A simple task…getting to Rome on business, right? Another simple task getting  a dog shipped in comfort on a jet from Germany, right? The answer to both is wrong. All because of a Icelandic volcanic ash cloud. Who would have thought that  a volcano in Iceland could freeze air traffic in Europe. But is has. Things are beginning to move but the outlook is still not good. The media (which you can never believe to begin with) is saying it could be a month or two before the  skies are clear enough to handle the hustle and bustle of massive air traffic again.

Was this an overreaction? Was this panic of engineers that really do not know the effects of the ash at this level of density on jet engines? Was this caution? I cannot say.  All I know is I cannot get to Rome and my new Scottish Deerhound ( either  named Hercules or Midas depending on what he tells us he likes once he sees us) is stuck with his grandparents on a beautiful farm near Hanover in Germany. Here I sit stuck in the ash of a foreign cloud.

George Lovato Jr.