Sunday, April 24, 2011 - Ride Day along the Canal

After spending the last few days resting and getting ready to leave, my brother and I enjoyed our last ride of the season together. The horse trailer is still full of hay (we’re slated to move it over to the back of the pickup tomorrow, when he has some help coming in to do some other chores around the house), so we opted to just ride around the neighborhood. This time, though, Brother wanted to go across the street to a wilderness area that he used to ride in back when he had horses. The weather was warm, but not as hot as it has been, and there was a nice, albeit warm, breeze that helped keep it from being stifling. After leading the horses across the busy road, we discovered the area he used to ride in was fenced in now, but there was an actual trail sign pointing down the length of the canal, so we headed south down there. It was like a regular nature tour, where we saw lots of turtles and all kinds of birds, with a keen eye open for alligators, as it’s supposed to be mating season. Brother wasn’t sure they would be coming in this far, though, because the water levels were pretty far down because of a lengthy drought they’ve been having here. Never saw one, anyway, though we heard a baby one on the way home (at least according to him :-). Stayed out quite a bit longer than I expected, I guess he wanted to make the most out of it since it will probably be the last time he rides until we come back next year. Followed the canal back, probably 4-5 miles, before finally turning around and heading back. We stopped a few times to stretch our legs, so we ended up being out over 5 hours. We mostly walked, but on the way back he did start speeding up, we managed to get a good number of trots and canters in. A lovely ride, and a great way to end our time here. Will spend tomorrow getting ready to go, giving Brother some last minute lessons on his new/my old computer, moving hay, and generally packing up. Ready to get back on the road again!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - Travel Day back to Jupiter

Though I woke up around 7:00 and got up around 8:00, I went back to bed about 10:00 still tired. Hubby was sound asleep straight through. We finally woke up together, with Hubby asking what time we had to check out, since the clock said it was 11:45! We leaped out of bed and started packing at once, heading out of the room just before 12:30. I got the boarding passes printed out in the lobby and we caught the 1:00 shuttle to the airport. Had a nice leisurely lunch at TGIF’s before managing to get through security, this time with no trouble whatsoever, thank heavens. We settled down for our flight, which was scheduled in another two hours, then was delayed by half an hour. The plane was filled with St. Mark’s high school kids, presumably coming back from their Spring break trip to DC, so it was rather boisterous most of the time. We left the gate even later, than were shuffled around the busy taxiways for awhile before the captain came on saying there was a technical problem and we had to go back to the gate. It didn’t take long to reset the control box, then we headed out again, finally taking off around 7:00. Arrived more than an hour late in PBI, headed straight back to the ranch, exhausted. Didn’t take long to crash, as it was past 10:00 by the time we arrived. No doubt going to sleep late tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - Workshop Day Two

Another good day, managed to keep everything moving along. We had several promising leads for future business arise, so hopefully we’ll get some more work out of it, maybe as soon as next month. Had dinner with my friend Steve at a very nice Indian Restaurant called Tandoori Nights on Clarendon in Arlington, then crashed early, experiencing a dramatic wind-down as we always do after an intense event like this. Looking forward to getting back to the critters tomorrow, though I’m not enthused about having to go through the security thing again. I’m hoping tomorrow it will go more smoothly than the trip up here. Trying to figure out if there’s a way we can do our job without having to fly again...

Monday, April 18, 2011 - Workshop Day One

Great day today, big turnout, excellent group, and despite by trials and short preparation time, I managed to get into the zone, and kept them all riveted until 5:30, ending a half hour later than usual, mostly because of the large crowd, but also because I felt that I had missed out on some stuff on previous Workshops and wanted to make sure I got everything in. No one seemed to mind, and in fact I received multiple kudos on my ability to be "on" for so many hours. Good day. Had dinner with our host, then back to bed for an early night!

Sunday, April 17, 2011 - Busy Rest Day

Not surprisingly, we both had a lousy night sleep, being agitated over all of the events of yesterday. In the afternoon Hubby took the shuttle over to the nearest grocery store to pick up a few things while I worked on the outline for an audio conference we’re facilitating next month. I felt exhausted most of the day, finally taking a break to watch a movie late in the afternoon, then took some time to do some prep work for our Workshop tomorrow. I was so tired that I could only stay awake for about a half hour before I dozed off. Just as well, I need a good night sleep for our early, busy day tomorrow!

Saturday, April 16, 2011 - Travel Day to Washington, DC

Set the alarm to give us plenty of time to get ready for our journey to DC today. Flight left at a bit after 2:00, so it was a pretty relaxed day until we reached the airport, then all hell broke loose. At the security line, Hubby and I always have to split up, because he has to go get a patdown because his defibrillater implant can’t go through the metal detector, and neither of us want to go through the body scanner, mostly because we don’t believe them when they tell us it doesn’t emit radiation. I’ve never had to go through the "enhanced" patdown, and frankly I believe it’s a violation of my 4th Amendment rights, inasmuch as they should have to have at least SOME cause to believe I’m concealing something before they should be allowed to do that kind of search, not when there are other options (like the metal detector) to make that determination. Anyway, off Hubby went, leaving me with all of the carryon to deal with, when I was arbitrarily told to go through the body scanner rather than the metal detector, which meant leaving all the luggage behind. First I couldn’t understand what they were asking me, so I stayed in the line I was in. When they finally made it clear to me that they wanted me to go through the scanner, I asked if I could stay with my luggage, as my husband had already been taken away to get his patdown. Well, you would have thought I had asked them to stop the world to let me get off. Next thing I knew, I was literally being ORDERED into the body scanner. Again, I protested, saying that I didn’t want to go through the scanner because of the radiation (true or not, I still felt I should have the choice). They told me no, that I had to go through. I continued to protest, so they took me over to where my luggage was, made me point out which bags were mine (by now Hubby and gotten back and he mistakenly tried to tell them our stuff was mixed in together, which now made everything we had subject to the search they were about to do). So they took all four bags to a table at the end of the line, and two people then VERY SLOWLY started to search every nook and cranny of every piece of luggage we had, taking everything out, opening everything that could be opened, sniffing everything, even using some kind of wipe to look for bomb residue or something. Now, bear in mind, nothing was spotted when the bags went through the scanner, and nothing was done to warrant the search except my rejection of going through the body scanner. They continued to insist that I had to go through the body scanner or get patted down. Meanwhile, they decided it was necessary to call law enforcement. Within minutes, there were SIX sheriff’s deputies standing nearby. Now, bear in mind, this whole time I keep asking to be allowed to go through the metal detector. That’s all I wanted to do. But no, because I wasn’t doing exactly what they wanted me to do, the TSA had decided to punish me in every way available to them. If I refused to go through the body scanner, then I would be escorted to the gate by the deputies, and they would make sure I DIDN’T get on the plane. Despite the fact they were doing their absolute best to make me late, thereby missing my plane, we had arrived in plenty of time, so at least that wasn’t an issue. By now, though, they made it clear they had no intention of letting me go through the metal detector, period, and that if I wanted to fly, I would have to do either the body scanner or the patdown. I had no choice. I went into the body scanner. Before going in, however, the woman said I may STILL have to undergo a patdown afterward if they saw fit. Well, naturally, the scanner showed nothing, but naturally, they insisted I get a patdown anyway, which consisted of a complete stranger groping me in areas no one but my husband is allowed to touch. It was outrageous and totally uncalled for, but by this time, it was all about control, and absolutely NOTHING about security. It was clear they were doing it all to teach me a lesson, to make me a good little comrade, to make sure next time I simply obeyed, and I was not allowed to be a conscientious objector to their outrageous methods. I’m a tough person, but I found this whole incident sickening. My stomach was churning, my temper was seething, and I was forced to practically laugh and shake my head at the situation, because otherwise I would have slugged someone, and then I never would have made my plane. I wondered if I had had a yellow star pinned to my coat as I let the authorities drag me away in anyone would have said anything. It truly felt just like that, though, as if I was being persecuted for absolutely no reason except that they could. They were toying with me, and enjoying my suffering. I used to be nice to TSA people, thinking they were only doing their jobs, but no more, at least not at PBI. They were animals, with no sense of decency, and they should be brought to task, but unfortunately, the laws on the books give them the right to do ANYTHING in the name of "air safety." Their stance is that flying is a privelege not a right, so if you want to avoid the hassles at security, simply don’t fly. By the time I got on the plane I was sick to my stomach. Unfortunately, that only became worse as we started to come into DC for a landing. There was a line of thunderstorms in the area, and the last 30 minutes of the flight was incredibly turulent, sloshing my already upset stomach even more. I almost didn’t make it to the landing, holding a barf bag in my hand just in case. It was almost more than I could bear. Finally, we landed (and I have to say, it was incredibly smooth, even if the weather had been fine, but with the wind it was remarkablly well done), but stayed on the plane until it was almost empty, just trying to gather our wits. Finally we left, and picked up our box of books that we had checked (it was cheaper to pay the $25 baggage fee than to ship it UPS), and caught the shuttle to the National Sheraton. I had to ask the driver to take it easy, as my stomach was still a long way from being settled, and he did okay, but I was still churning by the time we arrived at the hotel. I turned out to be quite a nice place, only a few minutes from the airport but not in the midst of Crystal City, which made it quieter. Being on the 12th floor helped too. We settled down for the evening, ordering Chinese delivery for dinner, and crashed later, exhausted but still irritated over the events of the day.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 - Hanging Around Day

Worked and hung around, horses hung around too!