Life is more fun if you can find humour in your situation

Last year I celebrated my 70th birthday but I am not yet ready to call myself a senior although I suspect that younger people would think I qualify.

Life is more fun if you can find humour in your situation. I went down to the US south of Seattle, Washington, for a conference a few months ago, and I arrived at the border around 3:45, and spend the next two hours and 15 minutes waiting to cross into the US. The problem was not in the lineup. The problem was that my car or I had set off a radioactive warning devious. I thought it was strange. The alarm went off at the station where the security usually asked questions about where you were going, how long would you be down for, etc. When the alarm went off and I was sent over to a secondary screening area. When I arrived in that line there were about 20 people ahead of me, all with the same issue. I know a bit about computers and I thought that the computer calibration of the sensors at the booths could be out of whack.

The guards were very busy filling out forms and asking questions about when we had been in contact with radioactive ingredients. Since there were 20 people ahead of me, and many more behind me, I sat and watched the process. Near the end of the first hour, one of the guards realised that all of us were there for the same reason and by now there were about 80 people waiting in the room.

I heard him mention that he thought there must be a problem with the radioactive warning sensor calibration at the booths, to another guard. The other guard agreed, but since no supervisor was available and both guards believed that neither of them had the authority to change anything, they continued to process the people in the room.

I lost count of the number of times the guards scanned the crowd with the Geiger counter and then walked out to the cars and scanned the cars. Eventually, it was my turn, I answered the questions, got scanned by the Geiger counter, had my car scanned and then told I could go on with my journey.

Computer glitches happen, many of the younger crowd were angry at the delay. I kept thinking, I am missing driving through Seattle in rush hour traffic. I also enjoyed the idea that I was suspected of setting the world on fire again even if the reason was a computer glitch. Life is too short, so enjoy every moment and stop and smell the roses.