TRAVELING
It’s dark and drizzly in Chicago. I started the morning out in Turlock – where it was dark and soupy. Why do people drive 75 miles an hour on the highway when there is 25 feet of visibility? Total depravity.

Good news from the airports, though. It appears that the baggage screeners, newly deputized as agents of the federal government, have gone through some friendliness training. Maybe the feds hired Southwest Airlines to teach customer relations. Or maybe they're all just so happy to have government jobs that they can't help but be happy. It sure reduces the stress when these guys can smile and joke a bit. And they all seem to know what they’re doing. What a pleasant change.

Also the whole process has been streamlined. They only asked to see my picture ID twice (not the six times that had become the post 9-11 norm). And nobody asked me if anyone unknown to me got control of my baggage. I could never figure out if they were unknown to me how I would know that they had tampered with my baggage. :-)