I had a morning flight. Left home a bit early to avoid downtown traffic. I was a bit sleepy and lethargic as I hit the road.

Once I got on the highway, I commenced to do what I normally do to utilize my commuting hours: call up people to wish them happy birthday. Mornings are usually calls to Australia/India/Singapore – that side of the world. Lunches are for Europe and evening drive back home is for America.

I prepared myself for a few calls. As I mentioned, I was a bit sleepy and had not had my morning coffee yet. Part of me was wondering how many birthdays I had (I think my peak days are about 20) and could it be that I can push out the birthday calls till I reached the airport to just quietly drive there?

Opened my calendar. Braced myself.

Lo and behold! No phone calls needed!!

I forgot today is a Leap Day!!

I do have two friends who were born on this day – one from Dallas celebrates on the previous day (and I had a nice long chat with him yesterday) and another in my hometown in India who celebrates the following day.

Somehow, felt I was off to a good start to the day!!

The sky was overcast other than around the horizon. The rising sun’s brilliant hues emerged from that gap and reflected on the underside of the clouds!

This is taken from the Delta Skyclub in Washington DC airport.

Last February, I went for a run in Dallas area in front of the building that I used to work in back in the 90s! This year, I went for a run in front of the building that I used to work in just before moving to that building. This is in Las Colinas. Same company – i2 !

Boy, has this area changed or what?

None sweeter than those of Sunday mornings when Natasha was a preschooler and I would bundle her up in the car, take her to the airport and standing against those giant glass windows next to the gates watch the planes take off and land. Those days, you did not need a boarding pass to get thru security. We would visit the American Airlines Admirals club where she would always drink some orange juice and then head out to the train that would take us from terminal to terminal for some free ride.

Best couple of hours in an airport for me.

Best couple of dollars for parking I have ever spent!

The lit up horse carriages are a hoot and a half!

These new iPhones do take some good pictures!!

17 years in this city. First time we took the public transport bus (MARTA bus) together. The bus conveniently picks us from from MARTA station and drops us within a couple of minutes of walk from the house.

My efforts in belt tightening by running and diet control all thru the year had an unenviable score card at the end of the year! My belt snapped!!

I will get past the embarrassing parts quickly.

The challenge was – how to fix the problem while on the the road.

The maximalist wife wanted to buy me a new one.

The minimalist me found a new use of Apple charger cords that Apple finally can say “We admit! We had no app for that!!”

You have to be a bit of an airline geek to get this.

Took this shot a few moments back sitting in a flight at La Guardia airport while taxiing to the runway.

Do you see anything unique about the picture?

As I saw the airplanes rolling one by one to the head of the runway, suddenly something in the sequence caught my eye.

There are 5 airplanes in the sequence. Each from a different airline. And those are the top 5 airlines in the USA (by capacity)!!!

How unique is that?

For the data-oriented, measured in ASMs, here is the ranking from May this year.
#1. United Airlines (65.7 billion)
#2. American Airlines (65 billion)
#3. Delta Air Lines (61.3 billion)
#4. Southwest Airlines (38 billion)
#5. JetBlue (16.7 billion)

Note that the ranking order will get interchanged if you go by other metrics like passenger footfalls, miles flown etc etc.