If I Had Blogged This Week I Would Have Mentioned the Harvest Moon

Since the Full Harvest Moon is technically today Universal Time and since it was full in my side of the hemisphere last night at 11:30 pm I feel accurate saying you can see it tonight just as full after sunset.  It is cloudy in my world today but I did get to see it in an overcast sky last night.

The autumn equinox was September 22 and the full moon nearest to that date is the Harvest Moon.  Sometimes the Harvest Moon falls in October.  Which is tomorrow!

If I had been blogging last week I would have mentioned how I had to fly to Michigan and how I got a surprise at the Atlanta airport.  I have written before how there are 20 or so security lines and only about three with the  body scanners of which I opt out.  To my surprise the security line just to view your ticket and ID took forever and that is because they closed every security lane with the "old fashioned" metal detectors and used only the few with the radiating body scanners.

Every single person goes into the body scanner with legs spread and arms up without saying a word.  I think that is sad.  However, without even the parent asking, asking I notice they let children go through the old fashioned metal detectors.

The line to wait to put your belongings on the table to be x-rayed was very long.  One lady told me she was going to miss her plane.  I suggested that she ask people if she could move ahead.  People were kind and said sure (it is Karma--what if that was your mother, daughter, etc.) but it didn't help as I saw her later turned away at her gate.

It will be interesting to see when I go back to the airport in 10 days if that was just a day to get the government's money's worth out of the scanners or if it was just something about that day.

Of course at the smaller airports I am at when I return home, it is always the body scanner and I always opt out.  I am not happy that I no longer see signs stating that people CAN opt out.  I am so polite when I tell the TSA person after I have two bins and two bags on the belt that I would like to opt out.  The TSA agent in Michigan said, "Why?  It is just scanning your skin?"  To which I replied, "I'd like to opt out."  People do not have to answer anything.  People do not have to answer where they are going or why they are traveling. 

However, my seatmates on the flight back most likely hated me as I was that person who blew her nose every 15 minutes.  I didn't have enough tissues so the ones I had ended up so wet I could have wrung them out.  I still have a bad sinus cold.

You know what else bothered me on the two flights?  The flight attendants scared me to death.  On the flight to Michigan we were apparently getting near some choppy air over Indiana.  The plane is in total silence, no air antics are going on, and a female flight attendant blurts out, "GET BACK IN YOUR SEATS AND FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT."  I seriously need to offer to the TSA to just drug me out stone cold, and put me in a seat, and wake me up when we land.  There was barely any turbulance and the pilot then nicely stated that we would have a little bit of choppy weather.

THEN on the return flight the two male attendants were serving beverages and just as they were at my aisle--it was getting choppy--a female flight attendant BLURTS out, "WE ARE STOPPING THE BEVERAGE SERVICE as it is TOO DANGEROUS for the flight attendants."

Really?  She had to use the word DANGEROUS?  Maybe if I were a little bit older and therefore a little bit bolder I would have counseled her upon our exit that she may want to deliver her announcement in a more calm and positive way.

But at that point I was just so glad to be almost home on a beautiful late September day.