Washington, DC Sept 2015

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Erk. Take care, medicate often. Dayquill and Denial has gotten me through many a cold/flu where I had to perform.

Good luck, Mr. Phelps.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I've been in Saratoga less than 24 hours and it's possible you might find my sister Stephanie in a shallow grave somewhere. It always comes afresh how annoying she can be. Unusual for a Lynch, she feels the need to be in charge and her opinions are the only ones that matter.

The first news I got from my father on the way back from the airport was that my cousin in Boston, Michelle had scored a pair of tickets to see the Pope speak before congress. I was going to be her plus one. This trip finally had a tremendous upside. I asked my father if this was for real. He said yes. He said I was the designated date. All he was waiting for was the final call from Michelle. I made the mistake of getting my hopes up.

Rather than wait for Michelle to call. I messaged her on Facebook (All hail The Facebook) She responded that she had misread the email. Or that the email was confusing. The upshot, no tickets to see the Pope in front of congress. What she had won was tickets to stand in front of the Capital Building in a holding area to see the pope leave the building. Pope not guaranteed. So, major defeat number one.

This morning I got word that our plane was delayed for two hours. In a moment of forethought, my father decided to call our hotel to tell them we would be arriving late. Good thinking, Dad.

So, I called. My sister and my father called out helpful hints the entire time thinking, that I must be unsure of talking on the phone and confirming reservations.

It's a good thing I called. The reservation clerks at the Hyatt were confused about my confirming our late check-in ("Greg, do you see the reservation number on the sheet?!") The Hyatt had us checking in on Dec 21 not Sept 21. As I looked closer at the email, I realized that it wasn't a confirmation. It was just a sheet my father had printed from the website. It did show us checking in on Sept 21, but that reservation was never confirmed. My father had gone old school and called them on the phone to make the reservation.

Well, I went downstairs to my father's computer to find the original confirmation email. Unfortunately, he had no emails before August.

I returned upstairs to the news that my father had a printout of the confirmation email in his bag. Naturally, it showed us confirmed for December. My father explained that he written down all the pertinent information on this other sheet, with the prices and the check-in times. I pointed out that what a confirmation email does is ask for confirmation that the numbers were correct. We stood at an impasse.

While on the phone, I did confirm a room for the night so we would have a roof over our head. And the beauty of this suite, which is the same suite he previously ordered, was that I get a sofa bed! Hopefully better than the sofa bed I was on last night.

Lift off to DC in 5 hours. Plenty of time to deal with my sister.

(In case my sister does end up in shallow grave, the above mentioned ideas were merely for the sake of fiction)

[lady_cranefly]

Are you feeling any better, though? How's the fever? And what are you going to be doing for a whole week? Do you need someone to kidnap you next Saturday evening?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Things have reached a nadir when the best option is to go into cramped smelly airplane bathroom and throw-up. Then I spent the evening running hot and cold. I thought I was freezing but I woke up drenched in sweat. But I think I turned the corner and am on the mend.

We have made it to the hotel at around 1am driven by a nice muslim man who I don't think he could speak.

I will be sleeping on the sofa bed for the duration. The first lesson I learned was not to go into the bathroom directly after my father. I didn't think those smells were available on this planet.

[Drunk Monk]

Traveling while sick is a special level of hell.

Hopefully you'll get some good Pope experience out of all this in the end. This is a great Pope you got now, the first one that I've really admired.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Still not sure if I even have a ticket to the Canonization.

As for my so called recovery, I'm currently experiencing a lovely case of the chills.

[Drunk Monk]

If you can get a selfie with the Pope, you will be a god amongst DOOMsters.

Been enjoying the fb pix.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Let's not talk about pictures with the pope. I'm still mourning two giant missed opportunities. More to come. Right now, I need to curl into a ball and sleep for 12 hours.

Oh wait. I have to go get ready to go out to dinner with the Serrans.

[lady_cranefly]

Why did he have to canonize that dbag?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Easy there. Get your facts in order before you start that argument. And if your level of discourse is that he's a d-bag, we can stop right now.

[lady_cranefly]

All right. I'll back off. I admit my opinion is strongly informed by my general distaste for 1) conquerors and 2) religion and the imposition thereof, but I do have to ask--what miracle did he supposedly perform?

[Drunk Monk]

As a Californian, I'm down with it. My only notable contention with Francis is his mmj stance, and that's really minor considering.

[The Queen]

All right. I'll back off. I admit my opinion is strongly informed by my general distaste for 1) conquerors and 2) religion and the imposition thereof, but I do have to ask--what miracle did he supposedly perform?

Here's an outtake from an article I found:

"Los Angeles archbishop Jose Gomez defended Serra’s canonization, asserting that the priest “came to this New World with a burning love for the land and its people, (with) genuine respect for the indigenous people and their ways and claiming that critics of Serra had “distorted” his record. He added that although the canonization “has opened old wounds and revived bitter memories about the treatment of Native Americans,” the charges leveled at Serra “can be traced back to the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda (that) prevents us from making an honest appraisal of Father Serra and America’s religious beginnings.” Gomez allowed that the “world of (Serra’s) times still considered native peoples, along with African Americans, to be less than full human,” but he had “come to the conclusion that Father Serra should be remembered as one of the great pioneers of human rights in the Americas.”

In order to be canonized, a candidate must have performed two “miracles.” The first ascribed to Serra was his healing of a lupus patient who had prayed to him. Galvan said the pope aided Serra’s cause by declaring Serra’s life’s work to be the second miracle."

My father-in-law has been extremely dedicated to service (over 35 years, I believe) as a member (and past president) of the USA Council of Serra Society, with a mission to promote vocations in the Catholic Church. This past week was very important to him. He shouldn't be traveling at all, but Imdoubt anything would,have kept him from DC and that event this past week.

Frankly (pun intended), I think the real Saint in all of this is Greg. He survived this experience without killing anyone. That's most definitely miraculous.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

So, I'm not giving up on this fever/headache as we head into day 10 of the scourge. The Queen has this crazy idea that maybe I should lie down or, quelle horror, go see a doctor. Like I said, I'm no quitter.

That being said as soon as the monitor stops shimmering, I will tell of the DC adventures. Especially the one, where they made my barely able to move father walk a mile in the heat and do a lot of standing in security lines.

[Drunk Monk]

...pation

That being said as soon as the monitor stops shimmering, I will tell of the DC adventures. Especially the one, where they made my barely able to move father walk a mile in the heat and do a lot of standing in security lines.

How? Oh how? It's just not possible. Tell us! Tell us!

:prayer: mt017 mt026