Testing the Air

Tomorrow morning the wife and I will rise into the air again together as we've done numerous times since we've wed, rising and traveling over the country, over the Pacific, over the Atlantic, over mountains, over plains. This time no oceans are involved. We'll land, God willing, in Pittsburgh, PA, before noon in time for a wedding celebration, and we'll return, God willing, on Monday. There's always that moment when the airplane is hurtling down the runway toward the end of the pavement, and the nose lifts, the plane leaves the earth, and the passengers let go a sigh of relief, that one wonders that such an event can occur at all, the plane is such a massive thing, with a belly full of heavy luggage. Who could have known what Wilbur and Orville were cooking up, along with their French rivals?