"a" is for yes; "b" equals no.

I have yet to jump on the texting bandwagon. Most likely because my cell phone is an older model and I haven't figured out its quirks when it comes to texting. And so, I was waiting at my second flight's gate in the Washington Reagan airport when my phone signaled me that I had a text message. It was from my son Scott, asking if I was flying out that morning. I tried to text back "yes", but I couldn't get to the letter "e". I cleared the "y" and tried to text "am" and my phone skipped past the letter "m" and went right to "n". Tried it again. Same thing. I gave up and texted back "a".

Scott texted me back "what the heck is a?" I thought I'd made myself perfectly clear. "A" for yes. "B" for no.

He immediately called me. "Sonce (his nickname for me), when are you going to learn how to text?" Actually, I know how to text. It's my phone that remains uneducated. It also only holds a charge for one brief call these days. Then it shuts off. I wanted to get a new phone before the trip, but ran out of time. It's on my list, along with too many other things that probably will not get accomplished in my lifetime.

Washington Reagan airport has an "interesting" terminal set up. My first flight parked at the end of one wing of the terminal. I could see, by the airport diagram, that my next flight took off from a gate in the opposite wing of the same terminal. I figured, with my newly functioning knees, that I could walk to that wing. I could look out the window and see it, but I couldn't get to it without walking past the security entrance. A sign informed me that there was a shuttle from one of the gates that takes passengers to the other wing. What is does is send you out a door and down two flights of metal steps, in the rain, to the awaiting shuttle. The shuttle bus literally takes less than 30 seconds to deposit you at the other wing, where you and your luggage, again in the rain, climb metal stairs (which must become pretty slippery when ice and snow are present) to gain entrance into that wing.

Without the cortisone shots, I'd have never been able to ascend or descend those stairs, particularly while carrying my suitcase. I'm sure there's another option for those who require assistance, but fortunately, I wasn't one of them.

My knees were fine during both flights and I arrived in sunny Florida approximately at the same time, though I take no credit for it, as long-awaited warm temperatures. Florida had had a miserable winter. My cousin Dick, who spends half the year in Naples, and his wife Wilma were waiting for me at the Ft. Myers airport and my brief, much-anticipated vacation began.

Dick and I took a 2-mile walk along a path that skirts the mangrove woods that separate the gulf, at one point, from a strip of condos. The path has water on either side and, on a good day, you might spot otters, all kinds of water fowl, and an occasional alligator. It's a beautiful walk and while the otters did not make their presence known, we did see most of the other residents, including a couple of alligators. Again, I was grateful for the cortisone shots, as this was not a walk that I could have accomplished without them.

I guess I could have texted Scott about it, but in this case "a" would have stood for alligator. Smart as he is, I don't think he would have made that connection.