Enough With The Packing Already

Not my Boarding Pass

Ever seen one of these ?  It's a "Secondary Security Screening Selection” boarding pass marked SSSS. One summer long ago Jackie and I went to Italy to see Colleen, we stayed for a week in an updated apartment constructed in the 1200s in this tiny hilltop town in Tuscany called Petroio, famous for terracotta pottery.  Every night we went to our village Festa De Unita party sponsored by the Democratici di Sinistra, The Democrats of the Left, and our German Green Party innkeepers/hosts told me that 'Bushie' wouldn't let me back into the US after spending dollars and partying with German and Italian Communists.

Party Emblem

Later that fall we were at SFO and Jackie and I tried to board our United flight for Las Vegas and the Agent said there was a problem with my ticket and she couldn't issue me a boarding pass. She took my bag and separated Jackie and her bag from me. Then a polite but serious young woman, well dressed in a gray business suit, came to the counter and took me aside to a desk and began to question me, she was polite but firm, while typing on the computer and talking on her cell phone with some urgency.

TSA Abuse

She asked many questions, I guess you could call it an interview ( interrogation? ) . After a while she had the Agent ticket my bag and issue me a boarding pass, and the well dressed, polite but firm young woman wrote "SSSS" on it in red pen and told me I was a special class of passenger. When I asked what was going on she told me not to worry about it, and when I asked if this would continue to happen she told me, "Yes, until your profile changes."

Current TSA Note

At the Gate I was shunted by the nylon tape ropes to a boarding line all my own that went to the wall, yes, I was facing a wall, while my boarding pass was examined, finally after some 'enhanced' screening I was seated next to Jackie. I had a 'profile'. At McCarran my bag did not come off the carousel, I dutifully filled out 'ze papahz', kept the receipt and some time later my bag arrived at the hotel with my stuff all messed up and a formal note telling me my bag had been randomly selected for inspection, ahem.

Baltimore & Hurricane Isabel

I thought it was the Revenge of Bush becaused I partied with the Communist party.  This happened a couple more times then stopped, my profile changed, apparently.  I finally figured out what happened. I flew UAL to the East coast with my kids in September, right into Hurricane Isabel.  On the way back I got off the plane at SFO instead of Sacramento, my ticketed 'ultimate destination', by then I learned to fly with a carry on only. Conner told me they came through the plane looking for me. I broke some Airline rule by not completing my flight, according to United. So that was it, the Airline determines this, not the TSA.

I had a few gripes with United when I was a Marine and flew in uniform at three quarters fare, but I'll skip that for now.  I wonder if Mister/Doctor ( did he get his license back ) Dao will get special selection by the airlines when next he flies ?  Hmmm...

No Particular Place To Go

Wow, where was Chuck Berry when he made this recording ?  I don't know but I'm guessing "Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans, Way back up in the woods among the evergreens". 

Historic 'castle' building in Visitation Valley

So we wound up at Breakfast At Tiffany's on San Bruno Avenue this morning, it's over the hill from us, on the other side of McLaren Park.  In The Portola (POUR-duh-luh) District, San Bruno Avenue is right alongside the Bayshore Freeway, and if you start at Silver Avenue it goes South past Mansell Street and Paul Avenue and merges with Bayshore Blvd. at Viz Valley, across from where Schlage Lock used to be and that place that looked like a castle.

Silvestri's 'log cabin' showroom

Keep going on Bayshore and you get to Geneva Avenue and The 7 Mile House and across the street at the City/County line is a rough wood structure that was called George's Log Cabin and is now Silvestri's . Keep going on Bayshore, when you get to the light at the top of the hill, behind the low shoulder of San Bruno Mountain on the left or East, is where the Brisbane Rod and Gun Club shooting range usta be.

Bullitt chase scene, Mustang and Charger

To the right Guadalupe Canyon Parkway peels off over San Bruno Mountain to Daly City, my friend used to call it NBC Mountain because of all the antennas.  Just uphill from the intersection is where the chase in Bullitt ends in a fiery crash when the Charger hits a gas station.  Go straight and at the bottom of the hill on the right is Brisbane, City Of The Stars.

You following me ?  Been down there lately ?  Didn't think so.  Not your hood 'eh ?  Kind of a place for old timers that is in the middle of a transformation.  If you walk those couple blocks around Bacon and Burrows you'd think you were in Chinatown, then there's a couple of taquerias and the surprisingly large (once you go inside) La Loma Produce at Bacon, right under the freeway.  It's worth checking out if you've got no particular place to go, there's even a Four Barrel Coffee and a Brewery Pub there, FDR, and you don't need to pack a bag.

Got Kind Of Tired Of Packing And Unpacking ...

I've never lived 'town to town'.  Except for my humble beginnings and early days and a couple years in SE Asia and SoCal, I've lived all my life in SF.  However, when I worked for the NPS I did move around a lot, just about lived out of a locker and car trunk.  I did duty at two sites, with four offices and had four lockers. I kept clean uniforms, boots, socks, civilian clothes, foul weather gear, flashlight, gym stuff, shoes, books, paperwork, soap, sunblock, foot powder, moisturizer, toothpaste, medicine and first aid kits in my car and locker. I had boxes of food, water, juice, soda, utensils and stuff and a cooler to keep things cold and fresh, so I had a lot of bags.  Be Prepared, like a Boy Scout.

I never had a desk, phone or computer of my own like everybody else, and could never leave anything lying around, so I locked it up all every night before I left so it would still be there when I returned.  In the Marine Corps I learned to pack a bag, foot locker or any kind of space so I could find everything in the dark, and I never grew out of that.  It didn't matter where I was, day or night, I always knew where everything was. But after a while I 'got kinda tired of packing and unpacking'.

Not gonna belabor the point but there is that emotional baggage we carry around, gets really tiring.  I saw a cartoon drawing once, it had a boat pulling in to a place called 'Resentment Harbor', unloading baggage onto a growing pile on the dock. Clever, easier said than done, box it up, label it WKRP and send it Fed Ex Express.  WKRP is where you wind up, you drop your bags and stay there.  All the characters on the show finally found a place to just be.

Wait a minute, hold on, what's that ?  Damn, been months since I tried to do an update, and as soon as I start typing on the computer I get a visual migraine. Going blind for a while, be back in a bit, no worries, usually not painful, leaves me as good or bad as I ever was.  OK, I'm back, just a small one, undersize, had to throw it back, maybe my powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men took care of it, or that trick I learned from Werner Erhard when I took EST way back in 1971.