The Road to Farley is Less Traveled

I had a two-hour layover at DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport) today, so it gave me time to reflect on some of my airport observations from time spent on business and leisure travel over the years. I don't claim to be the Iowa City equivalent to Rick Steves or Rudy Maxa. I haven't been able to attain Platinum status on American. But, for what it's worth, here's my unofficial airport guide.  Best Bathrooms : Hands down to ORD (O'Hare International Airport)--not necessarily because they are the most modern or cleanest bathrooms. But, I am quite fond of the "toilet condoms" that give a clean sheath of plastic to rest your bum on. Why haven't other airports caught on to this trend?? Shortest/Fastest Security Line : I'm going to have to give the nod to the hometown favorite CID (The Eastern Iowa Airport). They always seem to have twice as many TSA agents as they probably need, and I don't think I've ever stood in a line with more ...

There is something to be said about laundromats. After my spring cleaning relapse yesterday, I got back in the saddle today and loaded the Accord down with all the dirty fabrics in my home that were not stapled to furniture. I was a whirling dervish at the laundromat: six double-size loads plus two loads in the "big ones" -- the washers that hold up to 55 pounds of stuff. By the time I got everything loaded and on its washing way, the first load was already done. Man, I worked up a sweat keeping up with the wash loads finishing and getting the dryers (11 total) loaded. I had a 12 minute window when there were no loading/unloading duties, so I was able to zip down to Java House for a white caramel mocha and a Scotcheroo. SCORE! When I was younger -- you know, college age or shortly thereafter -- I dreamed of the time I would have my own washer and dryer and would be able to wash my clothes in the comfort of my own home. A sure sign of being a grown up is when you start pur...

I took vacation days today and tomorrow to complete my spring "to do" list, which consisted of cleaning/organizing the closets, taking oversized items to Laundromania to wash, cleaning the basement carpet, and hauling crap I no longer needed to Goodwill. Oh, I had big plans for the day. But, then, I got a text message from JoEllen. That was us at our 30-year class reunion last summer. JoEllen was in Iowa from Georgia to visit her siblings for Easter. She was in Iowa City today for a campus visit with her daughter, who is graduating from high school. After a couple of hours her daughter decided Auburn was more her speed, so they canceled the rest of the campus visit. That's where I come in. Nothing left to do but to meet up with JoEllen at the Airliner and spend the afternoon reminiscing and laughing over Blue Moons. Thirty years ago, we probably would have kept right on drinking through the night. Now, after a few pints, we decided it was time to take the party to the ...

LZ Granderson, a CNN.com contributor, recently received a lot of press regarding his editorial entitled, "Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps." It was quite a hot topic. He got over 4300 comments posted as of today. If you haven't seen the op-ed, you can read it in its entirety at the following link: Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps The point of his article is that parents should dress their children, particularly girls, like -- well, little girls! They shouldn't be wearing push up bras, thong underwear, and low cut jeans. I completely agree. My mother would never have let me out of the house wearing clothes like that. Heck, I'm pushing 50 and she still wouldn't let me out of the house wearing clothes like that. I distinctly remember when I was growing up desperately wanting a bikini to wear to the swimming pool. Nope...never got it. The only two piece swimming suit I had was what we called an apron swimsuit with bikini bottoms...

When I started this blog, my "niche" was supposed to be about turning 50 in 2012. I look back at my posts and my thoughts are completely scattered about whatever the hell pops in my mind--most of which has nothing to do with aging, unless you consider that my randomness is a sign of dementia. Tonight, a group of friends went to dinner at Augusta. No, not the Augusta with Amen Corner and the Butler Cabin. Evidently, I'm the only dumb ass to make that mistake. This is Augusta in Oxford, Iowa. It's a quaint little restaurant started by some New Orleans residents who ended up in Iowa after Hurricane Katrina. Good times with good friends and good food. And, did I mention that the New Orleans Hurricanes were superb? So, after coming home liquored up with three of those Hurricanes, I put on my little jammie outfit that I bought on sale at Von Maur several years ago. I look in the mirror at myself every day, but why is it when you've got several shots of alcohol cours...

ABC announced today that it is canceling "All My Children" and "One Life to Live." I am not ashamed to admit that I have been an All My Children fan for about 35 of the 40 plus years that it has been on the air. The residents of Pine Valley were kind of like my friends...or maybe distant relatives that I didn't see very often but always kept tabs on what was going on in their lives. In the early days, I ran the full gamut of soaps during the summer: Ryan's Hope (duh, Kate Mulgrew was from Dubuque!), All My Children, General Hospital, and The Edge of Night. After Ryan's Hope was canceled, I converted to The Young & The Restless. (The Young & The Restless is in Genoa City, Wisconsin. On the show, of course it's a huge city. I've been to Genoa City. It's about as big as Farley.) When you are a pre-teen or teen and are bored and full of teenage angst, and you live in the country and only get three TV channels, three months of summer vac...

Who doesn't love Luther's song (big Luther..not Lil' Luther) "A House Is Not A Home..." A room is a still a room Even when there's nothin' there but gloom But a room is not a house And a house is not a home When the two of us are far apart And one of us has a broken heart   These lyrics were running through my head when I pulled up in front of what used to be my home...in the Parkview Terrace (AKA Mosquito Flats) neighborhood in Iowa City.   A house is not a home when it has disappeared in the name of flood mitigation. As I sat staring at the now empty lot of what had been Bailey's and my home for nearly six years, I thought back to the emotional summer of 2008 and the historic flood. On June 12, 2008, my lovely neighborhood next to City Park looked more like this:   The entire neighborhood was swallowed up by the Iowa River, which had breached the emergency spillway at the Coralville Reservoir in only the second time in history. It was ...

April...wow, I can't believe we are in April. Looking back at my first posts of the year, I was so ambitious. Blogging every day..right. Clearly, I was on some kind of euphoric high with the new year. You see how long I lasted. Now...I'm lucky if I manage to write one blog per week. So...here we go, first rambling for the month of April. I'll start by going back to January 4th. Remember, this is what Willow Creek Park looked like that day. The first week of February, we couldn't even get in the park. The neighborhood looked more like this: March started to look a little better. It's still kind of dreary, but looked something like this: And today, you could really sense spring. It was a warm 60 degrees at 4:00. Best part...Dane's Dairy opens this weekend. A sure sign that spring has arrived. We love that place. Free doggie cups!  There you go....river days can't be far away. But, what is really on my mind tonight is our #@!%$! government. Obv...