Thinking of flying

Went for my walk at lunch yesterday. Since I sit on my butt in a cubicle all day I do need some exercise, and taking the Ipod and walking at lunch seems to be acceptable. I’ve tried the gym, and had an exercise bike, but it seems that I can handle walking better – at least I keep at it.

My company is located in and office park just south of Vegas Airport, between the runways and the 215 freeway. For some unknown reason the Clark County (we are not in Vegas, it’s the township of Paradise – get that, I work in Paradise!) building regulations don’t require sidewalks! I guess nobody walks in Vegas except on the Strip. There are some sidewalks here, usually only on one side of the street. I would rather be on a sidewalk than out in the street walking, so usually do the two blocks that have sidewalks. One big block to the west, that brings me a long way along Sunset across from the airport runway. As I walk I like to look at the planes and think about where people might be going. The trip around the two blocks is about 30 minutes. Monday I started doing the bigger block twice, so I bumped the time to 50 minutes, more like the hour I am shooting for.

Some of the airlines really paint some planes in fancy patterns. I saw one yesterday, I think it was SouthWest, but hard to read the name, that had random shapes in blue and white in front of the wings and a black and red harlequin pattern on the back. Very interesting. The only 747s I have seen taking off are Virgin Air and JAL – I guess they go far enough to justify the big planes. Looking at the Virgin Air I imagine flying off to London, having some tea and scones and enjoying the atmosphere. Only made one trip to London, and I really liked it. At least I was in a foreign country and could almost understand what people were saying. Japan has never been high on my list of to visit places, I’d rather wander around Europe.

I like my house, and like Vegas, but still imagine taking off for other places. B feels tied down and grounded watching granddaughter Eli, but I’m ready to go at any time. Anybody else feel that way? Look at the sky and think of taking off for other places?

Off next week to the exciting town of San Jose – my company is sending me for a weeks training in C# and .NET. Have to move up in the Microsoft world from FoxPro into .NET. Don’t like it, but it is the direction things are going here. Lots of FoxPro work in San Diego, but Vegas is moving along the Microsoft way, since I’m here guess I have to change directions.

For Clare (welcome back):
1. Being able to imagine other places.
2. Remembering places you’ve been.
3. Watching the planes take off and thinking of what people did while here on their vacation.