Wednesday, August 6, 2008

SAFELY HOME...WITH JET LAG

Dear Friends,

I apologize for not posting an earlier entry stating that I had made it safely back to the USA and to my home in Tennessee late on the evening of July 31st. But once I had arrived back home, I had to recover from a terrible case of “jet lag”. Now, I don’t know if you are familiar with “jet lag”, but some define it as the physical, psychological, emotional and mental changes that one’s mind and body go through when transported through several time zones over a short period of time – in other words, the body’s time clock is fooled into thinking that it is either much later or much earlier than it really is. When I had completed the last leg of my journey and had landed for the final time, I think that my body had been fooled into believing that it was 1835 or 1836, and Andrew Jackson was President! However, I think that I have come up with a much better definition for “jet lag”. “Jet lag” is simply that condition which mimics the worst case hangover. The symptoms are almost identical: headache, body aches, nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, tiredness, stomach pains, double vision, and the loss of control of various bodily functions. Now, whenever I have had the misfortune to wake up with a hangover, I knew that it was God’s punishment being visited upon me for having consumed too much of a good thing! But with “jet lag” you are being punished for simply having taken a plane ride. Somehow that just doesn’t seem fair to me! So, the next time that I have to take a long flight from one continent to another, prior to boarding the plane I think that I am going to consume a very large quantity of Raki (or its generic equivalent, i.e., Tennessee moonshine) so that when I land at my final destination, I won’t know if my symptoms are a result of a hangover or “jet lag”...nor will I even care!

Take care, stay well, and let me hear from you.

Your Friend and Fellow “Silent Warrior”,

Bob (High Flying, or is that, Flying High?) Armistead

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad you're back.

Don "West Tennessee" Smith
Atlanta, GA