Flying

In Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, an extraterrestrial confuses cars for Earth’s dominant life form.  So if cars are the dominant life forms, then airplanes are their cruel overlords. 

Carried in a “cruel overlord” 37 000 ft. above the ground, it seems as if the world is carved out of modeling clay.  The mountains are picture perfect with their sharp peaks covered by a light dusting of snow.  Only, since I am viewing them from above, I can also see how the streams drain off the mountains and coalesce into silvery serpentine rivers in the valleys. 

When I look out the window later, I see a patchwork quilt of fields.  There are green squares, brown squares, red squares, and yellow squares.  Each square has a different pattern: stripes, alternating colours and squiggles.  Some have a silvery strip of satin running through their perimeter.  This is the only way I have ever seen the prairie—from above. 

My Carry-On

For all my anxiety earlier, flying alone has been delightful.  People always seem to be happy when they are traveling.  In the Atlanta airport, waiting for my last flight to Ft. Lauderdale, I was struggling with a pay phone trying to call home.  I had written detailed instructions of how to call collect, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get a dial tone.  How hard could it be?  Eventually, I asked a fellow traveler for help.  However, even our combined efforts couldn’t make the phone work.  So, the nice lady lent me her cell phone for my long-distance call home.  

After a long day of traveling, I finally arrived in Florida.  As I walked out of the airport at ten pm, I could feel the heat and humidity push against me like a tangible pressure.  Welcome to Florida: land of the snowbirds, everglades, and golf courses.