The Q-View

Cashing in on my Christmas present: a week of spring training in Clearwater, Florida!

My first trip on an airplane since the B-17 ride.

Terry and I flew into Tampa yesterday, leaving behind cold weather, daily routines, and the dog. We didn’t really leave him behind. Leo did have to spend last night in a kennel, but Matt rescued him today and is dog-sitting until we get back.

Anyway, we went through the rite of airline passage and flew economy in a full, cramped jet. Terry took the aisle; I took the window. Fortunately, the gentleman squeezed between us was a good guy. We talked about the construction of the Blue Route, of all things. He worked on the litigation that resulted in the “blue” route being chosen over the two other color-designated routes. He also said he had been a judge. And he gave me the title of the book he was reading because I said the premise sounded interesting: the U.S. locates a sunken Russian nuclear sub without Russia’s knowledge. Sounds like The Hunt for Red October, somewhat. But his book was non-fiction: Red Star Rogue. We were on that topic because part of the sub was housed in Chester County.

My seat was directly over the wing. Great. I would be the first to see the wing fall off, or fire erupt from an engine after a bird strike like the one in Sully, which I knew I shouldn’t have watched if I was ever going to fly again. I recalled an episode from The Twilight Zone, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, aired in 1963.

What was that episode about? From IMDb: “Bob Wilson is on a flight when he sees a creature of some sort out on the wing of the aircraft. He’s only recently recovered from a nervous breakdown and isn’t sure that what he is seeing is real. Every time someone else looks out the window, the creature hides from view. When the creature begins to tamper with one of the engines he begs his wife to tell the pilots to keep an eye on the engines. If they see nothing, he agrees to commit himself to an asylum when they arrive at their destination.”

“Bob Wilson”–is there a more generic name?- was played by the soon-to-be Captain Kirk, William Shatner.

I kept a close watch on the left wing, and, who knows, maybe kept an engine-tampering gremlin from causing a disaster. Nobody thanked me. Now I know how Leo feels when he barks authoritatively at the U.S. mail truck every day, keeping us safe from who-knows-what.

At Hertz, we got to chose our rental car. I picked a KIA Soul. Lime green. Why? Easy to find in a parking lot. And it actually is a pretty nice car.

Clearwater is way more congested than I pictured it would be. Thank goodness for Waze. I even used the app to get back to the hotel after a jog this morning. I had no idea where I was.

Today, we went to the Phillies-Jays game. More on that in the next post.