Fear Of Flying To Honolulu

           ​ In the wee small hours of Tuesday, March 31, my mate Tom and I were headed to the Columbus airport,

​...to catch a flight for Honolulu. 
       ​Seven times in the past we've been headed to the Columbus airport in the wee small hours to catch a flight for Honolulu.
​        But this time it was different. The country was still in a government shut-down during which TSA agents weren't paid - and often didn't show up for work - for six weeks. The news had been full of horror stories of airport chaos with cancelled flights, droves of travelers waiting in four-hour lines through security, ​

...and gangs of ICE agents with nothing useful to do lurking about.

      Then there was Donald Trump's vanity war with Iran, over which Iran was  threatening both cyber and physical retaliation against the United States (and what would be more horribly effective than sabotaging a plane?).
​      Anyway, in the midst of all those purported goings on, this year I was just a weence - or maybe more than just a weence - anxious about flying to Honolulu. I wondered if we should even go.
        But we did go, and when we arrived at the airport at 5 am we found the place crowded, but not chaotic. 

       The line for  security was long, but not hours long. ​

      And the TSA agents were conscientious and efficient as always despite the ordeal they'd been going through of having to work without pay. Tom and I thanked them for their service.
        And there were, thankfully, no ICE agents lolling around our airport. Just lots of travelers. 

      Nor was our plane cyber-sabotaged or at all delayed, and we arrived ahead of schedule for our layover in San Francisco, which was likewise crowded but orderly,

...and ICE-free.  
         Our flight to Honolulu took off on time, and five hours over the ocean later we landed, again ahead of schedule, in Honolulu.    

    And so all my flight anxiety was for nought. Unless, as I sometimes think, worrying is necessary to prevent what you were worried about from happening.       

     To be continued...