Traveler's hell

I was out in the San Francisco Bay Area all last week, and by yesterday morning I was really ready to get home.

My day started yesterday with a 4AM wake-up for a 6AM flight (I was staying at the SFO Marriott so no need to get up ealier). Weather's good, and I get my rental car returned in short order and get through security with no problem. Delta starts boarding the flight about 35 minutes before scheduled departure, so all's good. I've even got first class upgrades for both legs of the trip (SFO-ATL and ATL-RIC). The trouble started about 10 minutes before scheduled departure when the captain came on the PA and announced that we had to wait for a de-icing crew to come and de-ice us. Shouldn't set us back by more than a few minutes, he says, and that he should be able to make it up en route. That's all well and good, BUT...it was 55 fucking degrees outside (that's about 13 sodding degrees to my Brit friends). To top it off, there was no evidence of ice, frost or even a little bit of dew ANYWHERE.

That brief wait for the de-icing crew turned into around 45 minutes because -- wait for it -- there was another aircraft ahead of us for de-icing. When the guys finally show up, there's no de-icing truck, just a scissors jack used for loading cargo and a guy standing on it with what looks like a garden hose. He proceeds to sort of nonchalantly spray both wings of our plane, and we're on our way from the gate an hour behind scheduled departure. But hey, I'm not worried...I've got a 2.5 hour layover in Atlanta which has just gotten shorter.

Fast forward 6 hours or so. I've had my drink and a smoke at the Heineken Bar & Grill (Concourse A, upper level at ATL for those who like to drink AND smoke while awaiting connecting flights) and I'm at the gate for my flight to RIC. Boarding is running slightly late because the aircraft got in 5-10 minutes behind schedule (your attention is invited to Saturday's violent weather along the east coast), but we're still looking good for an on time departure. Brats and wheelchairs board, then first class. Just as the first couple of coach passengers are getting on, the gate agent runs down the jetway and on the plane to tell the flight attendant that she had to halt the boarding process. It seems they had the wrong aircraft type loaded in the computer they'd have to reload it and reboard those pax who'd already been boarded. One rather unhappy camper (not me) loses his first class seat during the reshuffle, and we push back from the gate about 50 minutes late and start taxiing to queue up for the runway.

But wait! The captain gets on the PA and says that due to severe weather in the Richmond area they may have to hold us on the ground for a while. No, wait! On second thought, if we can takeoff RIGHT FREAKING NOW! we might beat the weather! So...high speed taxi to the head of the line, hard turn onto the runway, and off we go. I thought I saw the pilots of about 17 airplanes behind us giving us the finger.

A couple glasses of wine later, we're starting the initial descent into Richmond. Did I mention they were forecasting violent weather in the Richmond area? Yes, I believe I did. Our MD-88 proceeds to get tossed about like a kite in a gale, and because that's so much gosh-darned fun, we enter a holding pattern at around 5000 feet just so we can enjoy it a little while longer while the REALLY violent weather clears the area around the airport. Unfortunately, nobody thought to tell the guys who fueled the plane that we'd be stopping at an amusement park so we started running low on fuel. Evidently, this storm had already passed through Raleigh, so off we go to RDU for refueling before heading back to RIC.

In retrospect, I guess I shouldn't complain that after all that, we only arrived 2.5 hours late in Richmond. Scheduled arrival time was 17:02, and we arrived at around 19:30.

Swine flu news

I think I may have to "unfollow" BreakingNews on Twitter. These are the "tweets" I saw when I opened up TweetDeck this morning...I'm thinking it's a good idea to short airline stocks today.

Speaking of airlines...think anyone would be offended if I boarded my flight for San Francisco today in self-contained bubble?

Yeesh...this is getting a little disconcerting.

Random encounter weekend

I was out in the San Fran Bay Area again this week and flew back home yesterday. Friday night I was at our usual watering hole waiting to catch up with a friend for dinner and as the place got more and more crowded, I gave up my table to an older couple who were waiting for another couple to show up. I got to talking to the two gentlemen, and when the subject turned to international travel, we started talking about German cities. The new arrival asked if I'd ever been to Wiesbaden, Germany, and I said "Been there? I was born there." I explained I was an Air Force brat and my dad had been stationed there. The guy laughed and explained he was a doctor and had been posted to the military hospital there between 1958 and 1960. Which made me laugh because I was born at that hospital in 1959. He was a general surgeon and not an OB, but he did assist in some deliveries during that time, so who knows.

Then on Saturday while waiting to board my flight in Atlanta for Richmond, there was a crowd of teens from a church choir (I could tell because they were all wearing the same t-shirt) gathered around some short older guy who was talking to them. I turned to the guy next to me and remarked that he must be someone to somebody and the guy told me he was Henry Winkler. I couldn't tell because I only saw him from behind. I took another look and sure enough, it was The Fonz.

The gate agents got him on the plane before boarding the rest of the first class cabin, and when I boarded I found that Winkler was in my seat. He asked if I'd mind swapping seats with him because he knew the lady in the window seat and wanted to chat with her. I said no problem and proceeded to stow my stuff as Winkler and the lady next to him chatted with me (the lady was asking about my Baby Taylor travel guitar that I drag around with me on the road), and I took my seat.

At one point while the plane was boarding Winkler got up so a passenger could have her picture taken with the lady in the window seat so I figured she must be "somebody" too, so I took another look and realized it was Sissy Spacek. I guess I didn't recgonize her at first without the bloody prom dress. Weird, huh?

One thing I have to say about Winkler is that he's unusually kind and gracious with fans. After he got done talking with the kids from the choir, he had one person after another come up asking to have a picture taken with him. He didn't decline once and always exchanged pleasantries with the fan.

'Are you the biggest tosser?'

This sign I saw in a store window last night in Reading, England cracked me up. Don't know what a "tosser" is? Ask a Brit.

Just in case

Who knows...they may need them again.

A pub, a soccer game

How British is that? Manchester United v. Blackford Rovers, for those who follow the game. Man U just scored, and it appears the crowd at the Cat And Canary are Man U fans.

Update: For those who care, Manchester United won 2-1. Fun game.

Woe is me

Had to fly out to Phoenix yesterday to give a talk at an industry event there this morning, then headed right to the airport for my flight back home. Tomorrow I have to fly out to London for five days, so consider this my light blogging excuse.

Air passenger meltdown

Synopsis: Passenger arrives at gate after apparently dilly-dallying around after checking in. Boarding door is closed and she's refused boarding. Hilarity ensues.

I say "dilly-dallying" because she had checked in and checked her bag which had to be offloaded when she didn't show up. Passengers often check in then spend too much time either shopping at the duty-free store or getting snockered in a bar and this is what happens. If the airline accepted her bag, she had plenty of time to get to the gate.

I actually saw a meltdown like this once in Atlanta during an ice storm. Nobody was going anywhere, but one lady got so freaked out she was screaming hysterically and threw herself on the floor just like this one did. Unfortunately, this was about nine years ago, before the days of ubiquitous cell phone video cams.

Judd Gregg drops out

I was hanging out at the airport yesterday afternoon in Rochester waiting on a delayed flight which I gave up on, when I heard the news about Judd Gregg's withdrawal from the nomination for Commerce Secretary. That Gregg singled out Obama's mucking about with the census bureau as one of the reasons was pretty sweet.

Heckuva job, Barry!

Cincinnati not into snow plows

Got to Cincinnati last night and it started snowing around midnight. It was a fun drive this morning, and I've yet to see a snow plow or sand spreader.

In a few words...

An aborted take off in Atlanta yesterday resulted in an unusually late arrival in the Bay Area last night (well, this morning actually), and now of course work gets in the way of regular posting. So, after hearing some particularly loathsome opinions on the subject, I'll just leave you with this:

If you believe Israel is the aggressor in the current Gaza conflict, then you deny Israel's right to self defense.

If you deny Israel's right to self defense, then you deny Israel's right to exist as a state.

If you deny Israel's right to exist as a state, I've got nothing more to say to you.

Hey! Where did everybody go?

So Mrs. Poolbar and I along with the youngest of the Poolbar spawn drove up from Virginia to Connecticut today to spend a few days with family after the holiday insanity. Traveling through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York on the way to Connecticut on a Friday - the day after New Year's day, no less - I was certain would be a test of my patience.

While it wasn't exactly like one of those post-apocalyptic zombie movies where we had the roads entirely to ourselves, it was probably the easiest such trip I've made yet. Not a traffic backup anywhere.

Is it another sign of a truly shitty economy when nobody's driving even when gas is the lowest it's been in four years?

Second time in San Diego...

...second time it's been cold and dreary. I need to stop coming here in the winter.

Domino effect

I was booked today on a 12:10PM Delta flight from Richmond to Atlanta, where I was to connect to a 4PM flight for San Francisco. When I checked in, I was informed that the flight was delayed until 12:30. No big deal...there'd still be plenty of time to make the connection. Then Delta announced it would be departing at 1:35. Er, still tight, but doable. As a backup, Delta listed me on standby for a later flight for San Francisco. But as I walked up to the gate, I saw the new departure time listed as 2:00...not good. It seemed the ice storms in the north east were having a domino effect on flights along the east coast.

So rather than freak out and enter the moshpit that was forming in front of the gate agent, I called Delta and asked what my options were. The kind lady at Delta said that the later flight for SFO was still an option, but that there was only one seat remaining...a middle seat in coach. Blech. Since my dinner plans were already scrapped for the evening, I asked what was available for first thing Monday morning and she offered me a 6AM flight out of Richmond with a connection in Atlanta that gets into SFO at 11AM...perfect. My schedule for Monday morning was flexible enough so I could afford to get into the office there a bit later.

The best part? I guess being nice with the ticketing agents when everyone else is probably screaming pays off because she put me in first class for both legs of the trip. And I get to go to a Christmas party tonight I otherwise would have missed.

Moral #1: Be nice to airline people. They don't like delays any more than we do.
Moral #2: Avoid air travel in winter.

Globalization

I landed in Richmond last night after my flight back home from the west coast and was standing outside the terminal having a smoke while waiting for the baggage claim belt to start disgorging bags. There was a manhole cover stamped "Made in India", and it occurred to me that I've seen a whole lot of manhole covers lately made there. So this morning I searched Google images for "manhole covers made in india" and for some reason, there are scads of pictures there from various places in the US with Indian-made manhole covers. That's where I grabbed the picture above.

Are Indians really making making cast iron products so cheap that it's worth the shipping costs of importing them? I mean, we're not talking marshmallows here...cast iron is pretty damned heavy. I guess it's another thing we can thank the unions for.

Bad marketing

"Rough Rider" condoms? Who's the genius who came up with that name?

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A kibitz from Mark:

You know you've been in California too long when you think it's OK to use your camera phone in the men's room.
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It was a one-holer.

Coastal

Say what you want about about California...I know I do. But they truly have some of the most beautiful coastal areas in the world.

I was driving by this spot just north of Half Moon Bay and had to pull off and pause for a look just now. (Photoed and posted from my cell phone.)