Tuesday, August 13, 2002
—empty—
This entry is intentionally left blank, except for this text informing you that this entry is intentionally left blank except for this this text, and with the exception of this text which is informing you that this entry is intentionally left blank, this entry is blank.
Except, of course, of this notice.
She's ariving on a jet plane!
Unlike her leaving, I did have problems driving down to the Miami International Airport. Her flight on British Airways was scheduled to arrive at 6:05pm, which meant that I was going to bear the brunt of rush hour traffic for some fifty miles.
Pulling onto the freeway at 4:30pm I hit traffic. No noticable reason for the parking lot on I-95. Once past the next exit, it speeded up, until the following exit where traffic came back to a crawl, then resumed, then crawled. Traffic physics at work.
Little over an hour later I arrive, and head towards the parking garage. Delays yet again, but instead of the mysteries of traffic physics, there was a visible reason for the delay—car inspections! I'm still not clear on whether airports are now completely under Federal control or not and if so, then I have serious problems with their trampling of the Fourth Amendment; although if airports are not under Federal control, I would still have problems but the Fourth Amendment only covers what the government can and cannot do—it doesn't cover private property (although a debate could be made about the nature of an airport used by the public).
I'm not even sure what exactly they were looking for though. When it came time for my car to be searched (the cars immediately in front of me had a rather extensive search done) they had me pop the trunk, spent maybe all of five seconds looking, then letting me on my way.
Silliness.
After that, it was about a half hour wait until Spring cleared Customs.
Woo hoo!
Decus et tutamen
Spring came back with quite a pocketfull of
change (the currency exchange booth at Miami International Airport would
only exchange bills, not coins). On the drive back we talked a bit about
foreign
currency and the topic of British money came up, of which she had a few
coins (a new penny, two pence and two single pound coins).
“I wonder if Queen Elizabeth can use this for identification,” I said, holding up one of the coins. Spring giggled at the thought (“ID?” “Here you go,” the Queen says, handing him a few pounds. “Right then, in you go!”)
I noticed though, that the portrait of the Queen has changed over the years.
On the earlier coin (1983) she appears younger, with a smaller crown than
the more recent coins (1993). Also, the pound coins feel and look more like
tokens than coins to me (they're actually quite thick, about the thickness
of two U. S. pennies, and slightly larger in diameter) and for their worth,
they're quite small in size (the two pence coin is slightly larger than the
U. S. quarter).
