Due to a last-minute deadline and a little insomnia, I began the first leg of my trip to Maine with a good case of roadburn already in place. Still, despite fighting the sleepies all the way down the 100+ degree Central Valley, I made it (blinking and uncomprehending) to the Bay Area.

Tomorrow, the flying portion of the trip begins - and since I fly about as well as a cat travels, it's going to be a long one.

Flying is a major pain, and I think that the twitchy, I-hate-being-stuck-in-a-vibrating-tube-flying-at-galactic-speeds types such as myself would prefer to have Jim Fowler (of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom fame) shoot me in the ass with a tranquilizer dart two steps from my seat, so I'd only wake up 15 minutes from landing.

Explaining the radio collar to Nancy would be a chore, but a boy can dream...

It's nice to see the Underground humming so nicely on any number of topics in my absence (and we continue to break readership records on an almost daily basis).

More tomorrow. See you in the blue, blue skies, Tom Chandler

travel, Mutual of Omaha