blooming where i'm planted: AYE! WELCOME ABOARD AND TAKE YE SEAT!

In light of the Northwest pilots who "for-whatever-reason" flew over an hour past their destination...I believe we, as the consumer, need to politely check the cock pit before we fly.

Make sure there are no lap tops, legos, ipods, snuggly blankets, sleeping pills, big fluffy pillows....you know...the usual suspects that would drive a pilot's mind away from flying a huge airplane safely to your location of choice. I just feel like I should be able to glance into that cockpit and see bright yellow paint, happy flourescent lights and two capable pilots...wide eyed...holding huge mugs of dark coffee....I'm just sayin'...

My sister, Mary decided to do just that. Jump on the plane and take a gander into the cockpit and explain said cockpit to her daughter...my awesome and hearing impaired neice. We do not take her hearing loss lightly - let me assure you. However, the very fact that Caroline "may or may not" hear every detail of what you say to her has made for some of the most interesting stories....ever!

Mary showed Caroline the "special place were the pilots sit". There are their chairs....the steering wheels, all of the buttons and bobs and bells and whistles...lights and mugs of super dark coffee. Okay, fine..there was no coffee...I'm just stuck on wanting them to be fully awake. And Caroline was as interested as a 4 and 3/4 year old girl CAN be....and then they sat down.

Mary said that about an hour into the flight - Caroline looked at her and said, "Mommy, do those guys have a parrot on their shoulder?"

A parrot?

Oh.......MY.......HEAVENS!!!! A PARROT!!!

All this time Caroline was thinking that when Mary said, "PILOT"....she said "PIRATE". What kind of imges were going through Caroline's head when Mary was talking about the pilots?

This?