Tony Brewer

My uncle was telling me about his run in with the TSA recently. He is disabled and uses a cane to help him walk. He had to fly to New England from Dulles to go visit his ailing elderly mother. The doctors were telling him that she might not live more than a couple of days, so he was in great distress.

Well on the way out the door to the airport he grabbed one of his favorite canes to take with him. At the airport, he was using a wheelchair to get around. The TSA agents were concerned about his cane – they called in extra agents and with much effort broke it apart and found that inside the cane was a blade that could have been used as a weapon. So they called the police and told the police officer to arrest my handicapped uncle.

The police officer refused to arrest him, and told the TSA agents that they were being overzealous; anyone could see my uncle was not capable of hurting anyone and it was obvious from his distress that he had no idea that the cane was anything other than a cane!

Poor guy – the TSA agents refused to give him his cane back, refused to let him go buy a different cane to use to get around. They DID let him get on the plane, but they were extremely unpleasant to him. Too bad some folks let power go to their heads, isn’t it.

My boss called two nights ago and asked me to fly out to California to cover for him at a trade show.  I said OK, and packed my clothes in a hurry.  I packed my clothes in my new luggage.  I forgot that I had worn my fancy shorts the night before for about an hour, so I just threw them in the suitcase.  In one of the pockets was a brand new $14 jack knife.  I went through security and they asked me if I had any knives or anything, and I said “no, but do your thing and tear it apart.”  They tore it apart and found the jack knife.  They said “Can we get rid of this?”

I said “Can you wait a couple of minutes so my friend can come get it?”  She was only a few minutes away.  I called her on the cellphone and she said she’d be right there.  She was approximately three to four minutes away at the most.  Just before she was at the TSA checkpoint the officer turned to me and told me that I either had to go back to the beginning of the security line or throw the knife away, he wouldn’t wait for her to come.  Next time I’ll take the bus or the train if I can!  You can carry a gun (or a knife!) on a bus or a train!

It amazes me how many people I have met at nice hotels around the world. Often times when I make it into a new city focused on the seminars and training, I do not even think about the things I am going to learn just from meeting and talking to people from other parts of the world.

When I venture down to the hotel bar, and even just waiting for a cab I tend to learn all kinds of interesting things about the world when striking up conversations with strangers. I have had many good times sharing experiences with people met at hotels from around the globe. It makes me want to have a hotel weekend at home with friends, so we could all forget about the mundane issues at home and just talk and share.

Today making a move is still a major chore, all the decisions that have to be made and then all of the wrapping and packing and cleaning that is involved, these all can be very traumatic for all concerned. An exciting time indeed, but still a whole heck of lot of work to make it all happen.

At least now finding Movers are a bit easier, thanks to the Internet. You can look up Moving Companies and see what they are all about and what they have to offer. Much better than using the old paper version of your local yellow pages and calling around getting Moving Quotes and seeing what type of specific Moving Services that they have to offer you. Imagine how difficult it would have been back in the day organize International Movers without a computer!

The World Wide Web has brought the world right to our finger tips and I don’t know what we will do without it these days. I know most people don’t even use their local white and yellow pages anymore. I can only hope that when they receive them that they have the sense to recycle them and not just throw them in the trash that will ultimately end up in an already over flowing landfill.

The weather isn’t going to hold out much longer, I’m afraid, so I am really under the gun to get a good amount of work done in and out of the garage. It would really be nice to be able to drive in at least one of the vehicles into the garage by the time the really cold and wet weather hits. I need to get the Steel Storage Cabinets installed in there as well in order to have some place to put a lot of the stuff that is in there away. We always get a good amount of snow each winter and word is that this winter is really going to be a rough one. Not something to look forward to I’m afraid.

I got a really good deal on several Garage Storage Cabinets and they can’t stay outside much longer or the wetness and cold will take their toll on them. So it looks like next weekend I will have my hands full with decorating for the holidays and getting these Garage Cabinets ready for use. I sure hope that I can find a couple of buddy that will come lend a hand with some of the work involved.