Sunday, December 10, 2017

Nice To Be Tall 12/10/2017

Good Morning,

I am just waiting for my pot of Jingle Bell Java to finish brewing. Rene and I are relaxing in Florida for a few days. Our dog Gibbs is in good hands back at the house with our nephew Nick.. Although they have coffee in Florida, they do not have Door County Coffee. I am spoiled and I like a little bit of home with me, when I travel. So I packed enough coffee for the week in my bag. Rene thinks that I am nuts, but I never said I wasn't.

Let's talk about our quest to get here and the kindness I saw in people doing nice things for others. Our travel started two days ago. Rene and I arrived at the airport on Friday afternoon. just to be told that foul weather (snow) down South, (mainly Atlanta) had literally closed many airports. We did not have a direct flight but the airline already booked us on early flight out yesterday.

So Rene and I were up and out of the door at 3:30 AM . We arrived at the airport just as it started to snow in Milwaukee. Now a little bit of snow doesn't stop Milwaukee. However we did have another layover in Chicago. By the way Atlanta Airport you need to put on your big boy britches and learn to deal with a little snow. You don't see us folks up North collapse when the temperatures  reach the high nineties. I must move on. I vented and that's enough. I knew Chicago could handle snow so I wasn't worried.

We were on the plane and they had to de-ice it a little so us snow birds could leave. While they were backing up the plane it hit something. We assume it was a vehicle. We were sent right back to the terminal and had to exit the plane quickly with our belongings. About this time I was calculating whether or not I was going to leave and ever get on a plane again.

The airline recovered nicely and brought in another plane from Chicago. Atlanta, notice this. It was snowing and they landed a plane! We were all boarded once more, de-iced and sent on to Chicago. We then were assigned other fights taking the passengers to their destinations much later. In my mind better late than never sounded ok.

It was a long day waiting for our next flight out of Chicago. It is a nice airport and if I have to wait a long time it would be one of my choices to do so. But soon enough we were in the air and with quite a few people from the original flight Friday night. When we landed, in cold not so sunny Florida, there were people that still had another connecting flight. They needed to rush out of the plane.

Ecclesiastes 4:6-12New International Version (NIV)

Better one handful with tranquility
    than two handfuls with toil
    and chasing after the wind.
Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
There was a man all alone;
    he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
    yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
    “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
    a miserable business!
Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken

One lady, a tall and very slender one at that, stood up and made an announcement. She was not a flight attendant. She simply stated this. "Some folks need to get out of the plane in a hurry. If you reached your final destination you can wait. What we  can do is assist those needing to leave with help emptying the overhead storage and getting them loaded up and on their way." We all went to work! There was an applause and that's what we did. This very tall, slender gal started handing things down to those needing to leave. Now I wasn't blessed with height but I have a strong back. I helped handing this stuff out and actually held a little kid while mom got her act together. I will never know if everyone made it to their connecting flight but the team sure gave it a great try. Christmas has a way of bringing out the best in people.

Working as a team probably did help and I hope they all had safe travels. Our travel day ended at around 6 or 7 PM. Glad to be here tired and worn, but here.

God bless,

Marty

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