Gravity and Tiger’s cars; weather snarls (some) marching travel
“When does earthquake season start?”
We got just about five inches of rain last week — and in perspective, that’s roughly the amount of rain we received in the entire year of 2016. Previously burned areas slid onto nearby roads, an event usually initiated by geological forces.
Locals have assured me that these weather and earth movement abnormalities are, in fact, normal. I’m unconvinced..
“Maybe,” I thought. “But I suspect an executive order instigated by the new administration is the root cause.”
There was a break in the bad weather - a few hours of relatively clear skies that coincided with the Women’s March of Santa Barbara. About 5000 people joined Nazy, and Susie, a friend visiting from Los Angeles, on a parade down State Street to the ocean. The march was, of course, mirrored in hundreds of cities around the country and around the world.
Women's March, Santa Barbara
Showing that I still have the uncanny ability to choose bad times to fly, I booked a business trip to New York to coincide with deluges on both sides of the country. Unbelievably, the drive to LAX was uneventful, the flight, although full, had extremely favorable winds and arrived 55 minutes early. Even more astonishingly there was a gate (82) available when we landed.
“It would have been nicer if Gate 82 was in the same county as baggage claim,” I thought as I trudged through the terminal.
Right after we landed, however, the weather turned sour: heavy rain, high winds and flight delays (2.5 hours) at Newark. I have been writing weekly letters for at least the last 15 years (about 1.5 million words). In all of that time, the following sentence has never occurred.
I was very lucky with my travel.
You, dear reader, have seen a miracle.
While I was basking in the joy of an untarnished journey, I got a series of txt messages from Mitra. In Austin, Texas, she was …
“Trying to get home, Dad, but my flight to LAX was cancelled.”I sent commiserations. Mitra’s next message was from Phoenix. I noted that she was closer to Los Angeles. She countered with the news that her connecting flight had been cancelled due to ‘weather’.
“I hate it when cities have weather.” I thought.
Mitra spent the night in Phoenix. The next morning, her early flight to LA was also cancelled.
“You’ve inherited my travel gene,” I told her. “Or maybe, I’ve permanently bequeathed it to Mitra,” I thought.
Eventually weather disappeared and Mitra made it home.
Uncannily, Mitra and I were not the only members of The Martin Family that had travel plans involving LAX this Sunday. Melika was also booked to fly in from Aspen where she was attending a pre-wedding party with several friends. Her flight was significantly delayed, but
“We met this guy who has his own jet and he will be flying us to LAX,” Melika texted.
“I’ve done a lot of travel. That never happened to me.” I thought… although.
Flashback 1999
I was traveling from Boston to Germany. There were meetings planned in Stuttgart with Mercedes and in Munich with Siemens. I got call from the Digital global account manager for Volkswagen.
“… so, can you meet with VW then?” He asked.
I explained that it was impossible. I would be in Stuttgart until Wednesday evening and had to be in Munich on Friday. The travel division had assured me that there were ..
“ … no flights that can allow me to make a side trip to Hannover.” I explained.
“Volkswagen is in Wolfsburg,” he replied.
“I don’t think that makes it easier.” I countered. “But if you can find a way for me to get to all three meetings, I’ll come.”
I didn’t realize that he was a pilot. He offered to fly me from Wolfsburg to Munich in his own airplane. To meet Digital’s travel requirements, he brought an instructor along. His airplane was a four seat Cessna. We flew at 5000 feet, just under the clouds. It wasn’t a jet, but it was a cool trip.
End Flashback
When I took Tiger swimming this week, I told him..
“I’m going to throw you up in the air and I want you to stay up there, by the ceiling, until I pull you down. Can you do that?”
“No, Dan,” He replied.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Gravity.” He asserted.
While Nazy and were babysitting this week, When he discovered that Arrow could see and reach for things, Tiger shared his cars with Arrow.
Disclaimer: This is absolutely true, although Tiger was somewhat irritated when Arrow wanted to taste the cars.
In addition to his desire to taste everything (and charm his big brother), Arrow has made several other big strides in the last few weeks. Now, if you get his attention, he will look where you point. And he really likes jumping up and down in his ‘bouncer’ which is attached to the door of my office. He gurgles and smiles.
Arrow on his bouncer