So, I am just getting back from my third straight week on the road. This past week was in glorious Columbus, Ga. A nice place really. A smallish city with every amenity available. Reminded me of a college town - lots of cops, lots of restaurants and military from Ft. Benning. My actual business went well, and I got my goal accomplished.
But getting there - that's a different story.
I took an American flight from Dallas to Atlanta, with the expectation that I would drive the 90 miles to Columbus. I typically fly in coach class, but for what ever reason, the AA gods smiled on my, and bumped me up to first class with out any additional fees, charges, or restrictions. Normally, this would be a great thing, but in my experience, I am just burning my good karma. Whenever I get a really excellent seat on a flight, its goodness is flipped to less desirable on my next flight leg. Example: I get a good seat in coach on an outbound flight, my return will ahve a broken seat. First class normally results in a middle seat on my next flight.
But I thought this trip was going to be different. I had been bumped to First Class for BOTH legs of the flight! w00t!
Too bad my karma can affect weather patterns.
When the plane got to Atlanta, we had to circle due to a rather nasty tropical storm that had decided to sit on top of the Atlanta airport.
The pilot reported runway cross winds of 60 -70 knots - outside of the safe landing specs of our airplane.
We circle around for about an hour, and finally we head to Birmingham, AL to land and wait the storm out.
Normal landing noises, except for a rather muffled *thwump* that came from the rear of the plane and then followed by a much louder *thud* from the front of the plane.
After rolling to a stop, El Captain announces that we took TWO (count'em 1...2) bird strikes. Apparently, we sucked one feathered friend into the port engine, and the other stuck us head on in the windshield. (Reminds me of a joke: What the last thing that goes through a bug's mind when it hits your windshield? His ass.)
We sit on the ground for about an hour while maintenance checks out the plane for damage. Luckily(?) the pilots open the cockpit door, and being in First Class, I lean over and look in. Yep. bird guts and other red moist things are all over the windshield. eeewww.
Once the maintenance d00ds declare us safe to fly, we taxi out to the runway. El Captain announces that we are number 324 for landing at Atlanta. They are slightly backed up, and have put a ground stop on all incoming flights. Luck me. Karma is working. I can feel it.
We sit on the ground until about 8:00pm (I was supposed to land in ATL at 4:00pm), when the crew gets on the speakerbox and announces that they have just gone "illegal". WTF? Is that lingo? Or they hit the minibar? Turns out, the flight crew hit max number of hours of working in one day. This plane aint going nowhere.
We pull back into the airport and disembark. According to AA, because the delay was weather related, the only serivces they will provide is complementary booking on the flight scheduled for the next morning. No hotel, no car rentals - nada. How generous.
Luckily, while we were waiting for takeoff several hours earlier, I had called Hertz and reserved a one way rental from Birmingham to ATL (its good to be Gold).
I breeze by the car rental stalls (which are mobbed with all the grounded flights, and are completely out of cars) and head out to my reserved wheels.
I take off and drive the 130 miles to Atlanta. Of course, the tropical storm is still out there, and I hit the remnants of it, but nothing too bad.
I drive right to ATL and pick up my coworker. He arrived just before the storm shut the airport down, and had started drinking. Rightly so, as he came from the great far north of Moncton, Canada.
We load up, and head out for the 90 mile drive to Columbus. I didn't check into my hotel until just after 2am - hoping to get a quick nap in before my meeting at 8am.
Karma. It giveth and taketh away.
I have an elf problem. I also HAD a cordless telephone with two handsets. Very cool IMHO. Both handsets talked to the same base station. One charges on the base station while the second has a remote charging station.
I *know* that left both handsets in their charging cradles when I left last week. But today, both cradles are empty. I use the "page" function to locate the wireless talkies. No go. No beeps. Dead battery. Dam phone elves. They prolly think its funny to hide my telephones.
Luckily, I find one handset buried underneath the mound of junk mail that is sitting on my counter. The second phone - I have no clue. I have looked all over - no dice. Them phone elves hid it good.