Home Again

Janet and I are home again after a wonderful visit with children, grandchildren and old friends.  We had a long trip out, and were hoping for a better trip home, and it was better most of the time.  Our planes were on time and all of that ran smoothly.  I have had some bad experiences with Delta in the past but things ran  smoothly this time.  I do have one complaint, not with Delta but with general event in the airports  etc.  

I am old.  Finally hit seventy eight years old with at least half of my mind functional (though I am a little panicked at the swiftness with which functionality is developing) and I have quite a bit of trouble  walking upright and I hobble a bit.  I stand pretty well, and I sit pretty well but the transition from sitting to standing is becoming a real problem..  (I seem to make a lot of vocal noise during that process.)

I have been really pleased at losing some eighty pounds, but I have discovered that as I am thinner, I look more frail. (One of my grandchildren said off hand “Grandpa, sometimes when you are walking you look like you might break”)    I sometimes need help getting my carry-on luggage up into the baggage rack, and often half to ask for help, and I am grateful to get it.  That said, one of the most irritating things in the world is when I am moving a suitcase and someone grabs it out of my hand shouting “I’ll do that.”

Unasked for help can be really intrusive.  I bought a walker while in Washington. (I have used them before, but I was having real trouble getting around with just a cane).  It is a nice little walker with four wheels and a seat so that I can turn sit and rest when necessary.  It also makes a handy little luggage cart for my “carry on” and my computer bag.  When one uses a walker in the airport, it is taken to the bottom of the ramp where you enter the plane, and they give it a “gate check” then put it with the baggage in the plane and return it as you are getting off the plane.  Some times it is necessary to get a wheel chair to go from gate to gate and you end up with the walker in your lap while the guy or gal is  pushing your chair,  but I suppose turnabout is fair play.

When suing it to transport my carryon luggage I have a process where I put the bags “just so” and they are very secure while I am in mostion/

On this trip, as I was stacking my two bags, on two occasions some attendant (or little old late) would take a bag out of my hand and with an “I’ll get that”start up the ramp with it, so the the other bag was unstable  and hard to push (my computers lit right on the concrete floor.).  When we got home to Savannah, I had the bags in place when a uniformed young female grabbed them off my walker, and I thought I was going to have to call a cop to get them back.

To anyone interested I say that to offer an old coot (or cootess) help is a kind thing and is always appreciated.  To insist on “helping” if the helpee says thank you but I have got it is really irritating , in fact it is humiliating, and the next person who tries it is going to get kicked or in other way (perhaps only verbally) attacked.  Dang it, leave my stuff alone unless I am willing to let  to take your help (and , in talking with others since our arrival, I have discover that most of those like me, agree with me.