Free Ride

Free Ride

Edy and I are in the Albuquerque Airport waiting for our delayed flight. We had a great visit with the kids yet are anxious to get home. As mentioned previously New Mexico is always a trip and this airport in particular is like visiting an old musty yet familiar old hotel. I literally lived well over  two thousand hours here …….and counting. Add to that the 10’s of thousands of hours on airplanes and other airports and somewhere along the line a big chunk of my life has been deposited between here and there. It’s not outer space, cyberspace or teleporting – I call it airport-ation. The cumulative measure of life gained or lost between “places”.  Commuting, carpooling, or “truckin’ – all the same……………”lag time”

Lord knows I used to think it was a very big deal to have Platinum Status for early boarding, upgrades, free flights, “good” snacks and access to assorted lounges until I realized that all of “us sheep” were basically making life deposits by the ga-zillions of hours in these places. Things began changing from that point forward.

During my travels back and forth between offices in different states I had an interesting experience one morning in Taos. We used to have a very colorful character we all called “Dirty Boy”. Like a lot of folks there he did his share of dumpster diving, had dreads and well, stunk. As I was getting a coffee at a little shop and he saddled up next to me and gave me a nudge. I thought, “oh brother, he wants breakfast” and pulled out my wallet again to oblige. He just looked at me and asked “Commuter?” I looked at him and said ....‘What?”’
He looked up past the ceiling into the heavens and then looked back at me slowly said……….. “Ah,I thought so………. commuter”.

During one of my photo excursions this trip, I ran across these seed pods and thought about their ability to create “airportation” via their own form of random commuting. Wind, animals, guys with cameras and loose laces in their shoes allow them to spread out from their existing locations and try again for another shot at life for the next generation. Very noble in concept but what about the lag time, being carried hither and yon until such time the seed is detached (either willingly or unwillingly) and hopefully falls to fertile ground. Commuter

From the standpoint of the calf, dog or guy with the camera the seedpod is generally an unwelcome guest to be disposed of quickly or in other cases goes unnoticed for a very long time. Either way it’s a crap-shoot as to the suitability of the new landing zone to keep with the plan. Then, IF successful, the real work begins, because we all know there is no such thing as a Free Ride.