Random Thoughts From Sunny California

1. I like nice weather.

2. If you have to be on the road, you could do a lot worse than Santa Monica.

3. American Airlines s@*cks. I flew to LAX business class and the flight attendant who covered me could not have been less pleasant. I understand that AA must be a horrible place to work, but since you have to, you might as well smile and make believe you're enjoying yourself (or at least don't act like you're in the middle of a dental procedure without Novocaine). Then, today, I received an email that my flight from Dallas tomorrow has been cancelled because AA failed an FAA compliance test and had to examine about 1000 planes.. Luckily, I was able to get an alternate flight, albeit to La Guardia rather than JFK (which is ten minutes from home). I'm also fortunate that my flight to Dallas, the last one out tonight, has not been cancelled (like some of the earlier ones). (On the other hand, going home or staying in Santa Monica another day would not have been bad alternatives. But I digress).

4. In contrast to the miserable AA employee, the employees at Hertz were uniformly pleasant. In fact, the shuttle bus driver who took me back to the terminal was very funny and had a little rap act that elicited smiles from all on board.

5. I ran for 40 minutes yesterday morning on the Santa Monica-Venice promenade. The last time I ran was exactly one year ago during my last visit to Santa Monica. My quads feel the way they did after I finished the 1994 New York Marathon. (Which is precisely how they felt last year after my annual run; what was I thinking?). The truth is, I do love to run, all these years later. I think I will mix up my biking with some running this spring and summer.