Posted by Boone in Travel

Its essential stuff that makes you shop. (Does the house have decent shingles….check. Is the exterior in good shape…check. Will the cabin be pressurized during flight…check.)

Shopping is great, but its the small things that make you buy. You can purchase a house with almond appliances, Formica counter-tops, and wall-to-wall linoleum and it will still provide you shelter. Show me a house with all stainless appliances, concrete counter-tops, and solid oak floors and you might very well be writing an offer that afternoon. (If you like the sound of that home, our townhouse will be on the market starting in July…but I digress.)

Now, bring me a cookie instead of pretzels, an extra soda (ginger ale, please), and show me a movie that’s, for Pete’s sake, at least PG-13 and I will be singing your praises like an under-educated American at a Sarah Palin rally. (yeah, yeah…Madison liberal hippie. I know.)

Its all about the little things. As was the case recently on a flight home from Chicago. They over-filled the plane with fuel, so besides now being ‘extra’ flammable, the weight of the extra fuel could cause landing problems. We had to sit tight while the tank was siphoned down. A ‘voice from above’ explained that the fuel tanks are pumped full at about 500 gallons per minute and emptied about as fast as your normal gas station fuel pump. The siphoning was so slow it was as if our plane was the brunt of a rural high school prank and Cletus Ray Johnson was taking a long draw from a garden hose quietly fed down the gas tank of our International Harvester pickup truck (no offense Michael Perry).

After our fuel was back in the normal range, we were again delayed take-off due to bad weather around Milwaukee. So, our 29 minute flight from Chicago to Madison had turned into almost a 2 hour sit…with take-off looking bleak. (I, being heads down into my Greek Mythology book, was enjoying the extra reading time. But, I was was of the few, the proud, the unwavering literate.)

On top of the long sit, our plane was quite small (1 and 2 seating). A small plane for a small trip, and thus, no beverage/meal service supplies aboard. The natives were getting restless. The pilot came on and to say that, like a 1960s fallout shelter, he has some granola bars secretly stashed in the back and thanked us for our patience. The lone steward proceeded to hand us all these frighteningly simple, no label (or writing of any kind), white-plastic packaged granola bars. The natives subsided and we all enjoyed a quick snack before getting airborne a few minutes later.

This small gesture by the airline was thoughtful and unexpected, turning a ‘could-be’ bad situation into very positive experience.

Like I said, its the little things that make the biggest difference. Try and do a little something nice for someone today. Karma will thank you later.