When you travel by air, you're at the mercy of a lot of things.

The TSA, some of whom appear to take glee in disrupting your carefully packed bag.

The schedule of the planes, where one delay leads to another.

The high prices at the airport, which you can't circumvent if you wish to drink a beverage.

For a person who likes to be in control, there are a lot of variables that you cannot control. You can choose, then, to be stressed out or to go with the flow.

The TSA

Most of the TSA people in the small airport where I started out were pleasant. But there was one woman who I could see from the back of the line was really feeling self-satisfied. She was pacing around barking at everyone in general.

"Shoes off. Belts off. Pockets emptied. Remove all food, liquids, and small electronics from your bags. Jackets off. Shoes off…"

Over and over and over. And of course, I got her instead of one of the more circumspect TSA people. I asked for a hand with my carryon, since I recently had surgery and am not supposed to lift much. She slid a tray at me a couple of inches and turned her head. A nice fellow victim gentleman lifted it up onto the belt for me.

Then she got busy. She opened all my bottles of cosmetics and sniffed them. She picked up each of my bags of peanut M&Ms and fondled them, feeling around for anything that might not be an M&M. I fought the urge to be sarcastic and, luckily, I won. Then I got naked-body-scanned and was allowed to put my shoes and sweater back on and collect the belongings that had been rifled through. The TSA agent on the other end kindly lifted my bag down for me and off I rolled to my gate.

Where I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

My first flight was delayed three times.