Day 261 - Turbulence

On February 2, Mike, Henry and I flew back from Florida.  I had to be in south Florida for work, and Mike and Henry tagged along so that we could stay for the weekend.  Our flight home took us through Baltimore (flying Southwest = obscure layovers).  As we were descending into BWI, the captain came on the loudspeaker and said something along the lines of "Please remain seated and make sure that your seat belts are very tightly secured.  We are going to experience some significant turbulence."

Let me tell you, when a pilot tells you that you are going to experience "significant turbulence," it is going to feel like the plane is going down.  That 757 felt like it was a paper airplane for about 2 minutes.  We were tossed all over the air.  While I was holding onto the arm rests for dear life and practicing my deep breathing, I could hear Henry next to me saying "weeeee weeee weeeeee" as though he were on a roller coaster.  Once we landed, the people in front of us said that Henry helped get them through those scary 2 minutes.  Henry really does come through in the most unexpected situations.  I was too scared to even cry, and he was delighted by the rocking and rolling of our airplane.

When I tell this story in front of Mike, he always says "Nancy, it was not that bad."  I disagree.  It was that bad. I've been on a lot of airplanes and have never experienced anything like that.  We landed safely at BWI, but I dreaded getting on another plane to come home.  Thankfully, the air was smoother during the second leg of the trip.

In hindsight, that rough air was just the beginning of "significant turbulence" for me (us) as the lump that I had been feeling in my left breast was deemed concerning the very next day.  The air is still a little bit rough around here, but I no longer feel like we are in paper airplane mode.  Our seat belts are still securely fastened, and we're waiting for the captain to turn off the seat belt sign so that we can freely move about the cabin.  It's going to happen soon as the air continues to become more smooth. 

Sorry for the giant metaphor, but I was walking the dog this morning and saw at least 10 contrails in the sky so was reminded of that flight.  The biggest lesson here should be - take the pilot seriously if he warns of "significant turbulence."