Sick Transit (again)
I’ve finished my work week in Milwaukee, and am hanging in the Minneapolis airport awaiting my 9:20pm flight home to Seattle, which has been delayed to 11:10 due to “awaiting connecting passengers”. WTF? Has anyone ever delayed an outbound flight to make sure my sweet ass is seated and comfortable?
Turns out we’re waiting for 60 passengers from Washington, DC. Strange to have so many from one flight from one destination. Either it’s a political juggernaut that has lost its ability to charter private jets, or it’s a bunch of kids junketing to see how our civic life is conducted.
I remember when I was in grade school, we sold seeds and worked in the cafeteria as 5th-graders in order to accumulate money for a 6th-grade trip to Washington, DC. We traveled by train, and stayed in a hotel - I have no idea where. I remember Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s estate, and visiting the monuments. I also remember the poor beleaguered principal coming to the room I shared with 2 other guys to try to get us to give up our card game and go to sleep.
We’ll see who these DC folks are in an hour or so.
Meantime, I finished reading Hotel Honolulu by Paul Theroux this week, and got a start on How To Read And Why by the venerable (and cranky) Harold Bloom.
Have a good weekend! See you on the other side.
The last couple of months: SEA-MSP (regularly), SEA-BWI, SEA-AUS. Coming up: SEA-HEL-? (room for a pleasure trip tagged on the back end, either HEL-PRG or HEL-DBV)
Awaiting incoming passengers is a new one one me. I have never failed to arrive late at DFW and still always made my connecting flight, even an hour after it was supposed to depart, to the point where I no longer run from one terminal to the next, and even stop to pick up lunch, knowing I’ll be sitting on the tarmac for an hour or more. But they’ve never been waiting for my flight. More often AA (not to mention any names here) is waiting for a spare part for the plane.
Eagerly awaiting your report on who those travelers turned out to be. I’ve been on quite a few flights with traveling college sports teams, and (most memorably) once with a bunch of members from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band heading home to New Orleans (now *that* was a fun flight!)
The last time I was at the mercy of airlines was when I popped over to Hamburg a couple of years ago to see my son Lin, who lives and works there. I flew ultimately budget with Ryanair. They stop just short of getting you to fly the plane yourself. We’re all off again at the end of May for Lin’s wedding. Emma’s dreading the flying; I’m dreading the return and the Dante-esque hours we’re going to have to spend in Heathrow’s brand-new Terminal 5, waiting for dematerialised baggage.
So, who did the plane wait for? Are have you been sworn to secrecy, because it was Dick Cheney and his entourage of naked women who pose for reflections in his sunglasses?
Wishful thinking, probably, but it was the first week of spring training for college football, and some went down to Florida for the weather. And media coverage.
sick transit, glorious monday! well, if it all works out.
Molly, I had the “spare-part” experience a month or so ago at MSP. A week later, I got a letter of apology and 25,000 miles appeared in my account. Must have been a surge of Prozac in the Mississippi when Eagan got it’s drinking water that morning!
Carroll, it did turn out to be a bunch of middle-schoolers on a field trip. They boarded the plane clutching pillows, blankets and stuffed animals.
Dick, I’ve read about the Heathrow horror-show. Sounds like the same thing that happened when the Denver airport opened in the 90s. Have fun at the wedding, though!
Robin, that would be a meeting of the Mile-Low club. shudder
Marc, do they play college football in Florida?
Roger, Saturday was certainly glorious! Back to winter Sunday and Monday, though.