Hoo boy—there I was, fussing about TSA, long lines, holds on airline telephones, customer-service people who seem to think “customer†is a dirty word and bad coffee for $2.00 (and up). Then someone said. “Just be glad you aren’t traveling in Japan this week.â€
Boy, that shut me up.
Japan really has a disaster. They say the earthquake actually moved the entire country over and changed the axis around which the earth spins. Entire trains and a ship vanished. The airport was flooded and closed for gosh knows how long. And now they’ve got to worry about radiation. Things like that can sure mess up your travel plans.
Made me feel plumb ashamed of myself.
Yet every reporter vowed that the Japanese are taking the whole thing very calmly. They have my admiration and sympathy.
In all of my travels, it has never been necessary to deal with an airport that was under water. Did it flood, or sink? If it ever happens to me, nobody will describe me as “calm.†On the contrary, a leaking urinal gets me pretty heated up. (BTW, Walter Cronkite once stood right next to me at an airport urinal. Excited, I washed my hands quickly so I could shake his hand. He didn’t wash his hands at all. I decided not to shake his old hand.)
To pay tribute to the Japanese, I promise not to get mad about anything for awhile. I told my wife that. She snorted.
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