Flight of the Bloggerbee

I really can’t resist taking pictures on airplanes. Invariably I ask for a window seat and I spend the whole flight with either my face or my camera pressed against the glass. If it’s a night flight, I try to sit near the wing so that I can stare at the blinking light out at the end and watch the little flaps wiggle around. Easily amused? At 35,000 feet, you betcha! I won’t bore you with the entirety of my latest aero-slideshow, particularly since there are undoubtedly a number of less provincial jetsetters among you dear readers, but I just had to put up this one photo because it’s incredibly cool. I don’t get to look down my nose at the cloudtops that often, and, yes, I did occasionally watch the Care Bears as a kid. To the best of my reckoning this photo was taken over northern Mississippi.

The red-eye from Portland to Houston was quite turbulent. I’ve only flown maybe a dozen, fifteen times in my life so far, but I’d have to say that was the bumpiest ride yet: storms over the Rockies. Well, I thought it was fun. Not everyone aboard shared my sentiments (but alcohol sales sure seemed to be hoppin’, particularly for an in-flight movie about a spelling bee.) There was a short layover and then a much briefer flight into Birmingham, but that leg was delayed significantly because of fog.    

I landed at Birmingham International, which wasn’t the closest airport to my final destination but the fare there was much cheaper and I was able to spend a few days catching up with some old friends before coming home to see the family. All in all, there’s something a bit surreal about returning after two solid years away—not long enough of an absence to be truly disconcerting, but enough to notice some changes. Alabama feels more like home than before in some ways, and less so in others. When it’s all said and done I’m very glad to be back for a little while. It’s great to see familiar faces and landscapes, and I look forward to any kind of new perspective this adventure can offer.

Some interesting things have transpired in my part of the blogosphere in the week or so I’ve been away. I don’t have time to share them all, but a few highlights:

• Pierre at Candide’s Notebooks has posted a marvelous address he recently delivered to a Unitarian organization in Florida, concerning the political climate associated with the ‘War on Terror’ (TWAT, as Raincoaster would abbreviate) and drawing some startling but highly appropriate comparisons with Dostoevsky’s magnum opus The Brothers Karamazov. Kurt Vonnegut, perhaps my favorite American novelist, once declared that all there is to know about life can be found in the pages of that formidable work, and the more I read, the more I realize he wasn’t kidding, at least not much.
• Speaking of Raincoaster, she’s delightful as usual with too many goodies to mention—but I must point out the awesome Smigel parody of Schoolhouse Rock she’s dug up. And here’s hoping the coffee famine of ’06 ends soon, RC.
• Eteraz has been nominated for the prestigious Best of Blogs award. It’s not hard to see why: always a refreshing and insightful read over there. Congrats, guys, and cheers! This corner of ‘Bama is in your corner.
• Reclaiming Space has posed an interesting hypothesis: it takes at least ten members of the Bush administration to change a light bulb.
• Skip at Tsunami of Blood is fast approaching Chapter 100, and I say celebrations will be in order! Hear, hear. I especially found resonance in Chapter 95.  
• Zilla is kicking the habit, and she wants to draw you.
• And Wheel Revolution is already tugging at my fresh Northwest nostalgia with her excellent take on noncorporate coffee. How I’ll miss it, particularly since my little Interstate hometown just got its first *$ franchise. You go, Griffin! I’m glad, at least, that I did remember to bring home a couple pounds of Stumptown.

There are some things I’m leaving out, for sure, but that’s the story of my life, people!! I know, I know—it’s only been a week. But I’m weak for my favorite blogs, so, go figure. As for me, I’ve got a particularly well-researched project on public education up my sleeve that will be coming sometime in the next week, and I’m sure I’ll be ranting about something or another long before then. So, from the Heart of Dixie to your corner of the world, take it easy and don’t let the sound of your own keys drive you crazy.

On second thought, why not?