The Heat Is On

I've been very busy lately, and have not been able to find time to post anything. Other priorities, such as work, and family gatherings of various sorts, have kept me away. I have a lot to catch up on, so here's the first of what I hope to be a relatively quick series of posts.

Let's talk about New Orleans, summertime, and flying on commercial airliners.

A while back, I posted about springtime, and how I am growing less tolerant of the cold in my old age.

Well, let me take that back.

It's midsummer in Ohio, where it's always hot, usually humid, and mostly uncomfortable. Then I went to New Orleans last week for a legislative conference. I've been there at various times of the year, and this is by far the worst. Example: as we left the hotel Friday for the airport, at a little past 9 o'clock in the morning, it was 94 degrees. I don't know what the relative humidity was, but I can tell you that I was immediately soaked when I walked out to the balcony in my room that morning.

It was like that most of the time last week. I took a few pictures from the balcony, and you'll note from this one that there were no people on Bourbon Street. It was just too damn hot.

New Orleans has survived, as it is, the infamous Hurricane Katrina. I'm told that the town still has about 300,000 fewer residents today than it had before Katrina, and the city continues to struggle. And their luck hasn't changed much - last week, someone spilled about 400,000 gallons of oil in the Mississippi River, and I know at least one state delegation had to change its plans to take a river boat cruise on State's Night.

As we were flying into New Orleans, I kept my eyes open for signs of lingering hurricane damage. I hadn't noticed any when I flew into New Orleans last January, but this time I caught something that had earlier escaped my attention. You'll note from the next picture that there are thousands of trees below, but that many of them have no limbs, leaves or needles. They were stripped during the hurricane, and now stand as stark reminders of the power of Mother Nature. Click on the picture to get a better view of the trees.
So it was good to get back to Ohio, but not before a couple other things happened. Our return flight was via Atlanta, which is one of the busiest airports in the world. I like to keep watch for other aircraft when I'm flying, and several times I've seen jets flying in the opposite direction, and that is a sight that will give you a real appreciation for the speed at which you are traveling.

As we were approaching Atlanta, I noticed that we were awfully close to another jet. This jet was flying in the same direction, and I couldn't help but wonder if the pilot was aware of its presence. I imagined that I'd read about the near-miss in the air near Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, and I would be able to say that I saw the other plane with my own two eyes. But apparently, around Atlanta, this is not even close to a near-miss.

We arrived (seven of us) at Gate B, and naturally our flight to Columbus left from Gate A. And we had very little time to get to the gate, and there were thousands of people getting in our way as sped across the terminal, and why do those people insist on STANDING on the escalator instead of using them to save time to get around the airport? . We made the flight by a whisker, but unfortunately, our luggage did not. Mine arrived on my porch sometime after 10:30 Friday night when I went to bed, but before 5:30 Saturday morning when I stepped out to the porch for my morning coffee.

It was good to be home.