ATA Airline's Bankruptcy - Or, Marooned on a Tropical Island

This is one of our favorite places to just kick back and enjoy a little R&R - the Marriott's Maui Ocean Beach Club on the beach at Ka'anapali in Maui, Hawaii.

We scheduled a week's vacation and took off from the Oakland CA airport on the ATA Airlines on Sunday March 30th and flew without problems directly to Maui. The tickets had been purchased and paid for some time ago.

The day after we arrived in Maui Aloha Airlines announced they were closing but they had made some arrangements with other airlines to handle the return of their passengers to the main land. We smirked with self-satisfaction that we would be OK; until early on Wednesday morning when the Marriott's personnel notified us that the ATA Airline had also filed bankruptcy sometime in the night and had already stopped flying. Luckily we had brought a laptop computer with us and my hubby immediately got on it and his cell phone to try and get us two seats back home later in the week. Were we ever surprised - ATA had made no efforts to help their stranded passengers throughout their entire flight area. Our tickets home were worthless!

The helpful customer service rep for United Airlines finally found us two tickets to get home by a circuitous route, but three days later than we had planned to go home. The one-way tickets for two people cost nearly $1,600. We then contacted the hotel's desk - and luckily for us - they had another room in the resort that we could stay but only for the two extra nights that we would be forced to stay in Maui. Adding the cost of additional nights at the resort, additional days of a car rental and food to the expensive ticket home you can imagine what these few days cost.

The route home was a very long one; Maui to Molokai, Molokai to Honolulu, Honolulu to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to San Francisco - then a $100 taxi cab ride from the San Francisco airport to the Oakland airport to pick-up our car for the drive home. We were thankful to get home because many people were still stuck in Hawaii when we left and wish to thank United Airlines for their courtesy and help in getting us to the main land.

Why do large corporations have the ability to cheat so many people? You could not convince anyone that ATA Airlines hadn't know about their financial problems far in advance of the closure date; especially since they had all the paperwork together to file bankruptcy during the night and close up immediately. Yet, they kept taking client's money selling tickets until the last minute with no plans to perform as promised. If a small company continued to sell and collect money from clients for products or services that they didn't intend to provide, the local law enforcement people would be in hot pursuit of these business owners to put them in jail for defrauding their clients. Why does corporate America have the ability to defraud people with no regret and no reprecussions?

Maybe it's time to once again regulate the airline industry - they don't seem to be able to do it for themselves. What do you think?

Wall Art...Or How to Make Your Home Special

Art, either painted on a wall as in my photo, or hanging on a nail in a frame can be the "jewelery of the home". Too many times I am invited into a client's home and quickly see how carefully they have painted their walls, picked their furniture and rugs, etc. yet see unfinished walls...without art or, worse yet, with tiny pictures hung too high on a large wall, which look lonely and forlorn.

When you choose the pictures for your room pick subjects that you like to look at, not something that just goes with your colors. Art should speak of your personality, hobbies and dreams. The wall art you pick tells your guests who you are and what you love more than any other accessory in the room. Art brings color and life to your room.

Original art works are always best for your rooms because they are just that...original. Look for original works of art at local art shows and you will be surprised at the many wonderful choices you will have at reasonable prices. You will be helping a potential "starving artist" gain recognition in the art world by buying one of their pieces.

There are many prints available to decorate your walls too. Use them in combination with sconces, shelves, decorative plates, metal grates, etc. and your home will truly be unique.

Vitamin C Doesn't Belong in Your Lungs!

Every once in awhile life seems to give you a little "kick in the knee" - and, boy did I get one last Sunday afternoon. Obviously, this is a story about an event, that according to all the doctors I've spoken with this week, just shouldn't have happened!

My hubby and I were working in our home office, discussing what we wanted to do about an issue, when I decided that it was time to take my daily medications being it was around 1:00 PM in the afternoon. The pills themselves are standard sizes, except for the two "horse" sized tablets I take of Calcium /Vitamin D and the Vitamin C which were not only both large, but dry and gritty. Anyway, I put the two larger pills into my mouth at once, grabbed a swig of water and swallowed. I knew that I was in trouble the second they passed the back of my tongue. The Vitamin C pill somehow turned cross ways in my throat and the Calcium acted as a battering ram as it drove the Vitamin C tablet down and into my Trachea (or as my mother used to call it the "wind pipe"). My God - what a panicky feeling it is to have a rather large foreign body suddenly and unexpectedly enter your breathing zone.

Hubby immediately began to administer blows to my back and jolts to my diaphragm with no success. Coughs began to rack my throat and a deep burning sensation began to develop in the bronchial area of my lungs on the right and center of my chest. Lucky for me the Vitamin C pill quickly began to break up and, I thought should be dissolving, as I could now breathe above and around the pain. Anyway after an hour or two I felt somewhat OK except for the persistent burning feeling. Coincidentally I had a previously made appointment with my Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT)physician the next morning, so decided to wait to seek medical attention - what a fool!


When the ENT doctor heard my story and my symptoms he ran out of the examination room yelling over his shoulder that this was serious and that he was calling a Lung Specialist immediately; and I was to wait there. Less that five minutes later he directed me to the nearest hospital's Emergency Room (ER) as the specialist would be waiting for me there. What a shock - when I got to the ER they took me in immediately, no waiting in the waiting room for hours for me.

Within an hour of arriving at the ER, I was unconscious on a table having a Bronchoscopy procedure to try and assess the damage to my lungs and to try and remove as much of the Vitamin C as possible. Remember Vitamin C is an acid. The photos of the procedure were even clear to me, a non-medically trained person. Imagine the inside of your lungs covered in a white frosting-like material. When the matter was removed you can see the burned lung tissue under it. What a mess - so I spent three days in the hospital and had three different physicians and numerous nurses tell me how lucky I am to be alive. I've been left with the worst case of bronchitusI've ever experienced and am taking huge dosages of Prednisone just to keep the ability to breathe. Oh, and I'll have to undergo another bronchoscopy in about a month to see what other damage the Vitamin C may have caused.

Moral of this story - don't try to take two large capsuls of any kind of food supplement. vitamin or medicine at once like I did! Also, if you ever have a Vitamin C loged anywhere in your body get to a doctor immediately. (This experience makes me wonder what it does to your stomach.) Now, maybe I can be back to work by next week?

Wood Cornices - Beautiful Addition to Your Windows

Last month Hunter Douglas released a new product to the window covering industry. They will come in 46 colors to match their Country Woods Expose wood blinds or can be purchased unfinished. Each cornice will be made of 100% domestic wood and will be hand-finished and hand-assembled by genuine craftsmen.

There will be six styles in heights of 6", 9" and 12". The unfinished cornices will be available in Basswood, Cherry, Oak or Pine and you can paint or stain them to any desired finish.

There are several design options to truly customize them:

Decorative keystones
Carved wood appliques
Coordinating mantel shelf & decorative shelves
Decorative plate groove

Cover a shade and a drape combination as in the photo with one of these stylish cornices and you have a window fit for a "queen". If you also have a fireplace in the room you can add the mantel shelf too and the room comes live with style and beauty.