Heading Home

I have spent a week here in our nation's capital... but my time is up, so now, I am sitting in Reagan Airport, waiting for my flight home. (Virgin America, Flight 2, the “Best Damn Airline in the World”) I am assigned to boarding group "E"... Aka there will be no more space left in the over head bins for you..

As we head down the jet way, as we (group E) wait in the aisles, as those ahead of us, those in boarding groups A, B, C, and even dreaded D put their precious bags in the rapidly filling overhead bins the cabin crew asks us to "quickly" stow our bags and find our seats... But there is little space for bags, and others, in earlier boarding groups are block said aisles as the look for elusive empty places for their precious bags.  There is nothing quick about the process…

Our flight crew has announced a 5 hour 34 minutes flight time... The cabin crew announced a 5 hour 40 minute flight... This for a flight which left at 5:05 (eastern) and is scheduled to, arrive at 8:05 (pacific)... Something doesn't add up. 

It has been a good trip, with days filled with libraries and archives full of dusty books, files, and grand discoveries. I found maps to guide trips into the Nevada desert, in search of things long gone... I have copies of catalogs full of equipment to equip a 1890's steam powered street railroad... It is an entire system… I have text books on how to design such a system… You likely don' t care... and I don't care if you don't...
In between, evenings were spent with great nieces Maddy and Katie (and parents) and a couple of kittens... And the Spy Museum... 

So, now at 6:05 (pacific) I sit, strapped to a seat, at about 38,000 feet... Below, Utah... According to the little TV in the seat back ahead of me we have a bit more than 700 miles left to go... At a bit over 450 miles an hour (the little TV again) we might make it on time (5 hours)

Tomorrow I will be back into work... For the foreseeable future, I will be too busy to think... While I was gone, work crews "finished*" up their work, rehabilitating Patterson House, the Victorian house, now museum that I oversee... Since early September, they have re-enforced the foundation, driven pilings to stop the porch from settling, rewired the house, painted inside and out, refinished the hardwood floors, and installed a heating system.  We started thinking about the project in 2005… now 7 years later, we are nearing completion…

Tomorrow, when I return, I will find a house with most of the furniture piled in the sun porch... I should probably put it back before we open early next month... We had planned to spend a month putting things back...  starting in late January, but the project ran late, so now we have a week instead of a month... Plus docent training, and a welcome back breakfast... It should be fun...

Randy

P.S.  The flight arrived early… not 5 hours and 34 or 43 minutes, but about 4 hours and 50 minutes…

* "finished " does not mean the work crews are done... There is a punch list of unfinished details two pages long... "Done" may prove elusive... But at least I can put the furniture back.