Jet Setting for Seniors

The next three months, August through October, will find me in a lot of airport waiting areas. Will be traveling a lot between NYC, where we have a three month rental on Riverside Blvd., and our home in Sarasota, Florida.

The reason?

There are several.

• Our adopted dog, Cooper, is involved in a clinical trial for melanoma at the University of Florida at Gainesville. He has to return for injections and re-checks every four weeks.

• Ringling College of Art and Design employed me in the Spring to teach two classes for the Fall Semester, 2025. Conveniently, they are NOT on the same day. As such I must be in Sarasota from Tuesday morning through Friday morning.

• Suncoast Technical College employed me to teach a handful of one to four week classes on the History of Cinema for their Adult Community Enrichment division. Those courses begin in October.

I've not traveled this much since the early 2000s, when I had a run of jobs which took me to not only Hollywood, but destinations including Cologne, Germany, Washington, DC, Kansas City, MO, Austin, TX, and Chicago, IL. I'd managed to avoid working outside the Bay Area for the most part since Lee and I arrived there in 1987. Guess the plethora of outta town jobs was payback?

Don't know.

For a man with a fear of flying, I accumulated a lot of miles.

Bonus: I quickly lost the fear of flying.

Today I sit at the Gainesville Airport waiting for a flight to take me to Charlotte, NC.

Perhaps accumulating a list of stops would help ease the combination of boredom and stress associated with air travel?

Uh, please stand by.