Sitting in “first” pondering my good fortune at being upgraded and thus away from the group of 40 or so blue shirted seniors clearly on a tour together, I had just settled into the current issue of Veranda when a bell went off. No, not a bell of realization or one denoting an important thought in my head, I mean a real bell and then another one. To be more specific these were alarm bells going off in the cockpit which we were privy to because the Captain had forgotten to turn off the intercom broadcasting to the passengers. Thus we all learned what happens next when there is a cockpit emergency warning, “Austin this is American 999 declaring an emergency and returning to runway XYZ, we have an engine fire warning”. We had not been in the air 3 minutes and thus were still over Austin and at a low altitude, making a wide turn back toward the airport I thought, "That’s not too far, but then again….. it is if something’s really wrong and it’s damn sure farther than I can fly on my own!"

Long story short we made it back to the ground and then to the gate with apologies from the Captain for his inadvertent broadcast and an explanation that maintenance would be coming to look at the plane as the warning light had quickly gone out and “maybe it was just a faulty sensor”. Bottom line the air crew did their job well – no complaints up to this point.

I should have taken a cue from the 25 or so folks who gathered their stuff and left the plane just as soon as we were at the gate and the door was opened. But I made the mistake of staying put and thus enjoyed an hour of conversation with a nice guy who gave me a great demo of his iPhone (now I want one). It did get a tad warm on the plane and coupled with a hot flash or two I was getting hot and antsy. My failure to bolt early resulted in my becoming part of the “herd” that was deplaned when the flight was eventually cancelled. Nonetheless, I donned a positive attitude and entered the terminal again looking for my way home. Here’s what I learned/observed in the process:

# 1 Get off and rebook at first sign of trouble
# 2 Don’t believe there is any communicative process between the nice agent at aa.com and the twit at the gate (even if there is, the twit at the gate will tell you she doesn’t know “jack” anyway and by all appearances that is likely true.
# 3 Don’t waste time behind men in too many designer labeled items of clothing/travel accessories who are waving an executive platinum card and arguing with the twit at the gate – just find another line – really boys don’t you fly often enough to know that isn’t getting you anywhere?
# 4 Ask to be backed-up, placed on standby, whatever for every flight option available for the remainder of the day as several of them will likely fall through since the schedules have been tightened up and it seems all flights are now overbooked. This presumes you had the foresight to travel early in the day in the first place – remembering that late day travel limits the available options.
# 5 Once you’ve done all you can do, make a hotel reservation (just in case) and then find a comfortable people watching spot, a magazine, your iPod, and something good to eat, preferably chocolate and chill. In my case Amy’s Dark chocolate ice cream, with cinnamon and raisins mixed in – divine.

Other random observations:
-Dissing one of your clients while talking loud enough for all in the vicinity to hear is not a good idea and ….guess what? All the folks within earshot casually visiting are not chatting it up about the weather - they are all talking about what a DA you are and feeling sorry for your poor client!
-Baggy shorts on cute college aged boys are fine until…….they ride so low your potential for a career in plumbing becomes waaaay to apparent.

Long story short I got home about 1 am no worse for the wear (8 hours later than anticipated).

I also had a nice visit with a lady from Austin going on holiday to Argentina – she bought a necklace I had just made called “peace, love and Jesus” that was a cute mix of sparkly crystal beads, a carved turquoise peace sign, a vintage glass heart, and a shadow box pendant with a sparkly cross in it right off my neck to take on her trip. I was happy to see her have it and know she will have fun wearing it.

This quote is like a song you can't get out of your head for me.

Yeah, Freedom does Rock, but that's not what the title means in this case. I'm watching the coverage of the protests in Iran and it has occurred to me there is a message for us watching from the safety of our homes across America. At great risk to self and family the folks in Iran are fighting back against an oppressive tryrannical government with rocks. That's it just rocks. As we watch them scrounging in the streets for the rocks they hurl in the face of both uniformed government forces and the non-uniformed basij - both of whom ARE armed, it is perfect illustration of why the 2nd Ammendment should be important to all of us.

An interesting and related historical tidbit:

“The best reason that I can think of for American citizens to keep and bear arms for their own defense … is a quote attributed to Japan’s Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943), the commander-in-chief of Japan’s combined fleet during World War II. He was a student of Harvard from 1919 to 1921, and had observed that Americans were not subjects of the government, but were, instead, well-armed citizens that were ready, willing and able to defend their homeland against all comers. He is credited with having stated that his reason for attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, instead of America’s west coast, was that invading America would be a suicide attack because there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass. ” Source: http://www.rationalreview.com

At risk of sounding like a right wing extremest, the same disincentive applies to our government - unless of course, we collectively sit back and let that change bit by bit until our rights are gone .......think about frogs in a pot of water or trapping wild hogs.

"I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did."
~Benjamin Harrison

Having been privileged to live with those in military service to our country nearly all of my life, I know the quote above is true. We are free and blessed because of their efforts; they have have paid the price of freedom for us with their lives - either lives lost or lives spent in service. Either way we owe them our thanks, our respect and our commitment to preserve what they have given us.

I took this photo at Roxane's Air Force Basic Training graduation ceremony. Starting with my 6th Great Grandmother, upon whose service to the United States during the Revolutionary War my DAR membership is based, our family has served through the generations - most recently Richard with 30 years service in the Army and now both of our daughters, Erica and Roxane, currently in the OK Air National Guard. I am frequently humbled by their sacrifices and service - freely given and quietly done, in their words "just doing what's right".