<Written earlier today while in flight. Couldn’t post it via the weak in-flight KLM network connection.>

Ah, modern technology. Here I sit looking at a more or less real-time display of where our 787 Dreamliner (what a cheesy name) is, writing on a laptop and sipping good Portugal wine. We’re coming up on Nuuk Greenland now at 35,000 feet and 605 miles per hour, only 4265 miles from LA. Just around the corner.

KLM business class is pretty sweet. Great meals, good enough wine and a comfortable pod. Sit, recline, or stretch out and sleep. I know, I know, white Anglo-Saxon male privilege and all. So sue me, I didn’t choose my birth. I was very lucky in the “could have been born in that situation” lottery – I very seldom forget it. Traveling the world gives you a lot of perspective about how others live and how great we have it in the middle++ class in the US. I’m grateful for that, and I don’t know if I would have been strong enough to be the same person if born in a war zone, or in poverty, or handicapped in some serious way.

We’re about eight hours from landing, and I can’t wait. A movie or two ahead; probably a nap. Then just the final hurdle of driving home in LA traffic. It’ll take me a month to get rid of this jet lag – we’ve been back and forth between GMT and GMT+1 for two weeks now, and suddenly we’ll be in GMT-8. I expect to have quite a few days with random naps and some sleep struggles.

I think this will be my last cruise for a while. I have a lot of things to do that I don’t do well (or at all) on a cruise. See the grandsons, lose some weight, do some writing. There’s no excuse for not doing the latter two, but…gotta face reality. Plus, cruises suck up a *lot* of time before and after – a 7 day cruise becomes 10 days, etc. This one’s going to suck up about three weeks.

Time…it’s the ultimate equity play, the ultimate resource. There’s only so much of it, and you don’t know how much you have in the bank. I’m increasingly aware when I waste it, and very thankful that I occasionally have the opportunity to trade money for time. Time trumps money these days.

Seven hours and thirty minutes now. See you in Socal.