lucktraveler57 2.0

 Recently I attended a funeral. It was a Jewish service. The officiant spoke beautifully and the Cantor, a woman, had a lovely voice. At one point in the service we were asked to recite the 23rd Psalm, which was printed in the program. I had put the program in my coat pocket and retrieving it would have been a little awkward so, minister's son that I am, I decided to "wing it". After all, I was made to memorize it as a child and have recited it scores of times over the years. Somewhere from the deep recesses of my memory the words came back. I surprised myself with how well I recalled it. However, as I stood there, on this somber occasion, the Psalm presented itself to me in a whole new light. I mean, it starts out nice enough, lying down in green pastures, hanging out by still waters, although they would be a perfect breeding ground for mosquitos, but I digress. Then, it goes a little south.  Preparing a table for me in the presence of my enemies? Why on earth would I wa...

 Initially we had booked a non stop flight home. A few weeks prior to leaving we received a message that our return flight had been canceled and we would have a short layover in Dallas, adding several hours to the trip. So, we would be traveling southeast to get northeast.  We had a final small breakfast at the Starbucks in the hotel, Seattle is, after all, the home of the ubiquitous, overpriced chain, before leaving for the airport. The heavy traffic outside the airport concerned us but once inside the terminal the crowds were not bad and we were checked in and through security quickly, at least by airport standards.  Once past security we found ourselves surrounded by the usual kiosks, festively decorated for the holidays, selling the usual expensive airport restaurant fare, including the uninspired $15 prepackaged sandwich and the $20 hotdog we had to purchase to sate our hunger. As opposed to the construction zone we encountered on our flight in there were several liv...