I cheerfully walked up to the glum Nortwest Airlines ticket people and bid them a good day. “Hello Northwest!” I said, “How about a trip to Minneapolis?”

Just because Nortwest hates its customers doesn’t mean we have to go hating them back! Besides, I was in a great mood because I was a full hour early for my flight from New York City to the American Middle West where my softball colleagues and I had our weekly tilting-at-the-windmills gathering. No weather, no delays, smooth sailing all the way to Marshall Terrace.

“You’re kind of early for a five-o-clock flight,” sneered the ticket lady.

“Oh no,” I corrected her. “My flight has a 1 pm departure! I’m right on time!”

“Not at this airport you aren’t,” she said. Sure enough, a quick check of the itinerary indicated that indeed my flight was leaving from Laguardia while I was standing firmly in the grim cavern of terminal four at JFK. And if I’m not mistaken, I think the shadow of an evil smile crossed the pursed lips of the ticket woman as she saw go from Mr. Cheerful Guy to Mr. In a Big Hurry Guy.

Not planned but not unexpected. There is a phrase for the rushed trip across town, hustle through security, dash to the gate all the while with the sinking feeling that the plane will be gone, the game will be missed, the night will be an irritating one stuck in an airport begging for any passage home: “paying the Jim tax.”

The Jim tax is the cumulative time spent looking for your wallet and keys. The Jim tax is the $80 spent on a replacement battery charger for your video camera. Didn’t pay that parking ticket and surprised to find that you can no longer rent a car because there is a warrant out for your arrest due to the escalated penalties? That’d be a Jim tax you’re paying my friend.

But if you pay the Jim tax often enough it gets to be no more painful than the 7% that skims off the top for the fine folks in St. Paul. You sit in the taxi and you figure the odds for a minute or two and then you just let it go. There are a few things you just have to accept–since I’m Jim I have come to see the Jim tax as a normal part of doing Jim business.

Recent Jim softball business has been of little note. We played the ‘Nads and they did a great job. They are a talented group of guys, that’s for sure.

The century game was played against the Targets. They were very kind about our longevity accomplishment, though we discovered that their team has been playing for 100 YEARS! That’s over ten thousand games! So there is something to strive for, certainly. Target demonstrated why they continue to play softball by providing a batting and fielding exhibition that was something to watch. Nicely done guys.

As for our own guys, well its been a few weeks where we’ve had to pay the taxes. But as Keith is quick to point out: You doing what you can. That is all you can do.