What Ever Happened to Karen Black?

First I want to thank God to be home! My flights were uneventful. There was a delay and two gate changes at Houston airport that caused me to walk a lot more than I would have had to ... but no matter now. I'm just glad to be home. I'm in my recliner, with my leg elevated, and trying to stay off of it as much as possible so that the healing can begin. I just had a long visit with old friends Eddie and Judy Lewis. Such encouragers! I love them so much. I had a lot of thoughts while I was flying on the planes back and forth from Mobile to Houston to Los Angeles, but I didn't write them down. I remember a few key words, though. Flimsy. Really, airplanes are pretty flimsy. I mean the seats in these planes are not much more than well padded lawn chairs bolted into a floor covered with a cheap carpet that I'm sure is easily replaced. There is plastic everywhere ... bins ... ceiling ... panels. Plastic and aluminum ... bolts and glue... and heavy motors held up by who knows what. And the thing flies thousands of feet into the air several times a day without much an effort, it seems. Useless. The fact that my seat cushion is also a flotation device is not going to be much help to me when the greatest body of water I flew over was the Mississippi River. Speaking of bodies, I'm wondering how a seat cushion is supposed to keep ME afloat! The instructions about oxygen masks might be useful if we suffer some kind of cabin pressure failure, but if we are freefalling in the air toward the ground, I may not remember that if the bag doesn't inflate oxygen is still available. Will there really be time for me to adjust my own mask first, and then help others? In a panic, will I forget how to unhook my seatbelt? If we are falling through the air, do I want to unhook my seat belt? I heard four of these presentations on my trip, and I think I could repeat them with detail ... but I doubt they are very helpful. What we really need in times of emergency on a flight are (a) a hatchet to hack a hole through the crashing vessel, (b) a parachute so we can jump out and (c) a cyanide tablet in case we can't get out so we can give ourselves to the Lord before having to feel the impact. At least these are the things I thought about on the plane. I did pray that if we crashed that God would take me in some way before we actually hit the ground. Playground. Flying over the tops of the clouds gives one a vista of the playground of God. You think watching the clouds from beneath is fascinating? On top of those beauties are castles, dragons, replicas of the Grand Canyon, giant icy mountains with calm still oceans of water before them. There are strata of colors that playfully interact with your vision as you fly by, becoming different objects as you watch them change shape. The clouds appear to be so solid as to block the way of the aircraft, but turn to mist as the plane easily glides through them. Scientifically we are looking at water vapor, but to the eye it appears that we are entering Shang-ri-la, an ether plain of paradise just outside a window. Close enough to entice, yet untouchable. Food. Do I really need to say anything about the food? No, I don't. Stewards. Our family never flew anywhere when I was growing up. I was in college before I ever took my first flight. But in the movies, there were stewardesses.... beautiful, perfectly attired, unflappable, eager to help, and did I mention beautiful? Remember Karen Black in Airport? (What ever happened to her anyway?) So where did these stewards come from? Is this what the sexual revolution was for? So that we could have these guys in uniforms running up and down the aisle serving us and taking care of business? None of them on my flights failed to do a good job - they all did swell. But... they were more brusque than necessary ... and their beauty was to be found in the eyes of some other beholder. There are just some things a woman does better than a man. Well, you've wasted a perfectly good ten minutes reading my post today ... I hope it had a few smiles for you and that you'll be happily on your way. Me? I'm not going anywhere on this leg - and certainly not on a plane for a while. I wonder if Blockbuster has a copy of Airport ... I haven't seen that in a long time. As I recall it was pretty boring until ... something happened. A bomb on the plane? There were a lot of stars in that movie. Who else? Those questions and more answered in the comments below (he said by faith).