I'll Try Again...02:52 May 14 2008
Times Read: 823
I tried writing this yesterday, but I did it in the “write in journal” thing, rather than off line and I got logged off before I was done so it went “poof”. Then I got pissed at myself so didn’t have the patience to type it over again. I’m not pissed off now, so here goes.
Last week in Minneapolis ended fairly well. We drove our co-worker who had a commitment on Friday to the airport on lunch break, and just made it back in time for the “Short Course on Winding Mechanics” to begin. That was the best session of the entire week and was well worth the trip.
Thursday night we went out to a campus watering hole for dinner, it was actually quite good! I had a blackened Mahi-Mahi sandwich and a few pints of a nice local beer. Headed up to the room early, got packed and headed to sleep. Got up at 7:00 and headed off to the airport for the flight home.
Drove to the airport, stopping to put 3 gallons of gas in the rental car to avoid the $4.85 / gal charge the rental company would charge if it wasn’t “full, full”. Turned in the car but the portable check-in-o-matic unit was out of paper so I had to go to the desk in the terminal to get a receipt. Made it to a kiosk to check in for my flight and then headed to the security line.
It seems to me that the airline employees and TSA agents in the smaller cities have a feeling of self importance much greater than that in a “real” city. The North West person “overseeing” the security line decided my carry on bag was ‘too big” and I had to check it. I have carried the same damned bag for several years…It has NEVER not fit in an overhead and no one had ever questioned it before. But THIS guy was not going to let any East Coast City Boy carry a “too big” bag on HIS plane, Gosh Darn it! So I got out of the line, went and checked my bag, and then got back in the end of the Security line again.
Fridays are the worst day to fly as all of the leisure travel “rookies” are out clogging up the system. I had 3 of these fools in front of me in the security line. Fool #1 – This old guy had several different small bottles of “stuff” randomly strewn in his bag…Plus some “bladed weapons”. He did not have his liquid items separate and in a clear 1 qt bag, as the BIG sign next to the table with the pile of 1 qt. bags at the beginning of the security line explained. So he tied up the line for five minutes re-arranging his liquids, and also had a nail file, a box cutter and a “Buck” knife confiscated! Fool #2 – This dude placed his bag on the inspection belt, AND had his “liquids” separated BUT he tried to go through the metal detector with his shoes on, his jacket on and his cell phone in his pocket. He tied up the line, going through, setting off the metal detector, putting stuff on the belt etc. And he totally pissed off the TSA guy at the metal detector. Fool #3 – The guy puts his bag on the belt, has his little bag-o-liquids, puts his shoes through the machine…So far, so good. As his stuff hits the X-Ray machine, however, there are the obvious signs of an issue. The belt stops, backs up, goes forward, stops, backs up another TSA agent joins the first looking at the screen, they point at the screen. The 2nd TSA guy goes to the exit of the machine and holds this guys bag. The TSA agent asks the guy “Do you have any liquids in this bag”. The guy, instead of answering, goes to grab and open the bag…BAD idea! The TSA agent grabs his hands and says “Sir, DO NOT touch the bag!”. “DO YOU HAVE ANY LIQUIDS IN THE BAG?” The guy says “No, sir”. The TSA guy opens he bag and pulls out 3 1 liter bottles of “Propel” Energy drink…..Idiots!
So, I finally make it through security, meet up with my co-worker and we stop for breakfast before heading to the gate. We get to the gate and miracle of miracles, our plane is there and boarding starts on time. I had a second miracle occur, as there was no one in the seat next to me for the flight! This is the first time in several years that this has happened to me! We have a good, if bumpy flight with only a 20 min. “ATC hold” before landing in Philly.
We headed down to baggage claim, and our bags actually showed up! I called Gina and she swung over from the “cell phone lot” and picked me up. We had a fairly quick ride home (also quite rare). I ran in the house, took the dirty clothes out of may bag, put clean clothes in, and we got in the car to drive to Shippensburg, PA for our daughter Allie’s graduation on Saturday morning.
I can tell you that by the time we got to Shippensburg, my ass was tired of sitting.
I’ll get to the weekend’s events on the next entry!
COMMENTS
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TheHellequin
23:27 May 31 2008
Business is becoming more informal in the UK but as mainland Europe is definitely more formal. Have fun :-)
Vampirewitch39
22:16 Jun 01 2008
:) Just give your wife some time before you leave.
Vampirewitch39
00:52 Jun 02 2008
Hey- wait a second... does this mean you will be gone during your B/D? :(
KCRC
01:03 Jun 02 2008
Indeed it does Miss Rat!
Elemental
02:12 Jun 04 2008
Be SAFE but have tons of FUN!!!