Slow reader

The flight from Ontario to Denver, it was a commuter airplane; the type which has only two seats on each side. I had a window seat, and next to me was a 300lb line-backer size, motorcycle rider. With tattoos covered arms, he wore a short sleeve black leather jacket. On the back of the jacket is the emblem of his motorcycle club, in white lettering: Lords of Loyalty - MC - World, it curves around a dreadful looking skull, which is adorned with a doo-rag. For two hours, I witness the dark blue bleeding heart tattoo on his right bicep, rise & low to the ebbs & flow breathing of his nap, within only 7 inches away from my face; the perfect focusing distance for my near-sighted eyes, even without glasses. It was quite a distraction from my reading, I could only advanced 7 pages of The Grand Design.

What's with the Denver International Airport?

I had to layover for almost 3hrs there, knowing that by the time I get into DC, it's going to be quite late; so the plan was to grab a bite to eat, watch recently recorded Chase episode on the netbook, remove spams from my mailboxes if the internet is available, and perhaps caching up on my reading for I could not do much of it during the last flight. From the gate 89 all the way to the food court, I passed 60 gates, all the available restaurants and concession food stands; but I found not even a single Chinese food stall; as if the entire Denver population do not have knack for Lo-mein, Beef and Brocoli, or Spicy General Tso Chicken! Which is very hard to believe. However, the airport has plenty South of the Border style foods, in just a small food court I can count three different restaurants serving Mexican specialties. I ended up ordered a burrito with beef chunks, and asked for extra hot sauce to help with the swallowing rate. During the meal, I opened up the netbook, attempt to find free wifi services, like I had in SFO. The Denver airport offers four different internet services, but all are priced at $9.95 for around 10 minutes. I figured the amount of spams in my mailboxes would take more than 10min to remove, so I abandoned the hope of using the internet. However, I managed to watch the recorded TV show Chase, about a 5'5" 120lbs female Houston Marshall takes on 6'8" 250lbs escaped convict; it was not a convincing and satisfactory story; just like the 5 minute meal I just had.

Landed.

The airplane landed on Dulles tarmac right on the dot of 11pm. The reflection of a wet surface under the yellowish sodium vapor lights indicated of recent rain. The pilot reported of the temperature, 34 degree F, reminded me of the thick jacket I had in the carry-on, which I had no chance of using during those few days in California. Sitting in my seat, waiting for passengers who were anxiously to deplane; my thought was on the comments of my wearing shorts while I was there: Only if had they here now, looking out the airplane window through a thin sheet of ice, then they would understand the warm feeling of 60 degree F in the shade.