Maybe I need a Captain…

We were enroute from EDI (Edinburgh) to EWR (Newark NJ) at 37,000 feet (estimated). Its been an uneventful flight, up till now.

We enjoyed a nice breakfast; did I mention we were at the airport at 6, and took off at 8:30 am?  

After breakfast, I was dozing a bit trying to catch up on some of the many hours of sleep I’d lost in the last 24.

Suddenly, I could tell, even in my dozing state, that we were decreasing in altitude. Even not fully aware, I was knowing we were out over the North Atlantic, and to me, it seemed there would be no real reason to be losing altitude.

Shortly, there was a loud click interrupting the classical music I was enjoying using my United Airlines supplied ear buds.  It was our Captain. 

In a voice louder than normal he said; “WE ARE GOING TO BE EXPERIENCING AN AREA OF TURBULENCE. TAKE YOUR SEATS NOW!  CREW, TAKE YOUR SEATS!

Then he added, in a more normal voice, “it should last about ten minutes.” 

I’m used to the messages when one of the cabin crew will say,  “It’s going to be a bit bumpy and the Captain has turned on the seat belt sign.” Or, you hear the “ding, dong” thing, the seatbelt light comes on and everyone just goes about their business.

I’m just not used to being yelled at by the Captain and it wasn’t even all that bad seemed to me.

I never could tell if we regained the altitude lost from our brief  dive toward the ocean a bit earlier. (That may be a slight exaggeration)

But here we are, moving right along, hoping to see Angela at ORD in Chicago in just a few hours.

But the good Captain did give me pause to think about life. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if one’s life had a Captain who would come on with an audible click and say something like, “There’s going to be some turbulence in your life just ahead, you need to hang on!”

After we see Ang in Chicago and spend a few days “recovering,” really drying out from a Scotland damper than I’ve ever seen it, we will get in our car and head to O45. (HOOKER)

I just took the opportunity while my two seat mates were out for the toilet, to use it as well.  I must have missed the sign for the one for normal sized people because the one I used wasn’t near big enough.

Oh, and the reason I estimated the 37,000 ft earlier (I think we were actually  higher than that) is that the navigation display that gives our flight data was not working. I just hoped the one in the pilot had was.

After about 25 hours of travel and two airports, there was Angela outside the airport with the hatch on her car up waiting to pick us up.

All’s well that ends well.