I guess it’s all in your state of mind. For many people, traveling to San Francisco is like going to the ends of the earth. Pat, last evening, was telling us about his older sister who has only left Michigan once or twice in her life, puts about 5,000 miles on her car in a year and has never driven on an interstate highway. Last week I was talking with my son, Matt, about his recent trip to Belgium and his upcoming trip to Taiwan to a friend’s wedding, followed by a side trip to Tokyo. At 60.9643835 years of age, I’ve been to Canada a few times, no farther than 50 miles from American soil, and one mile into Mexico (Tijuana), so I’m somewhere in between a home-body and a world traveler. My excuse is that there are 10 states I haven’t been to yet, so why leave the country until I’ve seen all fifty states first.

I had a great trip to San Francisco last week. Early in the trip Matt said that he read my last e-mail before I left and I made it sound like we had planned a five day fraternity party. As it turned out, we did have a couple of margaritas Thursday night, but Matt was driving so he hardly had any. As you all know by now, I’m hard of hearing in crowded rooms, so I didn’t hear what the four young girls at the next table actually said. One of them mouthed the words to Tonya “Is that your Dad? We’re really, really sorry!!”. I was laughing and getting a kick out of them being very embarrassed thinking that I did hear, and that made them more embarrassed than ever.

On Friday we did take a tour of Anchor Brewery, but it was mid-day so we took it easy on the samples. On Saturday, at the barrel aged beer festival in Hayward, we had a few 2 ounce samples over a five hour period, so that wasn’t a big drinking day either. On Sunday, when we hiked to a pub on Mount Tamalpais, we found it was closed for the weekend, so we hiked the rest of the trail (about an hour) back to the car. On Monday we did brew beer, but neither Matt nor I ever drink while we brew (it multiplies the chance for mistakes) so that was a pretty dry day also. Several people have asked me if I had a good time out there. Maybe it’s a cliché answer, but I said I could have been out there digging ditches, but as long as I was with Matt and Anna, it was great fun. Sara and Rocky will be here for Thanksgiving, so that will be nice too. I guess we’ll have to drive to Florida to see Robert, so that will help us get our “kid fix”.

We went to the Michigan State/Penn State football game with Pat and Vicki yesterday. It was cold (somewhere in the thirties) and it spit rain off and on throughout the day, but it was a good game so that made up for the conditions. Earlier I told you my age, so you would think after being on this earth that many years, I would have learned by now, but I didn’t. All the nutritionists talk about getting plenty of fiber in your diet and, even though I don’t look it, I’m trying to eat better. I like the breakfast cereal, Kashi Go Lean Crunch, and right on the front of the box it says it’s a high fiber food. Apparently my system isn’t used to that level of fiber and it created a copious amount of “unwanted air”. On the positive side, we were in an open air stadium, so I was able to relieve the pressure before I swelled up like a blimp and floated away. Lucky for everyone we were in the back row so there were no seats behind us. Unlucky for them, that’s where the police stood the entire game. Lucky for me “breaking wind” isn’t against the law.

I fought it as long as I could, but in the third quarter, I had to relieve myself. I hate going into public rest rooms and the ones at sporting events are the worst. On the plus side it was warm in there, but on the minus side it reeked of urine. As you may know from my e-mails, I’m not shy about bodily functions, but walking up to a urinal trough, shoulder to shoulder with six or seven other men, is not my “cup o’ tea”. I was able to avoid my foot touching the guys’ feet on either side of me and I did keep my eyes up and straight ahead. I was one of the 5% who actually washed their hands afterward and, while Jean got a cup of coffee, Vicki and I were discussing whether it was worse to be a man, have to go and have really cold hands, or sit on a toilet seat that hundreds of women have sat on before you. The jury’s still out.

Just (Not Doing Well On My Diet) Jack