It’s one of those travel days that requires patience. My flight from San Diego to Phoenix was delayed about 45 minutes. Because I arrived in plenty of time before the flight, that gave me a LOT of time before leaving. Then in Phoenix, my flight to Louisville is 40 60 minutes delayed. So I posted up at a restaurant bar to do some reading and writing. Patience, right? Within a few minutes, I noticed a puddle of water under my laptop (!!!) and my phone, yelled an expletive, jumped up and grabbed the gear. Turns out the waiter was trying to fill a plastic cup with water and the cup was broken, but he didn’t notice but just kept pouring on the water. As a result, the entire bar was quickly flooded. I think I escaped with only a little water on my clothes, but another few seconds and my laptop would have drowned. And there’s no CPR for short circuits.

Now, while enjoying a terrible little glass of $14 Merlot, I’ve got the love child of Rodney Dangerfield and Archie Bunker sitting next to me. Won’t leave me alone; raging about mask wearing in flight; buying drinks for every woman in sight; telling the waiter to add $50 tip to his bill so everyone could hear; altogether loud and irritating. I’m writing this right next to him because I’m pretty sure he can’t read. Patience.

Travel days in the eastern direction require you to pretty much throw one day of your life away. You do have some experiences (if you’re lucky) and you get to read a book, but what you need most of all is patience. And my family knows I have so much of that to spare.