Snapshots from a plane

Just got back from Seattle where we went to visit daughter, son in law, and grandbaby Cate. My brain will arrive on a later flight; it was not able to get a seat with me and is apparently not in the house this morning, as evidenced by my sleeping until 8-something and eating a cookie for breakfast and now somehow it's almost 11:00 and I have done NOTHING. Well, I did take a shower.
I love the chance encounters when traveling, the bits and slices of people's lives that float by you. Here's a collection from this trip:
The Tuskegee Airman: An old black man boarded in Newark, through the First Class pathway, fumbling a bit with his cane and tickets and gear. He was wearing a jacket and hat with Airman logos and looked very tired. It wasn't until I passed him on the way off the plane (he sat in First but waited to get off) that I put it together-- this was one of the real Tuskegee Airmen, and he had probably been to Washington for the inauguration and was on his way home. I wish I had taken the opportunity to greet him and shake his hand.
The diva: Picking up luggage in Seattle, I watched a woman in her 50's directing an entourage to collect her voluminous luggage. She was dramatically and expensively dressed and had probably had way too much plastic surgery. Two enormous Gucci bags and three huge black suitcases later she and her 'boys' were finally ready to leave. The serfs had my sympathy.
The paratrooper: Gliding down the elevator in Houston, a young fellow with his arm in a sling was telling his girl a hair-raising story on his cell-- the shoulder he dislocated when jumping from a plane (second jump of the day), spinning out of control through the air with his shoulder in pain, unable to reach the ripcord-- eventually got the chute open and landed safely, but they washed him out of the program. He made it all sound very matter of fact and referred to the whole thing as "sort of unpleasant". I hope they let him stay in the Army.
The geezers: Taking the bus to the Park'n'Fly, two couples in the back were relating stories about their (the husbands) prostate cancer. Treatment, what hospital, etc. It was apparent they did not know each other and seemed they had just met. So-- how exactly did this topic come up in the course of a short bus ride?
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We had a great visit, Cate as always is amazing and intensely cute (when she is not being almost two and practicing for tantrums.) The North Carolina sunshine is glorious this morning, in spite of light frost, and I have a bushel of errands to run and lots of knitting to do, and two freshly bathed and brushed dogs to collect.