I saw this at a gas station yesterday. (no Premium available). If I understand how the different levels (of octane) work at gas stations, they really have only two underground tanks – the trucks pour is the highest level and the lowest level. And when you buy any middle level, the pump simply mixes the two in the proper ratio. This certainly simplifies inventory management and logistics. If that is correct, theoretically, you can never run out of Premium (highest level) without running out of all levels other than the lowest level.

Is that understanding correct? If so, how do you explain the picture?

The picture is not very clear. But if you observe closely, it would appear that I was on a five lane highway. Which I was. I-285 East bound. But then you realize that it appears that I am headed the wrong way on the highway. You can see the concrete medians and on the other side you can see some traffic and road signs. And on my side, the trucks and cars were headed against me! And indeed I was driving the wrong way on I-285 East bound.

It did not start that way. I was busy cruising on the highway to office after a breakfast meeting. (driving in the right direction, needless to say; although I am not above driving the other way once I spot my office 🙂 ). Suddenly all traffic came to a stop. And I could see a cop car coming our way from the front with all lights and honks blaring.

After stopping in front us (and blocking us off) two cops got out and were busy talking on their communication system. I was the second car in the lineup in my lane but I could not see what was happening in the front. I figured some road accident must have occurred and in a few minutes, they would move the cars and anybody hurt to the side of the road and we would be good to go.

After ten minutes, we still had not moved. However, the cops came to each car and informed as that an aircraft had crashed ahead. I assumed it was a small passenger plane taking off or landing in PDK. I asked him what our options were at that point of time. He let me know that they are getting reinforcements to help up back out till the previous exit and get off the highway.

Indeed, in five minutes, I could see in my rearview mirror that the cars and trucks were starting to slowly go back out in their lanes. However, soon, it was absolute mayhem. Clearly, while a lot of drivers know how to drive forward in a lane, they have no idea how to go in reverse in their lanes. There was an old lady who was totally confused. And an Asian lady tried to back her big van into the next lane and blocked two lanes in the process. Of course, there were others, who seemed to have lost the fact that a few more minutes was not going to make them any more late to wherever they were going than they already were, started honking impatiently.

Like stress brings the worst out of some people, it sometimes brings the best out of some people. A couple of truck drivers realizing that the cops were outnumbered, got down and started directing traffic. In the confusion, another driver and myself got down too and lent them a hand. In particular, that Asian lady – I got her to get down, turned her van around and gave it back to her. Finally, a truck driver came and told me “Now, it is your turn”.

And that’s how, I whizzed past all the trucks driving down the wrong way till I reached the previous exit.

You won’t realize when you see the picture the first time..
At first glance, this looks like a clean shot of the Atlanta airport at full length of the terminals with the runways on both sides visible.
The frequent fliers will realize that this is a near impossible shot. When you are taking off or landing, you can never reach a height required to get such a clean shot. And that is true. And when you do reach such a height you are usually far away from the airport. In fact, strictly speaking, you have to be in a restricted zone – usually a few thousand feet right above a runway to get that shot.
So, you are probably wondering what happened. Well, we had to abort our landing. Third time in my flying life. The tow vehicle pulling a plan got stuck while crossing a runway and the runway had to be shut down a few seconds before we were to touch down.
The safest maneuver at that point was to not try to bank left or right but fly right over the runway while gaining height (remember there is no flight taking off from that runway since it is shut down) and then bank only when you get to a normal take off flight route.
I had scramble fast to get my phone out and take the shot…

After we settled down in our flight to Lexington (from Atlanta), the Delta lady came over the PA system. She started by “Welcome to our non-stop flight to Lexington” immediately followed by “Today’s flight will be a short 46 minute ride”.

And I am like – “What do you mean ‘non-stop’ ??? What are the other options? It is a 46 minute flight for crying out loud. Do the other flights to Lexington have to stop to refuel after 30 minutes?” 🙂

But I let it be since she got me a nice gin and tonic after her announcement 🙂

Third day of the week…third time flying out of Atlanta to a new city. From the past blogs, you probably have already gathered that I flew to Milwaukee and Cincinnati earlier in the week. And today, right now I am headed to Orlando.

What is the coincidence you are wondering? The initials of those cities are M,C,O. Do you know what is the airport code for Orlando? MCO !!!

Cool coincidence!!!

Have they not heard of how Newton came up with a discovery of immense gravity just by observing what happens to apples when they are in the air? 🙂

Meetings over. Still a lot of phone calls and emails to catch up on. The real executive mode is on now… At a bar at Milwaukee airport, with red wine and French fries, Mark is deep in his calls as I try to make sense of more financial numbers!!! The wine helped 😉

Just flew into Cincinnati airport and found this sign. That raises a legitimate question in my mind – “Where do we pick up the dead animals from?” 🙂

Same trip in Texas this week. Same rental car. Same driver (me). Good old funny Bob in back seat and Mark in the front passenger seat.

Somewhere in Houston area, we come across a Toll booth. I checked behind the rear view mirror but could not find any contraption there – hence pulled to the “Cash only” booth. There were a few cars in front of me. And then suddenly I noticed a very thin strip on the left end of the dashboard which was the actual Toll transponder. And all the automatic booths were open.

A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed that the car behind was about two hundred yards away. So, I quickly shifted to reverse and backed the car out for a few yards so that I could swing by thru the automated booths.

Bob, who as I mentioned was sitting behind, rapidly realized that in case of a collision, he was likely to be the first casualty. He looked behind, saw the same car I saw and it had a far more pronounced hysterical effect on him than me 🙂

When I finally put the car in forward drive and drove away, a much relieved Bob declared “the life you may be saving is mine” – much to the guffaws of Mark and self 🙂

Remember that very funny friend of mine – Bob Hickey?
Yesterday, I was speeding along Texas highway I-45, taking full advantage of the speed limit of 75 mph on Texas highways (some might even argue I took full advantage and then some). Bob was probably dozing off in the back seat. I could not figure out since he had those cool looking dark shades on.

At one point, I suddenly realized that there was a turtle trying to cross the road! On I-45!! How it made it to the middle of the first lane I will never understand. In any case, I had just enough time to take a sharp swerve and then pull back without losing control at any point of time. Fortunately, managed to save the turtle. Although, if I were a betting man, I would not wager on the turtle crossing the road that afternoon. There was a really heavy wind turbine blade coming to meet him soon 🙂

In any case, the thoroughly startled Bob asked “What happened?”
“There was a turtle on the road”, I replied.
He was much relieved to realize that nothing untoward had happened – for example, me sleeping off at the wheel!! You would expect Bob to be further relieved that I managed to save the turtle. But then, you would forget that this is Bob we are talking about. He was probably more piqued by he having to wake up. His next reaction was –
“Hey Rajib, next time you see the turtle on the road, feel free to run it over!!!”” 🙂