Movember: Changing the Face of Men’s Health

 

If you haven’t heard, the mustache is making a come back! I have been infatuated with this piece of facial hair for some time now, and have wanted to grow one but have not been sure how the process would work and if it would suite my face! For nearly 8 years now I have had a goatee and never anything else!

However, this November (I mean Movember), I am venturing to support men’s health in a way that will allow me to experience the coolness of the mustache! Starting Movember 1, I will begin to grow a mustache from scratch (yes, that is right, I will be shaving off my facial hair) in order to raise money for prostate and testicular cancer research by growing a rockin’ mustache!

Please click here to support me with a financial donation! While you are there, bookmark the page to follow my mustache growing progress and updates for all of Movember!

Thank You for Flying With Us Today!

Glory Days of Air Travel

I often think about the days when air travel was a distinguished and special activity; when people dressed their Sunday best to board a plane and travel in style! When the plan seats had ample room for you r legs and your hips! When you weren’t treated like cattle. Air travel is obviously very different today than it was in yesteryear!

Having flown almost 50,000 miles this year, you could call me a “frequent flyer.” On my most recent trip, I flew to Chennai, India and found it ironic that some of the silly quirks of flying have become downright frustrating! So, here are my top three most frequent flying frustrations over the last 50,000 miles!

Caution: Sudden Stops!
Most airports are super busy and it seems that peoples awareness of their surroundings is totally missing! I was recently in the Chicago O’Hare airport trying to change terminals and if you have been to Chicago O’Hare, you know that there is not a lot of walking room. So, why is it that people feel they can stop moving all of a sudden in the middle of the walkway?!

I treat crowded walkways as if I was a car on the road. If you are driving your car on the freeway, you don’t stop all of a sudden to check your phone or dig into your pocket? NO! If you need to stop in the airport, pull over! When you begin impeding traffic, you begin making people frustrated!

Sudden Stoppers are also notorious to doing blind turns in crowded places. Blind turning is the process of changing direction without checking your blind spots (there is that traffic analogy again)! Before making any changes in direction, you should review your surroundings and plan before execution. It is the polite thing to do because cutting people off with your blind turn is frustrating!

Plane Eaters
Many people feel the need to bring food on a plane. This in and of itself is not so frustrating to me. Instead, it is the food choice that people to bring into a confided, recirculating air facility. I am a huge fan of Cobb salads, but the smell of eggs on a plane is not appealing! Neither is your burrito or nachos!

By no means should people go hungry on an airplane, but people need to be more considerate when finding something to eat on the airplane. Here are some general food choice rules I try to follow when I need to eat on the plane.

• Food should be generally low odor (something like dried fruit or string cheese).
• Food should not contain eggs in any form – especially hard boiled.
• No onions.
• No salads.
• No fish or other meats (including hamburgers).
• Coffee and tea is always acceptable.
• Breads and danishes are acceptable.

It is always a good idea (and cheaper in any case) to pack snacks in the event that you get hungry. Snacks like granola bars, string cheese, dried fruit or trail mix are always good choices because they will take the hunger edge off and produce minimal negative olfactory activity (produce bad smells)!

All Carry-on Luggage Should be Stowed at This Time
With airlines charging exponential amounts for checked luggage, carry-on luggage use has increase exponentially. As a result, storage capacity in the cabin has been drastically reduced. I usually fly United and they load the plane in 4 zones. If you have a carry-on bag and you are in zone 4, you can count that you will most likley need to gate check your bag.

In order to make more room for as much luggage as possible, the airlines continually reminds passengers prior and during the boarding process to “…place the wheels or handles of your roller bag towards the isle to make more room.” It amazes me how many people have selective hearing! When I get on the plane, I see a good 30% of carry-on luggage turned sideways in the luggage rack!

Coming from a frequent flyer, this sounds very much like a rant; and it is. People should be more considerate to others. I know for sure that if travelers would recognize these three behaviors and work to change them, you would make one traveler very happy!

Please share your travel pet peeves with me below! What would make your air travel experience more enjoyable?

American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon

I have always been infatuated with the “Old West!” Perhaps it is partly because I was born in Arizona, or perhaps because of the lore that the Old West has with its stories, history and folklore, or perhaps it was that old floppy floppy disk I used to play The Oregon Trail with! Either way, I love it!

The Buffalo (or Bison – I learned that either is correct) is my favorite animal in the animal kingdom. Very fitting seeing as they lived in the West! They are such majestic, interesting, beautiful creatures (plus they taste really good)! So, when mulling through a gift shop in South Dakota this summer, I found this book and had to purchase it.

Author Steven Rinella won a buffalo hunting license in 2005 to hunt a wild buffalo herd in Alaska. He uses his experience of the hunt as the basis for the book, all the while tying in the animal’s history, lore and legend from the early 1500′s to today. The book is beautifully written, very informative and highly entertaining!

Perhaps you remember learning about the history of the buffalo in history class and the way that they shaped the history of America, but there was so much that I didn’t know including how intertwined the species is with the history of the Unite States and the vital role that the animal has played in the development of the country.

If you enjoy history of the United States or bison, and you enjoy a witty and captivating book, then this should be your next read!