What Am I Afraid of?

Hey there, it's Jody again. No this is not going to be one of those Blog Posts like last time. I'm over all that. So.....you wanna know what I'm afraid of? I'll tell you but first a little background. I, for a living, race towards people with guns in their hands threatening to do harm to the first person they see while the rest of the normal population is running, sometimes screaming, away from the bad people with the guns. No fear. I breech, (that means "force open" for the unfamiliar with that term) sometimes with explosives, locked, barricaded doors where I KNOW there is someone on the other side waiting to harm me. No fear. I VOLUNTEER to be the first one, of a ten man team, through the door on "High Risk" warrant services. (Unless you're the lead dog, the view never changes). No fear. I'm the first onto the helicopter, standing on the skids, (the things most helicopters land on) waiting to either repel or "fast rope" off of the skid 100 feet above the roof of some building where there are bad guys we have to go search for and arrest. Again, no fear.

So what AM I afraid of? Flying. Normal, every day commercial jet flying. I hate it. I've been grumpy all day because I know that tomorrow I have to fly if I want to go to Haiti. What bothers me? Follow along here. What do they call the building where you wait to board your flight? The Terminal. Hmmm. Then they announce "This is the FINAL boarding call for flight........" Real comforting. What does the pilot tell you via the loud speaker when you are about to arrive? "Please prepare for our FINAL APPROACH" Does he know something we don't? He is, after all, flying the flippin plane. There is a reason they have bars serving alcoholic beverages right next to the gate. I'm one of those reasons. Liquid Courage is sometimes a good thing for me. I once flew to Minnesota in the dead of winter on a big jet. Gail and the rest of the family neglected to tell me that once at the Big Airport, we were going to have to change planes to some little 10 passenger turbo-prop plane to take us to Peoria Illinois, our FINAL DESTINATION. I walked out of the airport onto the tarmac, saw the plane we were headed for and immediately dug my heels into the ice on the ground. It took Gail, my Father-in-Law and my Brother-in Law all of their strength to load my shivering, angry 'frady cat 225 pound butt into that little plane. I then had to help the pilot with both the take-off and landing. "Little more rudder, little more flap" I'm sure the death grip I had on the armrests of my seat is the only way that plane landed safely. So, there you have it. Flying. It is going to be a joyous day tomorrow. The only thing that keeps me going is that I get to see 3 of my children, meet some new people, see some old friends and visit a place that I have truly come to love. So pray for me. But more than that, pray for Gail. She has to put up with me on planes and in airports for the next 24 hours. She is going to need all the help she can get.