"Houston, we have a problem..."

Hey everyone. I'm in Houston at a conference and just want to get the word out that it may be hard to contact me until I am back. It's a very engaging class - will be home this weekend. Wouldn't you know my phone has been busy and I have tons of voice mail messages to go through - so please be patient. Thanks for all of the enthusiastic responses! E-mail may be the better choice, for now.

Kind of funny story (he he). We are on the plane, non-stop from West Palm Beach to Houston and we are getting near our destination. The pilot comes on and says that due to high winds in Houston, we were in a holding pattern and it might we in line for about an hour - waiting for permission to land.

A groan rippled through the cabin.

Then the pilot says we only have enough fuel for twenty minutes - kind of like a doctor with bad bed-side manner. He then says that he's putting us down in Lake Charles, LA for re-fueling and then we'd take off again and head to Houston. I guess when the Houston tower got word of this, they moved us up in the queue. He then said we'd be on the ground in twenty minutes - this after five minutes already went by. Everyone gasped and then laughed when he caught the apparent error in his math. We got on the ground, o.k. with the engines still running.

More news later on this same station.

wesblackman@gmail.com

See you soon!