Overhead Compartments

I board my flight for Seattle and follow my rule for use of the overhead compartment. That is, get on as early as I can so that I can put all of my stuff in one place, avoid placing anything under the seat in front of me (on many planes the room under the seat in front of window seats is too small for either of my carry-ons, and I do not have enough memory to store the models of the planes that are in this category, nor do I care to make any effort to commit this to memory if I had the extra space up there), and be sure to place the items in the compartment on the opposite side of the plane from my seat. This last one is important because on packed flights, sometimes the flight attendants will move stuff in the overhead compartments around to make room to fit everything in. This happened to me on a flight where, for some reason, one of my bags was moved two or three compartments further back in the plane, and I did not witness this action. The first thought is that someone boosted my bag. So that created some stress. When I finally found out that my bag had been moved, I had to wait for a long time to retrieve it when getting off the plane. So to avoid all of that I always place my stuff on the opposite side, just a little ahead of my seat so that I can keep an eye on it.

Today a guy whose seat is under the compartment where my bags are stowed takes exception to this. Instead of saying something to me so that I can explain that this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do he starts a loud conversation with the guy behind him about this as if I am not there. The other guy says something about me having no clue, to which I respond, just loud enough that they could hear but not directed at them or loud enough for them to get the whole thing “I have lots of clues and two of them are that you are assholes.” I say “lots of clues” and “holes” loud enough that I am sure they heard me. They shut up and sat down.

These are obviously not road weary travelers that have had to endure the ridiculous and routine rigors of air travel.