Sharing is good...

Unless it's your airline seat on a 14 hour flight.

I flew back to Atlanta last week to surprise my son for the Columbus High Chorus Holiday performance. And he was sufficiently surprised, his jaw literally dropped--and he had a surprise for me. He sprained his ankle the day I arrived and was on crutches. My daughter was very happy to see me, too, once she realized I wasn't a doctor taking care of Max's ankle.

Anyway, Max took the stage on crutches and the whole group performed very well. He even managed to go up and down 4 flights of stairs for the reception afterwards.

I was only in town for 3 days, but I got to enjoy some time with the kids; hang out with my friends for coffee, and take care of a couple loose ends. I even got to wear a light jacket and scrape a little frost off the windshield...oh, how I miss that!

Now back to sharing...DAL 7 to ATL wasn't too bad. I had a big guy next to me, but I was on the exit row, so lots of leg room to stretch out. DAL 8 to Dubai was a different story. I prefer the aisle seat and when I showed up to claim mine, the large gentleman in the middle seat had already raised the armrest and claimed a few inches of my seat. Also didn't have the leg room to make it work, so I spent alot of time in the galley. I know I'm not skinny, but I do fit in my seat. And I know alot of people are just the way God made them...as bad as it was for me, I know I would not have survived being that guy in the middle seat.

Now, I have a suggestion for Delta and all other airlines. Let's start making people state their weight when they make their reservation. They should be able to do this and claim it's for load planning and weight balance. Then when someone claims a seat they can color code the seat by weight class...green for less than 100lbs; blue for 100-200lbs; red for over 200lbs...that way, when I pick my seat I can try and find someone smaller to sit next to and both of us will be comfortable. And the aisle seat I had will eventually fall to someone who is in a smaller weight class and everyone should be able to ride in relative comfort. How about it Delta?

In the mean time, I'm working out and trying to get out of the red.