November 15, 2017  -  That pesky travel half-ounce rule      

       As many of you realize I drove up to Massachusetts the first week of October and worked on getting my Mom’s house cleaned up and ready to be put on the market.  The biggest thing about traveling by car – you can open the trunk and toss in any darn thing you want. Work clothes, work shoes, good clothes, good shoes, extra purse, your favorite bed pillow, etc. 

You are not limited to one carry-on bag and are not “OUCHED” by the cost of paying for each checked bag on an airline. If you have a hankering, you can take full size bottles of shampoo and conditioner and live in luxury while you are away – slippers, cuddly robe.  You get the picture.  Another thing I do when I travel by car is pack a picnic lunch for that day and snacks into the next.  And, you can take a bottle of wine so that you can relax after two days of hard work, making the pain go away.

       So, I said goodbye to Mom on October 13^th and drove home. Unexpectantly, Mom died on October 19^th and this time I would be returning for the funeral by air.

       I was in the process of planning the funeral from North Carolina that was to be held in Massachusetts when I informed my husband I made airline flights and said, “They aren’t cheap.”

       Since the notification of Mom’s death, he had been walking on egg shells not certain how I was going to react. And, not sure what to say, he had been very quiet.   I know I can sometimes turn into a “rattlesnake” at a blink of an eye so he was being smart and staying distant and quiet.

From my desk, I called to him about some minor thing and he didn’t answer.  I got up to check on him and noticed his jeep gone.  I wondered where he went – he usually tells me he is going and even asks me if I need anything.  I guess he is giving me SPACE.

       Later my darling husband returns and plunks a shopping bag from Belk department store announcing,

       “You’ll need this for your trip.”

       I opened it and was rather surprised to find a four-ounce bottle of perfume – not my usual scent, but something new, and expensive.

       “Thank you dear, but the airlines have a rule now  - you can’t take more than a half-ounce.  They’d confiscate this.”

       He looked at me perplexed.  He was unaware of this rule as he hasn’t flown in many, many years.

       “Then, I’ll take it back.”  He said – miffed.

       “Oh, NO, I’ll take my dribs and drabs and save this for later.” I snatched the perfume back from him.

       “What do you mean you can’t take it?”    He demanded to know.

       I had to explain to the dear that it had been so long since he had flown by air what the rules were – the luggage weight, the clear plastic bags of cosmetics, the Rules that are driving all air travel customers crazy.

       He’s never experienced the taking off of the belt and the shoes, etc. I am sure he would not handle the “pat down” after the 3 seconds scan either.

       “I wanted you to smell nice.”  Was his final comment once I got through to him the message about the half-ounce rule.

       Later, I had to vent to someone about this hiccup in my relationship and called a girlfriend and she reminded me that she’d been bitched at by the airline for too large of a toothpaste tube and the airline had confiscated it.    We laughed.

She said,  “It was a half tube of toothpaste – half used and they grabbed it.”

We laughed again.   

       Needing more reassurance and emotional petting, I called another girlfriend about the little miff over the four-ounce bottle of perfume and explained my husband just wasn’t aware of the Rules.

       She had a different slant on it and said, 

“He doesn’t know what to say to you about your Mom dying. The only language he knows is perfume.”