you prefer) a couple of years ago. I just know it would have won the contest if I had followed the extremely simple instructions. So, here it is and I can now go to my board meeting this morning in peace.