Living To See Tomorrow

By now, I suppose it is almost cliché to say that there was no leg room on a light. Even the person sitting next to me (who is, I noticed when he stood up to grab something from his stowed luggage, a good half-head shorter than I am) squashed into his allotted space now than the man in front of him has put back his seat. He has it easy, though. The person ahead of him has been asleep and relatively motionless since shortly after we reached cruising altitude.

The man ahead of me, by comparison, is a total tosser who may not live to see morning! He sat down and immediately reclined. Before the guy against the window in my row was seated, the guy had already reclined, thus obstructing entry to our row. The flight attendant mentioned to him that the seat had to be up during the boarding progress so he put it up.

I sat down and was immediately encroached upon by this wanker reclining his seat. At the conclusion of the announcements, the flight attendant (who had just announced that you had to have your seat back in the full upright position) came by to again ask him to put his seat forward.

When the announcement came on that he was allowed to put his seat back, he reclined. No, not "reclined," exactly… slammed into the reclined position is more accurate. Without checking to see if there was anything in the way, he slammed the seat back; when he encountered an obstruction (in the form of my knees) he just put the seat back in the upward position, and slammed back a little harder.

Again, none of this would have been inexcusable, but for the fact that for the last couple hours he has repeatedly put his seat forward, waited just long enough for me to wonder what he was doing, and then he slams it back again.

To type this, I have the screen of the laptop laying on the tray table, and the keyboard resting against my body… it is the only position I can get it into so that I can still see the screen and still type - sort of, at least.

I wonder, in these days of heightened airline security if it is possible to cook-up some knock-out drops to use on this guy from the things I have available to me. He will not live to see morning if he doesn't stop moving around so violently!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you're safe, warm, and happy in your surroundings.

Don Bergquist - 07 November 2010 - United Airlines Flight 938, Somewhere Over Northern Canada