Land living...

We discovered this morning that our truck got broken into...again. I just read an article where State Police are going to be allowed to draw my blood whenever they like (to see if I have been drinking). I am working through the 52 some odd possible requirements I have to fulfill if I want to bring a plane load of American citizens (and company Big Wigs) back into America in a airplane Registered and built in America and flown by an American pilot, me. But before that trip goes I have to get a new American Issued Pilot License that has an endorsement to the effect that I can speak English.

I am about to head off to recurrent training where I have to produce a passport, (my FAA issued Pilot License will not do) to prove that I am an American BEFORE I can even enter a classroom; the class to be held on an airplane I have been flying for 3 years now. During the simulator part of the training I have to produce a valid Medical certificate even though the sim is bolted solidly to Mother Earth and can't possibly crash into anything, even if I die sitting in the left hand seat while in the middle of a "flight."

(Though I try and stay away from politics on this blog, politics is part of living. If you will indulge me for just one moment, the Transportation Security Agency is now an agency completely out of control, and clearly more of a threat than some rag-tag band of dark-ages religious fanatics literally hiding under a bunch of rocks in some utterly forsaken rat hole on the other side of the world.)

During my travels this morning to visit the shop where our airplane is in maintenance, then to meet Deb to pick up the truck and drop it off at its own shop, I saw 5 (Count 'em FIVE!) State Sanctioned Harassment Teams lurking along the side of the road, (otherwise known as "Traffic Cops"). Their sole goal being to pick people at random (people just going about their daily business) and subject them to some government sanctioned extortion. I guess handing out tickets to Soccer Moms is cost effective, stopping car break ins not so much.

Of course the stories abound as to Coast Guard goon squads tramping all over cruiser boats being operated by retired couples, endless paperwork hassles just trying to enter a port to buy a little fuel and groceries, and pirates. So maybe water living is subject to much the same constant hassle level as land living?

Then again...maybe not.

It is hard to imagine that it can be any worse. And either way, at least at the end of the day, one could sit in one's cockpit rocked gently by the sea, toast the setting sun, and draw a bit of comfort from the fact that neither the sky nor the sea pays any attention at all to the follies of human kind.