I made it out alive!
I think I will begin with day one of the journey. I need to include the several "Notes to Self". This should serve to remind me and perhaps others as well.
First Note to Self: Never fly out at 5 a.m. on a Saturday. For one, this requires one to have their $#%@ together not only the night before, but the week before. Packing doesn't really take that long, but remembering things that one should remember when you wake at 3 a.m. is not probable...like the rechargable batteries you so cleverly charged the night before ready and waiting for the journey. Although milk is $1.70 in Arizona, a 4-pack of Energizer AAs is $5. There simply is no way to consume enough coffee after 3 hours of sleep to remember this.
Second Note to Self: Buy small bottles for your favorite shampoos, toothpaste etc. It seems the only 3.4 oz or less bottles available for these items are not the choice brands, but those that tend to make your hair feel like tumbleweed and your teeth just never quite clean...
Third Note to Self: A political blog where you include political cartoons and references to espionage that is viewed by folks in 3rd world and terrorist infested countries may result in loss of innocence of oneself and one's luggage during a search by airport security.
Fourth Note to Self: Reduce weight to 80 or 90 lbs. max. Although news reports state that the size of the average American is going up, the space allowed between you and your fellow travelers is decreasing and the number of flights is decreasing, resulting in a sardine effect. Although you may not be large, this doesn't mean that the person beside you is small. I am also thankful that my surrounding passengers were kind enough to abide by personal hygeine etiquette prior to boarding. This was not the case on a flight from Chicago once. As we were waiting to board, I prayed that I wouldn't be seated next to the stinky obese man that I happened to walk by and be nauseated by. My prayers were answered and he was at the opposite end of the plane.
Fifth Note to Self: First class passengers are better than the rest of us, and using their restroom because it is closer to you and not occupied results in the flight attendant announcing over the loud speaker a reminder that those are for snooty asses and not for thine.
Sixth Note to Self: Create a photo library of the backs of people's heads.
Yes, there was snow in Colorado. Visible from cruising altitude one can see the deep grooves in the snow that are probably interstates cleared by the huge snow blowing parades you see on tv. Quite interesting...
Seventh Note to Self: Bring food. Despite the request when you purchase your ticket for the type of meal you prefer, when you fly from 5 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., you ARE NOT provided with so much as a measley bag of peanuts!!!
There was not much else to report on in the first day. A nap ensued followed by eating and more sleep. Another reason not to fly out so early. The first day was shot!
Day 2: We went to watch the skydivers. Although I admit, I yawned at first when the suggestion was made, it was much more than watching them at the air show. This is an international school for skydiving. There were many folks from all over the world here learning how to sky dive. On this windy day, they were landing all over the place. Unlike a horse show where you have to look down to be careful what you step in, here you had to look up to be careful of what steps in you! The week prior to our visit two skydivers lost their lives when they became entangled. Here we see them packing their chutes:
This is a picture that was not enhanced by zoom. They seemed like they were going to land on us, and turned at the last minute, landing on the field. They continuously fall out of the sky, changing from dark dots to human kites.
We also went to a sort of fair, where they had an old fiddlers competition. It wasn't the greatest and we left before long. They had a couple of old cars that actually ran. This one was equipped with all one needs to have. It had a washer, birdhouse, wash tub, you name it! It had everything including the kitchen sink.
3 comments:
Glad your back in the land of inclement weather.
You stirred a memory. When I was 11 or so, we parked our trailer across from Camp Campbell, the home of the army airborne. I used to watch the planes fly over the camp and out would come these little specks that got larger as the chutes openned.
I prowled the camp sometimes and used to find pieces of parachute and cords, treasures from the trash.
Love you and glad you survived.
POOKA
Welcome back! Glad you had a safe journey and some fun while in AZ. So, was your neighborhood falling apart and waiting for your return? I found out today that another house on my block was sold to either a large unnamed hospital or a semi-large unnamed university. Another bite of the apple... I'm afraid that I'm only going to be left with the core.
I haven't heard anything about the neighborhood except what was in the paper on the police log. I have gone through only half of the papers so far. One article with a landlord who says that he can't sell his place due to the bad reputation of the neighborhood was kind of funny, because it is always these landlords that have no idea what goes on at their rental properties.
It's too bad that the housing in your area is selling to these institutions. I have a list of properties and property owners (obtained from the assessor's office by the PD for me) and many of the owners of the "bad" properties are actually the colleges. From what I heard from the people in your area that have contacted them, they also consider themselves to be unresponsible for what goes on there. Apparently they aren't aware of the laws that are on the books that make them legally responsible for repeated activity.
Hang in there!
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