New Charitable Foundation

I started out on the 1:40pm flight out of Montgomery into Atlanta this afternoon. I was a responsible little drone and got to the airport 2 hours early. Checked the status of my flight- "on time" just before I left for the airport. Then, just as I started through security (an HOUR prior departure), the flight was delayed for an hour (2:40). No problem- I left enough time in my connection to soak that one up. I wouldn't be able to meet Jaime and Nathan at their gate, but that's OK, Jaime is an accomplished world traveler... no problem. I'd just meet them on the Atlanta to LA flight. Then at 2:15 our flight was delayed another hour... (3:40)... hmmm, now it will be very tight, but I can still make it. Then another (4:40) delay at 3:30... we're now into the "I could have rented a car and driven to Atlanta" amount of time that Delta has wasted as they continually slide the departure time back. 4:40... too late to share the flight with Jaime and Nathan- not the highlight of my day. Not a serious problem though- Delta has already rebooked me on a flight into LAX a little later. 4:40 comes and goes- our aircraft FINALLY arrives at Montgomery, they gas it up, load our luggage and then this:

The red ring is, effectively, the Atlanta airport... the gunk under it is a huge thunderstorm that had been moving very predictably from west-to-east for the past 4 hours.

It's now 6:36 and we're on indefinite ground-hold for this thunderstorm... I'm a little pissed.

So, the New Charitable Foundation that I am starting is called "Buy Ben a Plane" and it needs your support. Cessna makes a nice little 6-seater, cruises comfortably at 6500 feet at about 150 mph with a range of just over 600 miles. It would make an LA to Cincinnati trip in about 10 hours (including a 2-hour gas and stretching lay-over somewhere in the great plains states). Best part: I would fly it myself... no security, no waiting in airports with strangers' awful attempt at conversation.

Sorry, another awesome announcement broke my train of thought... we're on hold until 7:50 now. So I'm going to wait until around 8pm, take an hour flight to Atlanta (and lose an hour) at 10pm, then try to get a connection to LA to arrive (if I'm lucky) at around midnight.

Send your checks to our home address... the Cessna 6-seater comes nicely equipped at about $450,000. I'm going back to my really interesting conversation with the mouth-breather sitting next to me now...