TSA and My Mom
My mom and two of her sisters went to visit their other sister in Florida this weekend. They all flew down together but one sister came back on a different flight than my mom and the other sister.
My 72-year-old mother went through the x-ray machine at the airport in Jacksonville. They found “artifacts” and said she had to go for a wanding and pat-down.
Mom wasn’t very happy about it. It was early, she hadn’t had much sleep, and the lines certainly weren’t short. Here was TSA giving my mom a hard time. They showed her the picture with the artifacts. Two were her armpits. She was wearing the same clothes she wore on the trip down to Florida and there weren’t any artifacts at O’Hare when she went through the machine there.
After the wanding and the pat-down they insisted on seeing her hands too, and wiped them down for explosive residue.
Mom was upset enough that she got the supervisor over. She was then disgusted that the supervisor praised the TSA employee, “Good job Mary!”
As noted above, my mom is 72 years old. She is not a terrorist nor does she look like a terrorist.
She feels somewhat terrorized by the TSA though. She doesn’t have a choice but to submit their “tender ministrations” if she wants to get from Chicago to Florida in a few hours versus a few days. Especially when she’s travelling with her sisters, one of whom was already taking a few days off from work. Driving to Florida wasn’t really an option for them.
Snow Day!
The Little Guy is happy. We have to take Grandma to the airport later if her flight hasn’t been canceled.
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Winter Garden Actvity
I glanced into the garden yesterday and saw these jonquils starting. They’re already more than 2 inches tall and it’s the last week of February, in the Greater Chicago-Milwaukee Metroplex. The rounder, green leaves are pachysandra – an evergreen groundcover.
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Paczki Day!
Today is Paczki (poonch-key) Day!
A Paczki is like a jelly doughnut, but a bit different. It’s a piece of fried dough that has been sliced and filled will various fruit fillings (prune is a popular one) and dusted with powdered sugar.
They were originally made to use up the sugar, lard and fruit in the house before Lent.
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Lemon Pazki
One Year Ago Today – Madison
One year ago today we went to Madison to see the protests first hand.
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It was a beautiful day.
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We couldn’t get near the front. Too many people. I had tried to get video of the marchers circling the Statehouse, but my camera wasn’t on when I thought it was.
Althouse got a shot of my back when she was there, but I missed her and Meade… 🙁
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I’m just to the right of the teal knit hat. In the purple coat with the gray hood hanging down. If only I’d turned around just then…
UPDATE: Althouse has consolidated all her posts from one year ago today here.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Love's Philosophy
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle -
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother:
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea -
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
One Year Ago Today: SnOMG!
Huge amounts of snow from a storm that spanned half the country. It’s where all last year’s snow days came from
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Today we can see grass as our recent snow has all melted…
