Live 2 Learn

I have sleep apnea which means that for the last seven years I have slept with the assistance of a C-PAP (I can't even remember what the initials stand for other than "Continuous Pressure..."). The C-PAP maintains pressure in my throat via a mask I wear over my nose so that my air passage remains open all night. Without the C-PAP I wake up hundreds of times a night gasping for air because my air passage has closed and I am unable to get air. When I first was diagnosed with Apnea the doctor told me that I should never check the C-PAP but to always pack in my carry-on when I traveled and that every security person in the world knew what the C-PAP was so it wouldn't be a problem. That of course was before the September 11 terrorists attacks. Actually even with all the restrictions on carry-on luggage after 9-11 the most I ever got was the question, "Do you have a C-PAP in your backpack?" and when I said "yes" I was told to "go ahead" - no pr...

I travel a lot - I have 1.7 MILLION frequent flyer miles on American Airlines alone! So I bitch and moan about travel hassles to everyone who will listen and frankly people in my life are tired of hearing about it so I'll blog about it and hopefully get it out of my system. At the San Jose airport one time I was inline behind a very elderly couple. She was in a wheel chair and he was pushing her at a very slow shuffle using the chair as much as a walker as a mode of transportation for his wife. When they got to the front of the line about to go through the metal detector the TSA person said, "Mam you'll have to walk through." The woman raised herself out of the wheel chair with great difficulty and was holding on to the counter when the agent added, "Those shoes will need to go through X-ray." She had on little pink slippers - the sole was maybe an eighth of an inch thick and was cotten! The little old man had to get down on his hands and knees while s...