Warm California Sun

Well, it was warmer than 6 degrees, anyway. It got up around 60 in Sacramento, we saw some sun, and there were oranges in the Capitol park, but I couldn’t figure out how to free them from their bondage without having to explain myself to The Man. There are some things state agency executives Just Don’t Do, and rustling oranges at another state’s capitol building is probably one of them.
There’s a certain agreeable rhythm to a cross-country flight — takeoff, movie starts (Spy Kids 2. Seen it. Twice.), drinks, food, drinks, bathroom/leg stretching break, drinks, end of video, last break, and then just as you’re getting restless and tired of listening and reading and solitaire on the Palm Pilot, you touch down. Of course, you touch down in Philly or Pitt, so you’ve got another hour of this nonsense before you’re home, but right now, it’s okay. I think this is the seventh cross-country trip in the past couple of years, one of the few perks of the job. If it’s a perk to worry about being stranded, having to reroute from Philly to Pitt, and spending hours in the nearly abandoned USAirways terminal at SFO with zero food or drink options. Oddest thing ever : in order to balance our unusually empty Airbus 321, which had a cargohold full of lettuce, we all had to sit behind row 18 until we’d hit level flight. Odd, no? Never heard of this on a jet before, but we did it, and I took my patented takeoff nap so it wouldn’t matter much whether they’d really managed to make the right calculation based on “average passenger weight for wintertime.” They really told us that. Anyway…
Not much play on this trip. Stayed at the new Sheraton Grand in Sacramento, nice but still ironing out the kinks. Didn’t even try out the pool. But Thursday afternoon we took the Land Shark (Lincoln Town Car, The Car That Doesn’t Feel The Road) up to Napa, via the back roads, and had a nice time touring wineries and an olive oil tasting place. Shipped home a bunch of stuff for Christmas, flavored oils and so on. Weather was agreeable (especially considering back home was getting socked). Up around 60, but cool at night. Got in one run, and hit the ileotibial band wall right away. Not happy about that. Adjusted badly to the time change, and now I’m having a hard time adjusting back. Didn’t even see the ocean this time.
Newly discovered old Zevon:
“We made mad love, shadow love,
Random love and abandoned love
Accidentally, like a martyr
The hurt gets worse
And the heart gets harder”