Blind Blogging
Well, I boarded my plane for Minneapolis this morning, and unloaded stuff onto my seat that I thought I’d need for the trip, including my laptop, my mp3 player, two issues of the New York Review of Books, and Cormac CmCarthy’s Blood Meridian. All of which, with the partial exception of the mp3 player, require the use of reading glasses to operate. Reading glasses that had suddenly disappeared from my person somewhere between the terminal, where I had been using them to read the Sunday paper on my laptop, and my seat.
I searched all the pockets of my coat several times, looked around on the floor around my seat and retraced my steps up the jetway and even, with the assistance of a sympathetic gate agent, back to the terminal, where I’d last had them on my face. No dice.
So, I’m having to improvise a bit for my onboard entertainment. I managed to see enough of my mp3 player’s screen to gin up Thievery Corporation’s Cosmic Game album so I can at least sit here and warble karaoke if all else fails. I can also set my Radio typefont large enough to be able to see my prose ooze across the screen like a stain, a literary toxic event. I have a pretty good idea of what I’m writing, but I can’t vouch for perfect spelling, so please withhold your judg… whatever.
It’s also a pretty clear day so far, and the view out the window ain’t bad. A number of Cascade volcanoes were prominently visible as we departed Seattle, including Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and the shell of Mt. St. Helens, looking like a football stadium undergoing renovation. These things I can see perfectly - the world beyond my 24″ Ball of Blur is crystal-clear to me without corrective lenses.
Later - When we arrived in Minneapolis, I groped around in my carry-on backpack (I’d had to stow it in the overhead because I was in a bulkhead seat), and found the glasses - they had fallen out of my shirt and into one of the compartments when I was hurriedly unpacking stuff into my seat. So, I was spared the exorbitant expense of buying a pair in the airport. I have an extra pair, but they’re in my checked luggage.
On to more important things, perhaps.
