I have been suffering a lot of pain in my hands lately. It's either my torrid golf swing or typing on my damn computer or my cell phone/steering wheel combo driving position or my 12 string guitar. Whatever it is, it hurts like hell. I get to see Kaiser tomorrow for an exciting time at the ole physical therapist's office. Great! Meanwhile, I get to take Vicodin in the evenings for pain and so I can type little posts like this. And when a day like today comes along or if I experience something unique, I like to include them in my Observations posts. Check around my blog and see my other Observations. What an observation I will bring you today.
Meanwhile, back to the Vicodin, you know how it makes you sleepy. It actually cranks me up a notch. I absolutely could not sleep last night but I was in no pain. I went down to the basement to watch TV at like 1:00 am. I dozed in and out and I ended up on CNN at 2:00 am. Then it happens, Breaking News.
I perk up and see news of an explosion or power surge and some British guy who had a bad way of articulating what he saw. I was like, dude spit it out, what's going on? So 2am, insomnia, British guy babbling, London... HEY, wait a second!!!!
On July 6th, my sister in law and her best friend left for a trip they had planned for a while out of San Francisco to London. They left at 4pm on Wednesday, their plane was arriving at Heathrow right around the time this is all going on. I sat stunned in horror. What was I going to do? Wake my wife? Hope my sister in law would call? I see London get shut down. I hear horror stories of what's going on. I can't put it all together but there is something horrific. Was it 9/11 again?
I have been to London before. That town is full of people everywhere, in the subways, on the roads and in the big red busses. Did we have terrorists there now? Were they suicide bombers? Were they coming for us again? I felt panic and I was disturbed. I thought about my poor sister in law and her friend and what they may be going through. Was the bombing over? How do my wife and I get a hold of their parents? Oh wait, they're in San Francisco at hotel and not even home. Maybe it was this pain medication for my hands but, my thoughts spiraled out of control. You see it on the news and you see it all the time. People getting hurt. People dying. The terrorists really aren't that far away from you when it's happening like this, even though you are 6 to 7,000 miles away. Especially when you have family and friends going right to the middle of it. You couldn't just turn the page.
I woke my wife at 4:30am. I told her she needed to listen to what I was saying. I calmly spouted it out and she responded. She came down. She saw the news. I had to leave for work soon and well she really rallied the troops. We listened to the news and even when I had left, we were on the phone to each other. I was tuned to the radio and she to the TV and we listened to hear what was going on. Since we'd been to London, we knew the geography. We figured if the transportation was shut down, my sister in law and her friend would have missed the trouble and they were safe, even though they were probably tired and trapped in the vast Heathrow Airport but how could you really know unless they were right there? My wife called to wake her parents. They had no knowledge as it wasn't quite 6 am yet. For two hours as I drove to work, all I could do was listen and complain about the traffic; it was a helpless feeling. My wife and I convinced ourselves that everything would be fine, they'd be safe. I flipped throughthe news channels, I called my parents. Was it truly a dayto dread full of the unknown and hopelessness? I told my wife Kristen, if they called and were stranded and need money, head to Western Union, give our credit card out over the phone, do anything. I'd buy the return trip penalty to comeback ASAP, it did not matter. I truly was in panic mode.
At around 9 am, our time, Katie called my wife. They'd made it to Hyde Park. They were safe. The express train from the airport was still running out of Heathrow. Once they got to Paddington Station, they walked for a couple of hours but they were safe. The hospitality of Londoners is world renown and they got some great directions to get where they needed. It was a bit scary because they had just got off the plane while the bombs were going off. Security was everywhere. What a thing to walk into when flying 10 hours straight on a 747 and see some real life tragedy. Especially in a big spread out city like London where public transportation is its life's blood and that's exactly where you needed to be. I called my in-laws just to say they were safe. It was a relief.
By 9 am, I had called almost everyone I knew. Maybe it was just me or maybe I am just strange. It was almost like 9/11 again. Though I was 3,000 miles away back in 2001, the imagery was unfathomable. This morning, CNN was telling you what they could at 2 am PST. The British guy could only babble. The video told you there was more coming and a lot more wrong with the situation. To know somebody close in the middle of it all, well.... I just kept repeating the call. Then the relief to just call them back to say they were ok. To tell my parents they were ok. I wanted nothing more then to come home and write this post this evening. Just to tell you, they were ok.
My heart goes out to the United Kingdom today and for the days to come. I only wish I had a picture of John Lennon pointing back at the Union Jack to post today. Thanks for stopping by.
Meanwhile, back to the Vicodin, you know how it makes you sleepy. It actually cranks me up a notch. I absolutely could not sleep last night but I was in no pain. I went down to the basement to watch TV at like 1:00 am. I dozed in and out and I ended up on CNN at 2:00 am. Then it happens, Breaking News.
I perk up and see news of an explosion or power surge and some British guy who had a bad way of articulating what he saw. I was like, dude spit it out, what's going on? So 2am, insomnia, British guy babbling, London... HEY, wait a second!!!!
On July 6th, my sister in law and her best friend left for a trip they had planned for a while out of San Francisco to London. They left at 4pm on Wednesday, their plane was arriving at Heathrow right around the time this is all going on. I sat stunned in horror. What was I going to do? Wake my wife? Hope my sister in law would call? I see London get shut down. I hear horror stories of what's going on. I can't put it all together but there is something horrific. Was it 9/11 again?
I have been to London before. That town is full of people everywhere, in the subways, on the roads and in the big red busses. Did we have terrorists there now? Were they suicide bombers? Were they coming for us again? I felt panic and I was disturbed. I thought about my poor sister in law and her friend and what they may be going through. Was the bombing over? How do my wife and I get a hold of their parents? Oh wait, they're in San Francisco at hotel and not even home. Maybe it was this pain medication for my hands but, my thoughts spiraled out of control. You see it on the news and you see it all the time. People getting hurt. People dying. The terrorists really aren't that far away from you when it's happening like this, even though you are 6 to 7,000 miles away. Especially when you have family and friends going right to the middle of it. You couldn't just turn the page.
I woke my wife at 4:30am. I told her she needed to listen to what I was saying. I calmly spouted it out and she responded. She came down. She saw the news. I had to leave for work soon and well she really rallied the troops. We listened to the news and even when I had left, we were on the phone to each other. I was tuned to the radio and she to the TV and we listened to hear what was going on. Since we'd been to London, we knew the geography. We figured if the transportation was shut down, my sister in law and her friend would have missed the trouble and they were safe, even though they were probably tired and trapped in the vast Heathrow Airport but how could you really know unless they were right there? My wife called to wake her parents. They had no knowledge as it wasn't quite 6 am yet. For two hours as I drove to work, all I could do was listen and complain about the traffic; it was a helpless feeling. My wife and I convinced ourselves that everything would be fine, they'd be safe. I flipped throughthe news channels, I called my parents. Was it truly a dayto dread full of the unknown and hopelessness? I told my wife Kristen, if they called and were stranded and need money, head to Western Union, give our credit card out over the phone, do anything. I'd buy the return trip penalty to comeback ASAP, it did not matter. I truly was in panic mode.
At around 9 am, our time, Katie called my wife. They'd made it to Hyde Park. They were safe. The express train from the airport was still running out of Heathrow. Once they got to Paddington Station, they walked for a couple of hours but they were safe. The hospitality of Londoners is world renown and they got some great directions to get where they needed. It was a bit scary because they had just got off the plane while the bombs were going off. Security was everywhere. What a thing to walk into when flying 10 hours straight on a 747 and see some real life tragedy. Especially in a big spread out city like London where public transportation is its life's blood and that's exactly where you needed to be. I called my in-laws just to say they were safe. It was a relief.
By 9 am, I had called almost everyone I knew. Maybe it was just me or maybe I am just strange. It was almost like 9/11 again. Though I was 3,000 miles away back in 2001, the imagery was unfathomable. This morning, CNN was telling you what they could at 2 am PST. The British guy could only babble. The video told you there was more coming and a lot more wrong with the situation. To know somebody close in the middle of it all, well.... I just kept repeating the call. Then the relief to just call them back to say they were ok. To tell my parents they were ok. I wanted nothing more then to come home and write this post this evening. Just to tell you, they were ok.
My heart goes out to the United Kingdom today and for the days to come. I only wish I had a picture of John Lennon pointing back at the Union Jack to post today. Thanks for stopping by.
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