Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Day 24

Today one of my closest friends had to go to Omaha immediately because one of her closest friends is very, very sick. She called me with her decision to go at about 9AM and by 1:15PM, we were on our way to the airport for a 3:12PM direct flight to Omaha on a regional jet. She was due to arrive in Omaha at a little after 5PM (eastern time). And she took a later flight than she had to. Had she took the first flight available, she may have been arriving about four hours after she made the decision to go. I am happy to report that her friend is in a more stable condition than he was when she left this morning.

Ahh, the beauty of commercial jet age travel...a post 1950's invention, of course. Alex and I talked about taking a vacation to Florida during my spring break (Feb. 26th - March 3rd...right in the midst of the project). I struggle with the following - Do we "waste" basically three to four days driving? Do I pay a ton of money to select a route to Florida in which I will only be flying utilizing turbo props? Or do I "cheat" and take a jet to Florida even though, if I were staying truly pure, a jet would be completely out of the question. Opinions welcomed!

I've really started organizing the project today - laying out my predictions for the month, referencing sources, etc.. One thing that came up as I was thinking about food was the invention of the outdoor propane gas grill, the crockpot and oven-safe glass baking dishes. Since I do know Teflon frying pans are out of the question, I was trying to think of some alternatives to my grandmother's cast iron pan...I immediately became hopeful with the thought of the grill, as we eat a lot of grilled chicken, vegetables, etc.. Then reality set in...perhaps the outdoor propane grill wasn't invented pre-1950. I need to do some research.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was telling my parents about your project and we started talking about some things that didn't exist when they were in school in the 50s - like the ball point pen! When they were in school, they had to use ink pens with a blotter.. I remember when my brothers and I were growing up, there was a little school desk with an oddly placed hole in the top right corner - it was for the ink well! A very right-handed world back then! (I'm a lefty). As for Florida, a drive might be nice, maybe to somewhere closer that you've never been to..