Back in Reno

After one very long flight to Phoenix and a transfer to a shorter flight to Reno, I'm back in the same room, just one floor different. It's a weird feeling in a time warp sort if way, as if I never left.

I had an interesting seatmate on the flight to Phoenix. She arrived really late, all distressed, huffing and puffing -- quite literally because it turns out she has an auto-immune disease that damages her lungs. She's OK on the ground, but in airplanes and as she sleeps she has to breathe oxygen.

She had a machine with her that sucks in air and puts out oxygen. She is a securities lawyer and had been hassled all the way in, from checking in to the TSA who didn't know this machine. She didn't start using the machine until about five minutes into the flight, but about 15 minutes before we landed the flight attendant really got an attitude and wanted her to turn it off for landing. She simply said, "If I do that, I won't be able to breathe." So Miss Thing (flight attendant) said she'd have to consult the regulations book.

She returns and said the problem is the soft plastic tubing that ran from the machine to her nose. The tube was the diameter of a soda straw, but Miss Thing said that it's a hazard for me who could trip over it if we had to evacuate the airplane, so in the future she should sit in a window seat.

I later said to this woman that if we had to evacuate the airplane, her tube would be the least of my worries. She showed me how you can just pull the tube out if the machine and then said "or pull it out of my nose and crawl over me."

Uh, no, I'll take my chances.

I haven't gambled -- didn't last time I was here either. So I'm safe and sound in Reno for another week.