Travels With the TSA

The weather on the coast was cold, windy, and on Saturday rainy as well. Who cares? The ocean was grand and wonderful and totally calming. The rain kept the local population mostly indoors and out of sight and sound. The hot tub was excellent, as well, and mostly everyone else was avoiding it because of the cold and rain. I got in eight miles over the weekend to add to my Runagogo total; there would have been more, but I have to admit that a couple times it was just a little too cold and windy even for me. One advantage to the rainy day is that the clouds can make for a grand sunset. This was Saturday evening as the rain clouds were finally dispersing. This made for an excellent walk, although it was a short one due to the low temperatures off the water.

Flying can be so much fun. While waiting to board the plane in Tucson, I knit merrily away on a Fun Fur hat. The man standing in front of me asked me about it, and for a few moments I entertained everyone in line with the story of chemo caps and kids needing hats and knitters who send out an appeal for help. And as it turned out, he and his family had the same destination we did, and we spent the weekend crossing paths a couple times a day. Always asking about the hats.

Once back in Tucson, by the time we got to the baggage carousel someone had walked off with one of our bags. How did we figure this out? Everyone else had gone and only one bag was still making its' way around the carousel; it looked an awful lot like ours, but it belonged to someone else. Southwest tracked the owner of this abandoned bag down and sure enough, she had picked up our bag. (Fortunately it wasn't the one with the knitting in it.) The bag got delivered to our house last night, safe and sound and none the worse for its' adventure.

And a story that any sock knitter will appreciate:

Taking off my shoes to go through the screening process on Friday morning, I realized that in this sea of business people taking off dress shoes, pumps, and sandals, I was wearing my Jaywalkers. My bright, handknit, waves of color Jaywalkers. No subdued grays or blacks or naturals on this grandmother; my socks were screaming "Pull this weirdo over to that side area and pat these suckers down". The TSA lady motioned me through the metal detector and as I walked through I could see her eyes on my feet. Serious, she was oh so serious, and then she looked up at me. This is it, I thought...and then she smiled and began to laugh. The TSA lady laughed!! "Those socks of yours just made my day!", she said, and wished me a pleasant flight as she waved me on.

I may not have been knitting socks in public, but I guess I did my bit for sockknitters everywhere.