What if?

One of the blog's on Sarge's sidebar is "This day in Aviation History".  The author does a great job of finding little nuggets of interest for any given day of the year. On March 22nd, he had this post which provided details of an aircraft accident in 1956 which fortunately resulted in no fatalities, and both aircraft were recovered, repaired and flew again.  

There were a couple of things about the incident that peaked my interest.  First, the analysis and decision making skills of both crews were perfect.  A delay of any length would have resulted in the destruction of both aircraft and the deaths of the crew.  That lead me to ponder how history might have been changed if that had happened.  Given that the co-pilot on the B-29 was Neil Armstrong, what effect would his death have had on the Apollo 11 landing (other than it wouldn't have been him, obviously).  Would it have had an effect at all?  

That whole, infinite alternate realities from Science Fiction thing.  

  Yeah, I'm a big Stargate SG-1 Fan!

I'm also a survivor (at least in this reality) of several near misses, both in the Phantom and the Eagle, for which I am very grateful for the efforts of my very overworked Guardian Angel. I suppose because those in the Phantom occurred before Little Juvat was conceived and the same thing in the Eagle for My Beautiful Daughter, they are very grateful also.

At the time of the incidents, however,  I wrote them off as "woulda, coulda, shoulda".  It didn't happen, so why worry about it.

However, as I was going through the large numbers of photos from the plethora of cameras and cell phones in the posession of each member of our travel 10 ship, I came across one that caused me to stop and wonder,  what if?

The picture was taken on our last day in London, we had taken the train back from Edinburgh the night before and were going to fly home the next day.  Mrs Juvat was on the mend from her bout with bad fish and wanted to try and see the sights.  

We tubed down to Picadilly Circus and walked down to St James Park.  That pretty much wore her out, so She and I found a bench in the Park to rest for a bit.  Little Juvat, his wife and MBD went on ahead to find someplace to get a bite to eat.  

A very peaceful setting, and that swan was HUGE!

After a bit, Mrs Juvat is feeling a bit better, so we continue on to try and catch up to the kids.

A block or two later, I stop to take a picture.  As we're standing there admiring the setting, we decide to head back to the hotel as Mrs Juvat is starting to fade.

For those of you that know London, you'll recognize this shot.  Immediately to the right of the Lady in red is Winston Churchill's statue.  We are looking at the Westminster bridge straight ahead.  My children had walked across that and were eating in a restaurant across the Thames.  

A few days later, this would be the site of a terrorist attack.  What if he'd chosen St Paddy's day instead?  

But, much like the near midairs, it didn't happen so not much sense in worrying about it.

However, I will tell my kids I love them, frequently.  I will ask the Lord to keep them safe.  I will answer the phone when they call, no matter the time or what I'm doing when they call.  

Did I mention that I'll tell them I love them?  Life is short, fraught with pitfalls and no one gets out alive.  Enjoy your family while you have them with you.

It was, in spite of everything, a good vacation.  Lots of important lessons learned and relearned.