Every cloud does have a silver lining, but only when lit from below.

Traveling gives you the opportunity to see many normal things in new ways.

While waiting(again) onboard a plane preparing to depart, I got to witness the ordeal of a wheelchair bound individual getting off of a plane. First they brought out the individual. I didn't get to see much about the person. I only saw the top of his or her head. For the sake of clarity let's say "her". They were brought her out into the part of the gate that connects to the plane. She then had to wait while her chair was unloaded. This probably took another 10 minutes, and I'm sure that the chair saw some rough treatment in the process. It obviously wasn't light. Finally the chair was unloaded and wheeled up one of the baggage chutes into the gate. Next comes the part that made me grateful that I'm in possession of all of my physical faculties. This person had to endure another ten minutes of poking, prodding lifting, shifting, skootching, and all other sorts of indignities. Everybody seemed cheerful and good spirited, but the wheelchair bound person wasn't the lightest of individuals, so the people responsible for lifting and shifting her had to exert some force, and where jerking this person up into the chair. The number of indignities that she underwent were numerous and quite physical. I'm sure that after a while you'd get used to it, but I'm glad that I've never had to.

Next on the list of interesting things I've noticed was the cracks in the runway. Waiting to take off, I managed to see a patch of the runway illuminated by the plane's lights. There were numerous cracks running parallel down the runway. I then noticed that where a crack approached another crack, someone had added a third crack connecting the two. I'm sure the point is to turn two cracks into one by making a third crack. I was just amazed by the concept. I'm easily amazed.

Taking off from Houston I was treated to the marvelous site of the clouds below the plane illuminated from below by city lights and from above by the moon. You couldn't actually seen any of the detail of the city below, just the illumination of the clouds. I know I will never be able to do the scene justice with words, but it was an amazing sight.

Finally, I've learned that I enjoy turbulence, and was actually disappointed when the turbulence that the captain predicted failed to materialize. Twisted huh?