Meeting a Modern Day Version of Lot's Wife

As I was waiting to board my plane yesterday from Richmond, Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina, two of my recently acquired friends and I noticed all the people leaving our plane were hot, red faced, angry and dripping with sweat. We looked at each other and then back at the miserable passengers. There was no doubt something was wrong.  Soon a short, portly, bald headed man got off the plane and made an announcement. Evidently, the air conditioning equipment was broken.  He called it  the"starter engine".  I really wished he had called it something else. Anything that had the word "engine" included made me nervous.  He also went on to say they were bringing in a generator to "boost" the air conditioner.  He informed us that it would not be "cool" when we boarded the plane. He asked us to keep the windows shut, they supplied  us with ice water immediately.  The plane's lights would be off until we were up high enough to reach cool air.

I found my seat and met another very nice lady. She had just retired from a computer company and was flying to Germany then on to her sister in England. She was dressed for night flying and was fanning herself  like a bat trying to take flight.  She kept opening the window shade and looking out to see what was going on.  Immediately there was an announcement to "Please close the shades to conserve what cool air we have".  The rules did not apply to her.  She told me she had requested a window seat and she intended to look out her window.  Then she fanned harder and sweated more.  I suggested she keep it shut until the plane cooled off.  She looked at me like I had just sprouted a third eye. 

This scenario was repeated for 30 minutes.  Open window, announcement, open window, announcement.  Finally the plane cooled off and the rest of the trip was pleasant. Everyone could officially open their window shade. She closed hers and began to talk to me about her long flight. Odd indeed.

As the lady and I were laughing about the situation, I told her she reminded me of Lot's wife.  She said, "Who is Lot?" I told her the story of Lot and his family fleeing the wrath of God. They were instructed not to look back toward the city they were leaving. Lot's wife couldn't stand it, she looked and was immediately turned to pile of salt, if I remember right.  She thought for a minute and said, "You are right, I would have looked".  I thought to myself, me too.