Santa Barbara California

I enjoyed a fine Denny's breakfast this morning before I took the rental car back to the airport and from there took the shuttle to the airport itself.  There was a long line at the United airline counters.  Motel Six does not have a publicly accessible printer, so I wasn't able to pre-print a bording pass.  But I was in line for only about ten minutes before reaching a check-in kiosk.  Then it was on to the gate in Terminal B.  The plane left on time and arrived ahead of schedule, meaning we had to wait for a gate to open up (the reward for early arrival!).  I had the seat with the back-of-the-seat kicker behind me.  Don't get me wrong.  I like kids.  Some of the best years of my life were as a kid.  I did lean over the seat back and ask her not to do it, which worked for at least a few minutes.  I still managed to do the difficult-rated sudoku and the crossword puzzle.  In LA I got my second rental car of the day and drove to Santa Barbara.  The drive was difficult with way too much stopping and starting, brake lights on, lane switches (web photo).  I never had a chance to relax at any time.  In Santa Barbara I parked the car and had a late lunch of Indian food and then found a Starbucks where I went online to check the bird news, email, blog responses, all the while sampling one of their scones.  I got a call from Monte Taylor telling me he was in town and picking up the key to the hostel room he had reserved.  Monte had posted an online note saying he had a spare bed available for the night before the pelagic trip if anyone was interested.  I emailed him and said I was interested.  So we were sharing the room.  The only problem was the room had only one bed, a mistake on the part of the person who took Monte's reservation.  It couldn't be remedied, so Monte said he'd sleep on the floor.  The least I could do to repay this kindness was buy his dinner which I did.  On the baseball front, the Cardinal's game was delayed in starting by thunderstorms.  They finally won it 1-0 in the tenth on a lead-off double by Ludwick, a sacrifice bunt by Molina, and a ground-out by Ryan.  I applied my scolpolamine patch behind my ear before going to bed.  Heaven only knows what dreams that will induce.