Eight and a half hours in a plane, four thousand miles, and five time zones later I'm still not sure what's going on. I got stuck near the front of a full Boeing 767-400ER (2x3x2 seating) stuck near a window with no less than four agitated children in the immediate vicinity. What a way to end a vacation. Absolutely spectacular weather, beautiful scenery, and then I'm packaged up like a sardine and sent blasting through the stratosphere in a pressurized metal tube at 550 miles per hour. When you really think about it, it really doesn't make that much sense. Seriously, you're stuck in a tube five miles above terra firma going insane speeds in an environment that would give you no more than two minutes of useful consciousness should the cabin's integrity become compromised. (All that, and they get paid too!)
The really neat thing about the flight back was that it was the Captain's retirement flight. Upon arriving on the ground in Salt Lake City, we were met on the taxiway by four police cars that escorted us to the gate through the "washdown." The washdown is basically a water salute given to retiring airline pilots by airport firetrucks. As we taxied by, the trucks sprayed jets of water over the entire plane. Quite a site. We parked, and that was it, a chapter of his life consisting of 31 years had just come to a close. We stopped by the cockpit on the way out and thanked him for a safe flight and wished him well. I wondered on the way out, what one does with that much free time and a 150,000 dollar a year pension. Maybe one day I'll find out...
As for the site, love the dotcom, and I'm hoping that Josh does something to make this new layout mac compatible. I think it's time for bed... I think.
Jeff C.
