Musings at Altitude

Every now and then I spend way too much time thinking about things that really should cause no thinking at all – unfortunately, today is one of those days.  Here are some of the things I’m wondering about today:

(1)     Why do people upgrade on a redeye flight when they sleep the entire way?  I consider the upgrades I get from United as special gifts, and I use them preciously when I can get the most advantage from First Class.  But I don’t use them to upgrade on the flights when I sleep the entire way.  For the redeye, I just put the pillow up to the window and fall asleep typically during the safety video.  I know there are a lot of folks who just love being up front – but I like to maximize that experience!

(2)     Why do people back into parking spaces?  I think they are just showing off to those of us that can’t do it!  Maybe it’s a belief that it’s quick egress from the parking lot, saving a couple of seconds on the outbound path.  Of course, it costs you a few seconds on the inbound path so time is all a wash.  If you’re some kind of law enforcement official or special agent, maybe it makes sense, because those couple of seconds may be precious.  It kind of makes sense then.  Otherwise, I’m just left wondering.

(3)     Why do people who are standing in line loudly talking on their cell phones look around and smile at others while they are annoyingly sharing their conversation with everyone unfortunately in line with them?  I rarely answer my cell phone when I have a bunch of people around me – it’s too embarrassing and makes me way too uncomfortable.  But others seem to thrive on letting all of us unfortunate enough to be in line around them that they are important enough to need to be on the phone and talking loudly at that very minute. 

(4) Why does it hurt more two days after you work out rather than the day after?  I’ve been trying to exercise much more frequently lately, and when I skip a day, the day I skip I seem to feel much better than that next day when I want to exercise again.  I’ve been complaining to my wife lately of how much it sucks to work out.  I’m typically joking (or maybe not!) but at my age I do have lingering pain most of the time, and the more I work out, the more pain I have lingering!

(5) When any group of people are in a meeting and the meeting leader asks “who wants to go first”, why do most if not all of the folks around the table look down?  I’ve watched this happen in meetings of all levels of people in an organization, to include a gathering of Presidents.  It’s funny to watch, and you can tell an awful lot about both the folks at the table and the leader by that reaction and who the leader then picks to go first. 

I have so many more wonderings and yet so little reason to actually be wondering and even less reason to share these with others!  I must admit though, going through life shaking your head at the things you wonder about does add just a bit of enjoyment to life!