home again home again jiggitty jig

well first: the sky bus was not that interesting and should not be confused with the air bus. its just a regular plane with no ammenities. the crew going from oakland to columbus was delightful, the crew coming back was fine... but in columbus (their home!) the boarding was so disorganized that it was difficult. preboarding meant you went first, everyone else piled on immediately after and it was difficult to get settled. in columbus, the plane is boarded both front and back and people from the back had come all the way forward before we got steve out of his wheelchair and the carry-ons stowed. o and beware: the carry-one size is minute. a standard carry-one that is normal for another airline is too large for skybus and must be checked. one of mine was two inches too large but quite easily fits in the overhead of other planes. you pay $5 to check each of your first bags and $50 for the third. you pay for your food and drink onboard (which is acceptable) but you are not allowed to bring your own food or drink onboard (which is unacceptable) and they do not even offer water for free. you can however hide your own food in your minute carry-on and nobody seems to care, not that i know anyone who did that! they also offer "gifts" for sale... i thought the poor sweet girls were embarrassed to be pushing the cart of odd perfumes, cubic zirconium jewelry, and liquered chocolates up the aisle three time during the flight. on the other hand, we met a nice couple who were going to san francisco for their first time and they had $10 tickets. i suggested they visit city lights books even though the shop does not carry my books.

to buy my books: http://royanthonyshabla.com

the plans

i am going to be gone from wednesday to wednesday, flying tomorrow to san jose to be with my friends martha and steve, then going to san francisco to meet chuck and fly to columbus ohio. steve grew up in a little town in ohio, roseville which is outside of zanesville ~ the pottery capital of the country, and he wanted to visit family and childhood friends. steve has a brain tumor. worst case scenario, inoperable, incurable. and yet it is now reduced 75%!!! his doctors attribute this to the chemo which has never worked on this kind of cancer, nothing has ever worked on this kind of cancer (in their book). they also attribute the damage to his heart to the chemo (which it does have a history of)... so steve is weak and has difficulty breathing and would not be able to travel alone... and martha is going to have a rest... and we boys are going to make an event of it. friday we will shop for pottery and visit with pottery friends. on saturday night there will be a big party in roseville. we will come back on tuesday and i return home on wednesday from the bay area. from san francisco to columbus we are flying the new sky bus. i am kinda excited to see how that works -- especially getting over 500 people on a plane in less than two hours... and then off again... of course, we have to get through the airport (with a wheelchair, drugs, and various voodoo acoutrements) first.