Smells and music

The power of both has the ability to transport us to another world or another time. Half in sleep and half out of sleep on my trusty mp3 player a song wafts slowly through my foggy mind. It sounds familiar, and then like a flood of torrential white capped waters all the memories and emotions come sweeping back. This was a song from a funeral, a very recent funeral, a funeral for one so young and so innocent. I sit in seat 2A on a plane flying 35000 ft somewhere over Kansas and yet my mind is standing along a street holding a candle watching the flickering of the flame as family pictures are flashed on a large overhead screen. It was like yesterday and yet it has been months and months. Sleep has entirely left me and I am now in fully consciousness. God Bless you Ben in heaven right now where I am sure you are winning every video game ever made! We greatly miss you.

On these sobering thoughts I reflect on the events of late. Today was a wash of work as my entire worldwide team has flown in for two days of intense meetings to create our vision and plans for the next 1-2 years. Beginning at 8am and ending late into the evening the discussions are filled with contentious debates and the occasional sardonic humor. Today was filled with distractions as I attempted to have repairs made to my car prior to my departure to the airport. Much to my surprise a random company I called from the yellow pages arrived around noon and in 20 minutes had fully fixed the window. Although it looks like there is some other minor damage to the car I fear I escaped lightly. When the repair guys found out I live in the city he joked that they have a deal, every five break-ins I get a free window replacement. Humorous in a bitter prophetic way. On the drive to the airport I reach for my sunglasses in their ceiling hutch only to find them missing as well. I agree with my mother after talking to her, it is like being violated each time I get into the car and discover another thing missing. A weird feeling to picture someone in my car, sitting in the seat and rooting around through my things. I get only a glimpse of what victims of other crimes must feel after their incidents.

I would also like to reflect on a comment I got from an anonymous reader. I did not say my bad day compared to any other, for it could be so much worse. But in a stand-alone way it still makes for a lousy day as compared to days of past. This is what makes us appreciate the good so much more, for there can be no extreme happiness without unfortunate pain and no joy without sadness.

To leave this entry on a humorous note, on my flight from San Jose to Denver (just a stopover) I was in first class and was surprised by laughter from all around me. The 8 of us in first had a fantastic laugh at the ‘new and improved’ security methods on this particular flight. Due to 9-11 whenever a member of the flight crew needs to the use the facilities or rather anytime the cockpit door is opened a barrier of some type must be placed to prevent a passenger from rushing the cockpit door. Usually this barrier takes the form of a drink cart sideways across the hallway or a factory installed retractable fence. On this particular flight the head flight attendant (purser) placed two rolling board suitcases laid flat across the walkway. Keep in mind this barrier at the most was 1 to 2 feet off the ground. Between laughter we asked what that could possibly accomplish, answer it would cause an evil doer to trip prior to reaching the door. Riiiiggghhhttt. Another wonderful regulation hard at work to protect us. A smile to fly my way into a new day as I cross the midnight somewhere over Oklahoma.