Weird Happens

Weird happens. It is built into life. You can't run from it, hide from it, or control it. I have already confessed that the last time I flew (before this trip) was 3 days before the horror's of 9-11. Since then I had been earth bound. I drive. I ride my "hardly." I occasionally walk. I even skipped once when no one was looking. But I had not flown again until August 16th. It all went great. St. Louis to Phoenix. Phoenix to Seattle. Piece of cake. And then my bride and I drove around a little bit. Spent a couple of days just enjoying ourselves. I checked e-mail before going to bed on the third day of our journey and I noticed a small headline on foxnews.com. I was tired and did not pay much attention to it. But the next morning when I woke up the news was pretty much all under one headline. Terrorism. It seems that some bad people were being arrested in Britian for plotting to blow up many airplanes headed for the United States. I realized right away that we had flown three days ago.

Hmmmm.

Three days. Three days before. Three days after. I see a trend.

And then they announced that the day the new terror event was planned to have occured was August 16. That is the day I held tickets for to return home. Like I said ... weird happens.

I kind of feel guilty. Like if I stopped flying all of this would stop happening. Ok, not really. I mean, I know better. But you have to admit that it IS kind of strange. For the record I would like to point out that I didn't fly anywhere near the time that "shoe bomber" guy tried to light up his Adidas. Can't hang that one on me.

So this morning I dutifully took off my shoes for the guy behind the x-ray machine, emptied my pockets and disposed of my bottled water before arriving at the gate. My toothpaste and shampoo are in my checked luggage in the belly of the plane. Not only that but I kept all of my electronic equipment off until the nice lady up in front said it was ok. And even then I kept my ipod turned down low. Right now I am typing at 41,000 feet above New Mexico, or so the Captain tells me. I have my seat belt on, I am smiling a lot at the flight attendents and I am watching my wife play "Go Fish" with a little girl flying alone from Seattle to St. Louis. She's a pretty special woman, my wife. So, you see, I am really trying. Today I am doing it all right. Playing by the rules.

Anyway, I think maybe I'll just stop flying again. I don't have any tickets pending. Since I stole the northwest corner of the country on this trip (see previous blog) I kind of thought I might go for the northeast next summer. You know, start a collection of the farthest rocks stuck to the farthest corners of each part of our country. Florida would have been robbed in 2008. San Diego would have lost their rock in 2009. And in 2010 I would have sold them all on e-bay for a tidy profit allowing me to retire early and enjoy life on some mountain. Hey, it was a plan. But I guess it's just not happening. For the sake of national security and the airline industry I suppose I should hang-up my wings.

So here I go, one last time. Everybody singing ... "OFF I GO, INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER..." Tomorrow I'll just drop the top on my 'Stang and cruise the asphalt. The world will be better for it.