Crossing the Pond

"I have lived in good climate and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate."---Steinbeck

On this point, I tend to agree with Steinbeck, as I love the seasons, and with the exception of February, March and August I think Michigan weather is generally pretty nice. And since my first stint in Hawaii, I have thought Ann Arbor's seasonal changes to be pretty special. Now give me a place with year-round 70-degree days and cool, clear nights where the humidity is low but but not crunchy, and I may suddenly opt for climate. While Oahu is beautiful and the climate perfect for many, it is a bit hot and sometimes humid for this Englishman. It is nice to give no thought to your morning outfit, but tough to need to figure out a way to avoid a four block walk to a meeting to avoid showing up sweat-soaked.

Luci was a champ about the flight. Not so much about the crate, the separation and the check-in process, but she arrived in Honolulu, perhaps a little delicate emotionally, but basically no worse for the ordeal. I had checked all my other bags, and returned to the car for Luci and the crate. I walked her through the terminal until I was told to cage her, which I did, and with little complaint from her. We got through the lengthy check-in process, which involved several stickers on her box ("live animal," said one, "this side up" another....arrows and warnings everywhere. I hoped the baggage folks didn't really need this remediality).

After check-in, we head to the CTX machine....a post 9/11 device to guarantee against doodle-terrorists. I belong to the camp that says, "if you let that poodle intimidate us, the terrorists have already won." W and Homeland Security of course believe that "Uh-merica" is always at risk, and a loss of the civil liberties of poodles is a small price to pay in the GWT. This is when Luci had to get out of the cage for a secondary check. It was quite the ordeal to re-incarcerate her. She spread all four legs in all four directions and I needed to fold her in like you do when moving an oversized sofa down a tight flight of stairs. She then barked loudly until I was out of sight, and was still going strong when I finally cleared hearing range. I was glad I had arrived almost two and a half hours before the flight.

I called Janis from the bar in the airport, and said, "it is 11:45AM, and I'm drinking a beer. I think if you were here, you would be too." I was lucky enough to have a big chair on the flight. Hey, Luci had a lot of legroom too. The flight attendants were old friends from Hawaii, and took good care of me, including confirming Luci's presence on the plane.

When we arrived, Luci was welcomed by the typical bureaucracy of Hawaii, as it took over an hour to release her from quarantine. Then we can't allow her out of the crate until we are off airport property. She was glad to get out on Sand Island, but not much different that if we had just come home from work. I was glad we decided not medicate her. It may have made it easier for us, but she was better off with her wits and reactions unteathered.

Life is harder here for Luci. the yard is smaller, the heat affects her and she isn't good at making new dog friends. But she seems to be adjusting, likes the people and is getting to the dog park or a big field once or twice a week for some serious frisbee.

I still want to spend some time drawing some conclusions from the trip, and writing about its impact on me. As I am back in school, my blogging time is precious, but certainly relaxing. Thank you to all that have read and commented along the way. That has added to my sense of why blogging works, why I write, and to the friendships I have at both ends of the journey, and to the many new ones at points inbetween.