... in which our intrepid hero crosses the Atlantic solo for the first time since December of 1990 (and for the same reason!).
A heartfelt thanks to those of you that were concerned about my general well-being whilst Amy and Maya were whooping it up without me in England for 10 days. Turns out that although Cochrane Galactic HQ was a much quieter place most of the time, and I did generally wander around "amelessly" [sic] (I was without Ame), I also tried to make the best of it by working a fair amount and hitting a few additional workouts with the boyz.
I've missed them terribly, cannot *wait* to see them.
This picture took a *lot* of work! I promise I didn't eat everything, but I did have some pretty interesting "combo" dinners composed of incongruous "buried bottom shelf" frozen goods for a week. Notice the duct tape improvements to the right-hand shelves! There is nothing that cannot be solved without a judicious use of duct tape.
Related to the above, it really is a testament to Amy's incredible work planning these amazing trips - thank you sweetie. Here I was, just one dude in a house for 10 days and in order to close it up for 3 weeks, it STILL took a huge amount of effort to get it all done.
Evidence of learning: noticed this awesome bruise while at MSP waiting for my flight. Don't know who did it to me (probably Tyler or Kevin!), but thanks for making me better (and better looking!) My mat time will be the single thing that I miss the most.
Here's the mandatory cloud picture - it's been a while, but I think it's the law or something? You have to post an in-flight cloud picture to make the trip "legal". 72 U.S.C § 17. Anyway, thought this one was pretty cool as a cloud above the clouds.
My first stop after MSP was ATL (the busiest airport in the world). It's funny, because the last time we were here as a family, our inbound flight was slightly delayed, making our connection super-tight. From the instant we were released, we all were sprinting through the airport, up and down escalators, busting through crowds of people to get to our flight. Barely (!) made it... This time for me, it was so easy, connection was no problemo.
But once on the plane... Here's the thing, I know this is going to sound like it's right out of Louis C.K.'s (***) excellent and insightful "everything is amazing, and no one's happy" rant. Here I am, witnessing the miracle of human flight! Sitting in a chair - IN THE SKY. So it is with some level of hesitance that I will now complain to you about [limited] portions of the flight. :)
Besides the incredible levels of coldness (I had shorts on, sure, but also a winter hat, hoodie with the hood up, and blanket, and I was still freezing). I think it had to do with my placement right behind a wall separating the cattle from the people, and the recirc set up a localized polar vortex, JUST ON MY BODY. I had a window seat, seated next to a very large, burly, German fellow. It is with no exaggeration that I say that we had an 8-hr, non-verbal (besides the occasional "what the fuck?" and hand-motion from me) physical negotiation for space. I found that my left elbow fit nicely underneath his right triceps and into his ribs. He found that his entire right arm fit "nicely" into my entire lap. The armrest was like our Kashmir - one of us was India, the other Pakistan. Neither of us was winning the war, just pissing each other off in an escalation over something that could have been much more easily shared.
I'd say that I slept on the flight, but I don't like to lie. Plus, there were still active skirmishes in the War of Manspreading Aggression to fight.
I did get a bit of reading done though, between shivers and elbows.
*** Sorry it turns out that Louis C.K. is a garbage-person and a bit of a perv. I'm not trying to get him more pageviews, but that sketch is still one for the books.
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