Saturday, December 22, 2007

Way Down South

Watoosa and I are in Pensacola, Florida, the first of four cities in three states that we'll be visiting during our Christmas travels. It feels very different from Portland, especially because of the accents (Southern) and the weather (balmy). The trip out here was uneventful enough, which is good. The worst part about it was the fact that I had probably the worst cup of coffee in my life at the Coffee Beanery, a franchise with a name so stupid it should be shut down for that reason alone.

The only other source of stress was on the flight from Atlanta. Toward the end of the boarding phase, an enormous man collapsed into the seat directly in front of me. With my long legs, I already feel a bit cramped in economy class. This man's weight pushed the back of his seat into full "recline" mode, even without pressing the button. Then, during take-off, the G forces pushed the seat back more and more into my lap. It was like a pair of giant jaws were closing around my legs. I began wondering how much weight those seats are rated to support, and whether they took G forces into account in their calculations. Fortunately, the seat held up through the flight, and I avoided an almost certain crippling.

Tomorrow, we head up to Birmingham to visit Jackamo and her brood, and then we'll meet up with my family for a couple nights in Huntsville. On Christmas Day, we'll drive up to my grandparents' farm in Tennessee.

We feel very fortunate that we both get along so well with our in-laws, and yes, I would still say as much even if Watoosa's parents weren't frequent readers of this blog. One highlight of our visit thus far was learning a bit more about Watoosa's ancestors. As it turns out, several on her mother's side met a rather violent end! When we asked what happened, she (Watoosa's mom) just said, "Well...he, er...he just wasn't a very nice person." If that's the kind of thing that gets you shot, then I'm in big trouble.

It's been nice this year not having to worry about the impending ordeal of the APA. To those of you who are not so lucky, my prayers are with you.

2 comments:

Watoosa said...

I feel obligated to point out that my cup of tea from the Coffee Beanery was even worse than his cup of coffee, insofar as my tea smelled like feet. I tried to put lots of honey in it, but then it only smelled like feet slathered in honey.

Also, I offered to swap seats with Ickie when the giant sat down in front of him as I considered it less of a threat to my short, stumpy legs, but he declined, ever chivalrous.

Karen and Sean said...

Don't forget our ancestor that was struck by lightning...