"Airside"

"Airside" is aviation lingo for being on the inside of the airport as opposed to peering at planes through a chain-link fence. Today, I once again was treated to two hours of being airside at DFW with a guy who works there.

The weather service had teased me all week by predicting sun or partly cloudy skies. It's critical to have sun if you want good photographs. By Thursday, the forecast had changed to cloudy. But this morning, I awoke to the good news that there would be "partly cloudy" skies this afternoon. Hooray!

Uh, I got five minutes of sunlight in two hours. Fortunately, this big FedEx came rumbling in from Memphis during that five minutes. BTW, this plane was sitting abandoned in the Mojave Desert until recently. Out-of-work aircraft are stored there to avoid the inevitable decay and rust that moisture brings. FedEx bought this one and painted it and is now giving it a new career. Maybe some employer will do that to me soon.