Laid Back in New Mexico

Sitting in my sister's living room in Los Lunas, N. Mex., I am already in leisure mode. How, you might ask, do I tell my usual do-little-to-nothing mode from my leisure mode? To an outside observer, I grant that the differences seem slight. But like a duck moving across a pond, what seems like an effortless task on the surface requires an explosive effort of swimming feet below the water line. I may not look like I'm doing much of anything as I work, and certainly my checking account reflects this, but my mind is always churning. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

In any event, I am in leisure mode. Yesterday's blood pressure-inflating flying experience is now a distant memory. I did take advantage of the delay to find and watch the first half of the Steelers game on a TV in the bar of Chili's at Minneapolis airport. There my Delta-provided $10 lunch voucher rapidly disappeared under the weight of $8 draft beers. It must be nice to transform 80 cents of beer into more than a $7 profit. The joys of having a captive customer pool!

My revised connecting flight left Minneapolis on time. The two-and-a-half-hour flight was spent depleting the plane's supply of Woodford Reserve. I love being upgraded. Delta is also running a promo for free WiFi on its flights in December. I took advantage of that to keep track of the last few minutes of the Steelers game. A disappointing loss to the Jets that I hope isn't a preview of their first playoff game against a top-notch team. The offense played well and the loss may say more about the defense without Polamalu than about the current state of the offense.

So here I am at my sister's. Most of the discussion this morning has been about dinner plans. The ideal way to spend the first few hours of a vacation.