This update comes to you from the Admiral’s Club at O’Hare Airport, and I guess it’s good to know just how far away I am from home.

For a change, I have a leisurely connection at O’Hare (scheduled at 2 hours, but we arrived 30 minutes late), and so I was able to stay in my seat and let the passengers with tight connections leave the plane ahead of me. Having had that courtesy extended to me two weeks ago, I was happy to comply with the request. As usual, not everyone was willing to wait; I’m not sure what the attraction of sitting in an airport is, but some people just can’t wait.

Diane tells me that winter’s arrived at home — she said it rained earlier today. I guess if school’s already started, rain isn’t completely unreasonable to expect, even if it is still August.

2571 Miles at a Bearing of 280 Degrees

My flight arrived early and wasn’t completely full (both are amazing but true facts), and I had an easy drive to my hotel. Then a very long walk to my room — unfortunately, my GPS doesn’t work inside the hotel, so I don’t know how far, but I should remember to log it as an aerobic workout next time I’m at the Y!

Also amazing but true: only 5 e-mails awaited me. And two of them were spam. I could stay online and see if more mail arrives, or I could do the smart thing and call it an evening. ‘Night!

Jeffrey started 5th grade today; it’s his last year at Alta Vista. It seems like only yesterday that he started kindergarten there! Diane and I were walking by Union Middle School this evening and we realized that next year, he’ll be there — oy!

He’s got the same teacher this year as he did last year, which I think is good (it’s the second time this has happened; the other time was between first and second grades), and two of his best friends are in his class, which he thinks is good.

It does seem wrong, though, for school to start this early; and then they compound things by giving a four-day Labor Day weekend to the students (the teachers have an in-service day on the Tuesday after Labor Day). I’d rather they started after Labor Day like we did when I was growing up.