Fly away...

It was 60 degrees this morning! I’m wearing a sweater! Actually, I have to be honest – this is not quite as exciting as it usually is, because I know I’m (eventually) moving to Chicago. And in Chicago, I’ll be LUCKY to get a 60 degree day once Halloween rolls around. I suppose I should be grateful for warm Texas weather as long as it lasts. I am a little bit worried that the house won’t sell until we’re smack dab in the middle of winter, and then once I DO move, it’ll be like climate shock. (Of course, with the total lack of interest we’ve had so far, it could be spring or summer before the house sells. And by then it’ll be temperate again…)

Rick is gonna be SO peeved if he has to keep flying back and forth much longer. Flying isn’t his favorite form of transportation. And it’s filled with all sorts of unknown variables. A couple weeks ago, he called me from the airport and I heard a high-pitched screeching noise in the background. I thought he was at the airport Starbucks – through the phone, it sounded like someone was steaming milk for a cappuccino. But it turned out to be a screeching child – who, much to Rick’s chagrin, ended up occupying the seat across the aisle from him on the airplane ride home. Now, screeching kids on an airplane are bad enough – but as the plane was landing, the rambunctious kid’s mom decided to read to her child in an effort to calm him down. And what was her literature of choice? A Disney book, perhaps? A story about adorable little puppies? Maybe a classic like Charlotte’s Web or The Secret Garden? Nope – she pulled out the safety pamphlet and started reading to her kid about what to do in the event of a crash landing. (“Put your oxygen mask on first, then attend to those who need assistance… in the event of a water landing, your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device…”) That is some soothing bedtime story material right there…

I’m not sure which is worse – the bedtime-story reading of the safety pamphlet, or the NEXT flight Rick was on, where he AGAIN was seated next to a child. This time, as the plane was descending, it hit some turbulence and bounced around a bit. All the bouncing made the child loudly exclaim, “are we crashing?” I don’t know, kid – but just in case, let me read you a delightful story called “The Seat Pocket Safety Card”…

Yeah, flying can be interesting… I mean, just the fact that you are literally trapped inside this manner of conveyance with a bunch of strangers, tens of thousands of feet in the air – it’s a strange thing. If you get sick of them, you can’t step outside for a few moments to get some fresh air, or walk down to the onboard coffee shop (although how cool would it be to have an onboard coffee shop??). So most of us just try to shut out the rest of the plane and get lost in our own little high-altitude world. We work on our laptops, or peruse a magazine, or listen to our iPods, or sleep… or occasionally read the safety card in the seat pocket. I wonder what would happen if all the seats were removed from a plane, and everyone was forced to sit in a group and mingle… ugh… actually, that doesn’t sound fun at all…

And I recently read a report about how rarely the seat pockets are cleaned on airplanes – which means I haven’t pulled out one of those in-flight magazines in a while. Because I don’t even want to think about what ELSE might be festering in that seat pocket… So maybe they SHOULD remove all the seats from airplanes, just to cut down on the germs. (Nah… then where would they stash the safety cards???) :)