Monkey (travel) tales
1) Delayed by 2+ hrs this am, we opted to wait a little before trucking thru security (which is an adventure in it's own right - keep reading). So I'm going to grab a cup o' joe at the Cup 'O Joe that's left over in the terminal from pre-no liquids thru security-days. Good coffee, local and I like to buck the strbks saturation when possible. Get in line, 3 people ahead. #1 in line is Big SlowTawlkin' Guy Frm Tx who orders a coffee, then - oh yes - "some coffee beans, ya know, somethin light, not flavored, somethin a lady would like"... ??? "Oh, that'll be good. Do you have that already ground?... Oh great, you can grand it for me?... Oh and some tea bags. Do you have some that aren't flavored?..." You get the drift. Dude who is working, opening solo - is busting it trying to move Big Tx thru the line that is 7 deep now. Then Big Tx says to the line " oh - so sorry for the delay, hope this isn't an inconvenience. Just pickin' up a little somethin' for the wife & kids @ home...". Seriously? He bought a 1/4 lb of coffee! Ohhhhh. But kudos to dude who was working - patient, polite, great svs attitude. Made sure I told him so.
2) Security - since we'd been moved from airline to airline before hitting security, (by "hitting" of course I mean approaching..!) We were awarded the super-delux personal screening process. The upside is they walk you to the head of the line to get your stuff thru the machine, the less upside is that your stuff gets searched, swiped for "substances" and you get felt up by a TSA rep. But the CMH folks are all really pleasant and professional w/o treating you like a proven TSA threat - so all in all not that bad. Just an amusing twist to the multi-faceted start to the travel day!
3) And finally it's cheeks in the seats on the plane, pull away from the gate, sit for a few min. Drive to one end of the runway. Sit a few more. Then o'Cap'n my Cap'n comes on and says we'll be sitting for a few more - gotta burn off a few hundred gal of fuel before we can take off!?!?!? Snickering in the cabin. You're kidding, right?? Heard one guy say "mind if I just pull up my car and we put it in there?". We collectively find it highly ironic that the whole airline industry is getting it's fanny kicked by high fuel cost, hiking fares to keep in biz, but then we need to sit on the runway and just burn some off b'cause we pumped in too much? Things that make ya go "hmmmm"! "Dear airline - may I suggest that you fill up most of the way,then load on all your passengers and all their stuff and THEN top it off so as not to waste the precious fuel that makes it so tough to fly these days in the first place?".
These are just my little observations. Ironic things. Things that make me grin, and think "aha! Eckhart would say 'right now, This is your spiritual practice' " so I say thank you. Lessons in "flow". Always good for a monkey to have a "tale" to swing from! ;)
2) Security - since we'd been moved from airline to airline before hitting security, (by "hitting" of course I mean approaching..!) We were awarded the super-delux personal screening process. The upside is they walk you to the head of the line to get your stuff thru the machine, the less upside is that your stuff gets searched, swiped for "substances" and you get felt up by a TSA rep. But the CMH folks are all really pleasant and professional w/o treating you like a proven TSA threat - so all in all not that bad. Just an amusing twist to the multi-faceted start to the travel day!
3) And finally it's cheeks in the seats on the plane, pull away from the gate, sit for a few min. Drive to one end of the runway. Sit a few more. Then o'Cap'n my Cap'n comes on and says we'll be sitting for a few more - gotta burn off a few hundred gal of fuel before we can take off!?!?!? Snickering in the cabin. You're kidding, right?? Heard one guy say "mind if I just pull up my car and we put it in there?". We collectively find it highly ironic that the whole airline industry is getting it's fanny kicked by high fuel cost, hiking fares to keep in biz, but then we need to sit on the runway and just burn some off b'cause we pumped in too much? Things that make ya go "hmmmm"! "Dear airline - may I suggest that you fill up most of the way,then load on all your passengers and all their stuff and THEN top it off so as not to waste the precious fuel that makes it so tough to fly these days in the first place?".
These are just my little observations. Ironic things. Things that make me grin, and think "aha! Eckhart would say 'right now, This is your spiritual practice' " so I say thank you. Lessons in "flow". Always good for a monkey to have a "tale" to swing from! ;)
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