Outbound...

(Source)

Up at the crack of dawn Friday for a flight down to DCA. Why the crack of dawn? Well, that "custom" started a while back when The Nuke invited us down for Thanksgiving. She figured that if we left real early, why then we'd have nearly the entire day to hang out. So rather than spend what feels like the entire day traveling, we're on the ground at Reagan round about 0730 local with most of the day stretched out before us.

Once that custom was established, I have rigorously adhered to it in subsequent trips. While I was sorely tempted, when booking this trip, to slide that departure time back to eleven-ish, or so, I stuck with the 0600-ish departure. To get the whole day down there. So to speak.

Not to mention that when embarking on a trip to see the progeny, I don't sleep very well the night before, what with the excitement and all. Remember that while Your Humble Scribe is 63 calendrically speaking, deep down inside I'm still hovering around 12-years of age. Point being is that if I'm not going to get much sleep anyway, we might as well leave as early as possible and skip all that tossing and turning.

Is it painful?

Why yes, yes it is. By noon it feels like I've been awake for days already. As soon as the sun goes down I'm ready to hit the sack. In the winter that's kind of embarrassing...

"Wow, look how dark it is. Guess I should be getting to bed."

"Dad, it's five o'clock. No one is going to bed yet. Besides, don't you want to watch The Lawrence Welk Show first?"

Okay, that's something my maternal grandmother always did. Watch The Lawrence Welk Show then hit the sack early. The Nuke and The WSO have never forgotten their sleepovers at great-grandma's and love to compare me to her. Which, as time goes by, gets to be a more and more accurate comparison.

But I digress.

We're off to DC and its environs for to spend the weekend with family and friends who really are family except for the DNA bits. Which if you go back far enough, we probably share a bit o' DNA via Lucy. I reckon if you go back far enough, we're all related.

Sometimes, when I'm feeling a bit feisty, when folks ask me where my ancestors are from, I tell 'em, "Olduvai Gorge, certainly you've heard of it?" Those who get it will get a chuckle out of that statement. Those who don't probably couldn't find Tanzania on a map, so there's no point explaining myself.

Not that I ever do.

There will be an AAR to follow tonight's get together and to regale you with (whine about) the trip down to DC. I hope you enjoyed Juvat's offering on Friday and...

Oh damn, that's right! Juvat is on vacation next week and I'm on the hook for Monday's post. (Who signed that man's leave chit? I want to know. Oh, it was me? Never mind...)

Tower: Aircraft in holding pattern, say fuel state?
Aircraft: Fuel state
Tower: Say again?
Aircraft: Again....
After this the tower controller switches off his radio and climbs down the stairs to drink coffee the rest of the afternoon. (Source)

And that probably explains why I never got my pilot's license.

Have a nice weekend!