Sometimes the day doesn't quite go as planned. For some people this is a BAD THING. Sometimes it is for me too, at least in the bad old days of full employment. But most of my stress is gone and I can enjoy kinks in my schedule. And that is a GOOD THING.

Yesterday we were enjoying our morning coffee when we heard a knock at the door. It was our next door neighbor, I'll call her Sally Smith. Sally was on her way to work but she backed her car across our driveway and over the edge of the bank on the other side. Her left rear tire was spinning and she wanted our help. We tried pushing but the car has rear wheel drive and it couldn't help up at all. We tried pushing a piece of plywood under the wheel but it was no help. So we got a rope and her other vehicle, a Scion, and pulled her out. No big deal. It was an adventure.

While working on the car one of the neighbors from the cul-de-sac drove by and told us her husband had a jeep and would be happy to help. After we got the car out I walked up to thank him and tell him we didn't need his jeep. It was an excuse to go meet the neighbors.

The road we live on is a dead end. It comes up the hill and makes a curve to the left at our driveway. We share part of that driveway with Sally. Her house is next to ours, a two story concrete house that looks new. Next to hers is a small, squat, yellow orange house. I haven't met the old man who lives there but Sally says he isn't very friendly. I had to retrieve our trash can from his house once and can testify to that. Beyond his house is the Babauta residence. Long time readers might remember the name Babauta. It is the name the ID thief used withdrawing money from my account. On the island it is a common name. These people are poor and their home reflects their financial condition. We all have stereotypes in our heads. I fight mine all the time but the Babautas are working hard to reinforce them for me. There are at least seven or eight children running around, a few in diapers, the house smells bad, and there is trash strewn around the place. Beyond the Babautas are three very nice homes with well kept lawns and good paint on the walls. The neighbor with the jeep lives up there. I introduced myself and we stood and talked for a bit. The neighborhood is very pleasant and everyone I've met is happy to be there.

Wakana and I had some errands to run. We wanted to go to a travel agency to buy the Japan Rail Passes and to look up some travel insurance. Then we needed to go to Continental to sort out a possible problem with her flight reservations. Buying the rail passes was no problem but the agency did not handle travel insurance. We went to Kmart for some minor items and then headed to Continental

At the Continental office we got a lesson in how much the Internet has changed our lives, adding efficiency and ease to the mundane problems we used to have travel agents handle for us. The agent, a very nice fellow named Gerry, put me on the phone to their internet desk. That agent transferred me to their international flights desk. She transferred me to another desk. Then I was transferred to yet another desk. When that woman, Gladys tried to transfer me I protested telling me this would be my fifth transfer. She opted to handle the problem herself.

I worked that phone for over an hour, most of it on hold listening to a mellow voice telling me I could no longer carry lighters on a plane. Gerry's supervisor, Emma, came over to find out what was happening and joined in the fun.

Now, many people in that situation would react with anger and irritation. I tend not to. I seem to see the funny side of such things. I was disrupting the work environment for two agents and their supervisor and the agent on the phone. Wakana slid a chair over for me and I was able to relax at my ease and chat with Gerry and Emma and the woman at the next computer. She was trapped with no customers because I was in her way.

As I waited a woman worked with Gerry on some ticketing or something. She had a little girl with her, cute kid, who seemed to be fascinated with me, the big bearded guy with the white hat. Wakana and I complimented her on her pretty shoes and her beautiful bracelet but she hid behind her mother. We played at peek-a-boo for a while before she worked up the courage to tell us she was four years old. She also told us her name but she spoke in such a little voice I couldn't make it out. Then she went off to play with her grandmother. She came back later to proudly show off the keys she'd been given.

I sat on the phone for over an hour. Finally the woman came back on the line to say she would have to call me back. We arranged for her to call us at home and we headed south. The agent and his supervisor were very apologetic. When we got home the woman had finally issued the tickets and we were golden.

In the meantime, Sally (Remember her?) wanted to take us out to dinner for rescuing her that morning. We opted for the Jamaican Grill.

Now, in the course of writing this little narrative I have tried to avoid talking about specific people and their specific ways and mores. To me that is gossip and has no real place in my life. Yet there comes a time when it is essential to a narration to get into the dirt, so to speak. Sally will feature now and again in this little piece and it might be interesting to know more about her. We first met her as she was walking her dogs. There was a man living in the house who I will call George. This was not the same man we'd met when first looking at our place. He'd introduced himself and talked to us about the neighborhood. I'll call him Dick Smith. Note, he has the same last name as Sally.

When we met Sally She said she was Dick's wife. Dick was in Dontunnastan teaching English. George was hanging around for a long time and we assumed he was a boarder. Well, we learned last night that Dick is her husband and George is her boyfriend. We've seen them all occupying the house at the same time though Dick and George are currently off island, Dick in Dontunnastan and George in Korea. Call me naïve but I would have a problem with that no matter which male I was.

OK, that's it for gossip. I don't usually have much to say about the people around me but she takes the cake.

We went out the other day to buy trinkets for the trip. It's a good idea to take trade goods when visiting the barbarians who live in countries less well off than ours. There won't be any food but we can bring other trinkets, jewelry, wood carvings, etc. We went to one of our favorite places and made them very happy. It's a little place called Marianas Handicrafts. The proprietors seem to be Korean. We've spent lots of money in there at Christmas times and we bought our shoe cabinet there so they are always glad to see us. The owner follows us around the store telling us how much she'll knock off the price for this or that item. Tomorrow we'll hit a few more of our favorite places to pick up some more beads and trade goods.