Choices

(Wichita KS) School’s out in Wichita today. So are the snowmen. Many people had their schedules altered too. I was one of them.

It is amazing what you can get done in an airport these days when your flight is delayed because of a winter storm. I had my laptop up and running as was able to take care of some important emails, work on a couple of spreadsheets and even kept an eye on the Doplar radar. I also used all my battery up on my cell phone.

So did a few other people. Cell phone city today in the Wichita airport. Everybody was busy telling someone on the other end that they were not going to be wherever they were supposed to be.

But some were taking care of other business.

At one point I couldn’t help but hear the man next to me talking with one of those little ear pieces in his ear. I figured out fairly quickly that he was talking to his sister and he had decided it was time for them to put their mom in a nursing home. I discovered their mom was 92 years old and still lived in the house where the siblings grew up and just didn’t want to let it go. After he finished talking to his sister, he called their nursing home of choice to get rates and to see if there was a waiting list. He (and I) found out that it cost $1680 per month. This delayed passenger then held the room with his credit card.

After he finished talking to the nursing home person, he then called his 92 year old mother and suggested to her (on the phone mind you) that he felt like it would be good if she would consider moving into the nursing facility where her sister in law used to live (before she died). This loving son told his mom that he surely didn’t want to put pressure on her but he really wanted her to consider it.

I started to grab the phone and tell the poor lady that her son already had a confirmation number on the reservation at the nursing home. But instead I told him if he wanted to go ahead and take care of her funeral arrangements we could take care of that as well.

Not really. But I thought about it.

I’ve witnessed a few things in my life but talking your mother about going in a nursing home while delayed at an airport was a first for me. Some things you just need to handle face to face.

People were there from all parts of the country (and other countries) but we all had one thing in common today. We had somewhere to go but none of us could get there. And there was nothing we could do about it.

I stood behind one man at the ticket counter who spent 20 minutes arguing with the ticket agent because he had to be somewhere. I couldn’t help but wonder what in the heck he thought the agent could do about it. The persistent customer just couldn’t understand why the agent couldn’t get him on another flight. And he thought the airlines should take him to a hotel and pay for it. He was mad with the world.

I saw another family of four explaining to an agent that their son was supposed to be in a cross country event tomorrow and it was the biggest race of his life and they had to be there. I wondered if they thought the agent had a button on his computer screen that could stop a blizzard.

I laughed later when I heard an announcement on the public address system asking if there was anybody in the airport that could speak Chinese to please come to the Continental ticket counter. I suppose someone was upset in Chinese. I almost went back through security just to watch.

I was reminded again today that there are some things you can control and some things you can’t do one thing about.

We have two choices. We can be miserable and make everybody around us miserable or we can make the most of the situation.

I chose the latter today...but I never got out of Wichita.

BUT if I this happens again tomorrow I will probably choose the former.

I did learn one lesson though.

The next time I come to Wichita KS I’m bringing my long underwear.