ManicDDaily

Isn't life grand!?

I am flying back from Florida to New York and the flight attendant has just announced that we are over 10,000 feet and that permitted electronic devices can now be turned on and also (omg!) that this airplane is equipped with WiFi service – ‘just check your sky magazine for details.’

I am not the kind of person who checks sky magazines for details any more than I am the kind of person who reads instructions before assembling a baby carriage.  There are screws and bolts and bits and pieces and  somehow you’ve got to jam them all together so that you only have one or two of the silly things left over.

You call my kind of people the bargers-ahead; the damners of the torpedoes.

But I digress.

Wifi on the airplane!

Yes, I was almost asleep.  Yes, I’d been actually reading print media.  Yes, I’d even been looking out the window.

But hey, yippee!

I don’t write this as a complete troglodyte.  Wifi on the airplane gives me a whole new reason to look out the window.  Now I’ll be able to write about what I see.  More importantly, I’ll be able to think about what I see.  (Looking silently is maybe just doable, but thinking silently?  Without pen or pad or laptop!?  No way, for a manic barger torpedo-damner.)

I compose my excited first line as I drag out my laptop:  I’m flying.  I’m posting.  I’ve got the Atlantic Ocean to my right, and two empty seats to my left!

(Hey, I can even post a photograph.   I drag out my camera and take a shot of this herd of beautiful little puffs of clouds and ocean and shoreline as my computer boots up.  Then try to log on.)

Yes, there is Wifi on the airplane. But it costs $10 per flight.

Do I really need to post right here, right now?

Wasn’t I about to go to sleep?

It’s not the money; it’s the principle of the thing.

I know the airlines will not give you a free lunch any more, but can’t they spare a little bandwidth???

The clouds are petering out.  The shore is no longer visible.  Enjoy the sky.  Still blue, still free, for now.

Better Make The Most of It (while still free).