Upgrade on British Airways

ENTRY 3, May 29, 2010   7:00 pm.

Cattle Car.

The story of life on earth goes something like this. First God made Adam and then from Adam’s rib he made Eve. That pretty much covers the first two most important things that God created. Next, God created, ranking a close third, British Airways Business Class air travel. And yes, you guessed it, that is where I am sitting right now as I jet from the USA to London with a connecting flight to Milan, Italy.

OMG. Business Class. I paid for a “cattle car” seat aka “economy class, which really means no class at all. What took me so long to get started on this post was that I was running late because the flight from Buffalo had to circle about three times before landing in Philly about 10 minutes late. Next, I find out that I landed at Terminal F and British Air flies out of Terminal A that is only accessible via a shuttle bus. I arrive at the A terminal and of course my flight is from Gate A 17 which is a good 800 meter sprint away. I arrive at the gate and my flight is already boarding. Rows 35 and higher I hear on the speaker. In addition, I did not even have a boarding pass. I think to myself  ” I am royally screwed” because usually if an international flight is boarding and you don’t have a boarding pass and you just show up at the gate and of course my airline, BA is on strike. Well I was planning a long night curled up on a plastic bench.

But……………………………. You are going to wait for the rest of this post. I need to get started on my second gin and tonic so I can be ready to start my business class meal.

Carl and Mary's Asparagi

Also, for those of you who actually read all the way through my ravings you heard me brag in my last post about my asparagus, Asparagi in Italian. Here is a very scenic photo of what I was talking about. circa – May 29, 2010.

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The Flight, Part I.

THE TRIP OVER.

ENTRY 2, May 29, 2010     4:20 pm.

I am in the air heading south over Western New York toward Philadelphia on a beautiful, hot, sunny summer day. Between the white cumulous clouds, billowing below me I see just tilled farmer’s fields, sky blue rectangles and circles of just opened swimming pools. Unmistakable golf courses, 4 lane highways, small lakes and a lot of green grass and forest.

I am saying goodbye to Western New York, my home base since my birth in Buffalo in April of 1958. Goodbye to my wife, farm, garden, asparagus bed which I have been tending for nearly 8 years and which has so many elegant, tender, spears this year there is no way they can all be eaten. Good-bye to the stream that runs through my yard, goodbye to my two, 250+ year old Elm trees which shade my side years and the numerous stately Maples that line the stream and which have trunks six to seven feet in diameter. Goodbye to my barn, compost pile, pond with literally dozens of small mouth bass and of course goodbye to Button and Griffie our dog and cat. Goodbye to the acre or so of grass that needs to be mowed every 5-6 days in the Spring and Fall and the small forest of Lilac bushes that didn’t bloom this year because of a late frost but which I will never forget because they give off the most magnificent smell when they do bloom. The scent of beauty inchoate.

My laptop battery power is down to 77% and I have many hours of travel ahead before I land in Milan tomorrow morning at 10:00 am. So enough of what I am going to miss. Let’s just say I have a great deal to miss but I am not going to miss any of it all that much except my wife Mary, of course. My plan is to live in the moment.

Mary and I have always said that we would rather be rich in memories and experiences than rich in material ways when we fade into the sunset 50 or so years from now. I have made and lost and spent a great of money in the past 25 years and I don’t remember the serial number from a single one of the 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 or $100.00 bills that have past though my hands. As they use to say in the Navy, “damn the torpedo’s full speed ahead.” Italy here I come.

Moreover, a special thanks to my most beautiful wife Mary without whom none of this would be possible.

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I MADE IT!

Well, I made it here and boy do I have some stories to tell already. And yes, it is really that good.

Alma is in this building, a former palace.

This is where I will be working 5 days a week.

CLICK HERE  for general info on Colorno.

Enough of this for now. Today was just orientation and now we have free time to go to the supermarket and other things you need to do when you move to a new country like Italy.

This is the garden view of the same building.

Click here for some more photos.

I will start posing my own photo’s later.

My next post will be about the trip over.

ABOUT THE TRIP OVER.

ENTRY 1   May 29, 2010     3:30 pm.

Well, I just left Mary at the security checkpoint at the Buffalo airport. While I am excited about the trip to Italy and the continuation of this adventure during the past couple of days, melancholy sensations have tempered my outlook. Of course, spending several days wrapping up the details of my retirement after 25 years of practicing law may be part of it but I will not miss the law. In fact I am extraordinarily fatigued by my vocation of the past quarter of a century. One half of my life, literally.

My last lawyer email was with a real knuckle head of a lawyer who is trying to do a divorce, but against whom I have never during my 25 years of lawyering had a divorce case previously. The fact that I have completed close to 4000 divorces (estimate) in my local courts during the past 25 years and not a single one involved this attorney has to tell you something about the degree of specialization in the area of divorce law that this attorney demonstrates.

Unfortunately knowing what you are doing is not a requirement of our court system. All you need is a law degree and a client and you are a master of the profession. I feel bad for myself as I am refunding money to this client who know needs a new lawyer. I feel bad for the other client who is really a victim and the case will no doubt not be resolved until the retainer fee is used up. I feel bad for the entire legal profession because a large number of good lawyers do exactly what I am doing. Not heading to cooking school in Italy perhaps but none-the-less  heading anywhere that doesn’t involve dealing with other lawyers on a daily basis.

Ciao!

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