Getting There on Time

I am fairly particular when it comes to punctuality. I don't like making anyone wait for me because I feel that if they've made the effort to show up on time for an appointment then I should show that person the same courtesy. In case of school classes and other such 'educational' appointments, the same standard applies. If you're paying to learn something, like tennis, then you owe it to yourself to be there on time because if you aren't, then couldn't you just flush your money down the toilet instead? That being the case, many people think of ways to avoid being late though very few are as novel as 65-year-old Robert Kadera.

Kadera, a 40-year veteran of naval aviation and father to a teenage son, realized that traffic was a bear from his family home in an Illinois suburb and would take over 45 minutes to get his son to the tennis club where his son was due to take lessons in less than 45 minutes. So he did what most of us would do. He hopped in his plane and proceeded to fly over traffic. Now there is no airport located close to the tennis club so he circled around and landed. At the golf course next door to the tennis club. As he and his son walked to the tennis club, the police and other authorities arrived, on news that there had been a potential small airplane crash and were stunned to find Kadera and his son calmly walking along and explaining the reasoning behind their little daliance on the golf course. Now I don't know how I would have reacted in that case but needless to say, the authorities weren't thrilled at what Kadera had done.

In this day and age I can sympathize with most parents. It seems these days that parents have a wealth of activities in which to enroll their kids. From activities meant to stimulate the mind to activities meant to stimulate their athleticism, there is a dearth of things which parents sign their kids up for. In that initial furor however, very few tend to remember that there are hundreds of other families thinking the same thing. Add to the mix the rest of us who are simply trying to get from point A to point B and you get automatic gridlock. Take myself for example. For a number of years I would attend a martial arts class at a school located approximately ten minutes (at slow driving) from my house. On Friday nights that trip would take me anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. On Saturday mornings if I had to go to the same class it would take five minutes. Now there's a disparity and though I knew the trip shouldn't take more than ten minutes I didn't wait until ten minutes before my class began to head out.

Sure there are times when circumstances lead us to do desperate things to make an appointed time but it should remain within the realm of reason. Leaving aside that I don't have a plane in my name and that I don't live within a close proximity to a private airfield but I would think that thinking flying a plane and landing on a golf course, even if the plane was under control the whole time, should seem a bit... extreme. And to think that no one would mind? Perhaps if this were the barnstorming days of the 1920's then there would have been a clamour and rush of excitement but now people are quick to think terrorism or air disaster and rush to the scene in horror rather than excitement. How can we avoid situations like this? Well it's possible to leave earlier isn't it? Adjust your schedule and do what is necessary to get where you need to go on time. While flying to your destination may be a novel approach, it's just going to cause more trouble than it's worth. Until we reach the era of flying cars like in the Jetsons, I'm afraid we'll have to make do with remaining earthbound. Even when we're late for our tennis lessons.