Saturday, June 23, 2007 11:39:48 AM

It is, as Peggy the captain of AA flight 179 to San Francisco, a beautiful day for flying.  Robyn and I shared a car to JFK and arrived with exactly the right amount of no fuss no mss time to check in and get through security.  Walking into the terminal I was met with chaos.  It appeared that every flight American has to a third world country was leaving on or around 9AM.  People everywhere, people on top of people.  After working my way to an agent she directed me around a near by wall and into a corner where First Class check in was and in a matter of moments I was through the bag check in process and on to security.  Guess what, the security line was just as bad but low and behold a First Class path through security and again in a matter of moments I was through and on my way to the Admirals Club.  I called Robyn to thank her, wish her good luck in Las Vegas and thank her for setting me up with the first class seat.

After a cup of coffee and a bagel in the club it was time to go flying.  First to board that's my motto.  Got settled and put the Bose on to start a new book.  After the door shut the nice flight attendant said I had to shut the power to my headset off.  OK, I'll play the little TSA game but now they have raised the bar.  Now it's take the head set completely off.  Oh, and by the way, no more approaching the fllight attendant in the galley, not if you want something, you have to ring the call button.  These guys are going nuts.  We had wheels up at 9:30AM local

It looks like the weather in San Francisco is going to be about the same as it was in New York, middle 60's and sunny.  Perfect weather to watch a ball game in, not too hot and not too cold.

How time flies when you are having fun.  Two movies (Wild Hogs & Ghost Rider) and a quarter of a book later we are wheels down at exactly 11:55AM local.  Taxi to the gate and I am off the plane at 12:15 PM and on the way to baggage.  One quick call to the Palm Springs Signature facility to arrange for a car when we arrive and, by the grace of God here comes the luggage.  I get a call from Chris who is dropping Mary Ann off at another terminal for her business trip to Baltimore and in a few minutes he picks me up and we are off to AT&T Field and the Giants v Yankees game.

I have been to a lot of baseball games over 60 years.  This is the first time I have ever been in the last seat in the house.  If you drew a straight line vertically from the third base line to the top of the stadium we were in the very top seat.  It was like watching the game from a helicopter.  One the way to the game Chris was talking about how hot I was going to be in my long sleeve shirt and pants and had made up t-shirts to commemorate our week long experience, one of which he was wearing.  Well, it turns out that when you are that high in the air the temperature is a lot lower plus you get the wind.  Age and experience over youth once again!!  At any rate the game was a very good one with the Yankees blowing a four run lead, the game went into extra innings at a 5-5 tie at the end of the 9th. We left at that point but the end of the story is a Giants win at the end of 13.

Following he game I was forced into manual labor.  We went over to Chris and Mary Ann's new apartment and while touring the roof deck we had a chance to meet some of Chris's new neighbors and hung around chatting for a while.  Then it was back to work hanging a cast iron pot holder from the ceiling.  I am glad this was Chris and not me.  This thing weighs a ton but he had the equipment to locate the studs and in a matter of moments we had it assembled and in place.

The rest of the night was sushi for dinner at Sushi Groove with a drink while waiting for our table at a near by wine bar and Swenson's ice cream after.  Then flight planning and lessons in Mac short cuts.  We watched a show called Top Gear, made in England about cars and their performance but with a humrous spin.