Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Changing Luck

You know how it goes. Most days are normal, everyday, routine.

Sometimes, you get a string of bad luck. Things are plain going badly. And you stick it out because you know the good and bad will even out eventually.

Last week, I was traveling again and I had a bad string going. And then, just as suddenly it was gone. Two things were a clear sign that my luck had changed for the better.

First, when I checked out of the hotel, they asked me where I had parked. It turns out that a drunk driver had crossed the road, the lawn, and plowed into 4 cars parked in the hotel parking lot. My rental car was 5 spaces further down and just fine.

On the flight home, the sun is just past the horizon, the sky is a little pink at the horizon and blue above. We are flying just above a layer of intermittent puffy white clouds. Occasionally, they tower up above our level as we fly around them. Thousands of feet below, where the earth should be, there is a layer of white clouds that makes you feel like the earth has disappeared. Meanwhile, the clouds roll and wave and hide and seek, an interesting country I would like to explore. They are so close that you could reach out and touch them.

I thought about trying to capture it with a picture, but I think you will do a better job inside your head.

Most of the time air travel is crowded, ugly, and impersonal. If you keep your eyes open, it can occasionally be beautiful.

3 comments:

  1. Re air travel, I've done hundreds of thousands of air miles over the years, most of them boring to the point of tears. But I'll never forget one trip from Toronto to Ottawa. Only 40 minutes long, we spent the entire time flying over an electrical storm, at night. It was incredibly beautiful and, I can honestly say, the only plane trip I ever took where I was sorry for it to end.

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  2. Sounds great. Those are the rare and beautiful surprises.

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  3. I have to add that the perfectly round rainbow on a flight back from North Carolina was perhaps my favorite memory of air travel, but seeing a few meteor craters in Arizona from the air was pretty cool too!

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