Notes on a Monday

Its 4:40 am and DC is hot and humid, it’s horrible. I can only begin to think how bad it is going to be later in the day.

I walk into the airport and see people, lots of people, sleeping on the ground wrapped in blue blankets. The storm probably stranded people. Five minutes after I got my boarding pass and walk to the security line, I see 500 people ahead of me. They all looked like refugees of some catastrophe or other. Only the business travelers (me included) were not wearing summer clothes, nor were we wearing the blue blankets as ponchos or “wraps”. The security line was so bad, where is the TSA when you need them that I got to my gate a minute before they stated boarding. Let’s just say I was starving all the way till the office.

In true DC fashion, John McCain was waiting next to me in the security line. Sans entourage, or luggage. He is much smaller than I thought, not that I can point fingers but …

Finished reading the book for book club, and I am still deciding whether I liked the book or not. Some of the themes it explored were very interesting, but it seemed to lack cohesiveness. For those that have read it, what do u think of “The Crying of Lot 49”?

Trying to decide on a good book to choose for the Month of October for book club , anyone out there has read anything worth reading and discussing ? Preferably shorter, ie no more than 300 pages. Let me know, cuz I am running out of ideas.

So far that has been my Monday

The flaps

Two weeks ago, I was flying back from Greensboro to DC, and in the middle of the flight a voice over the speaker said something about the plane being diverted to Dulles, that was the only intelligible part of the message, the rest was mumbling. I immediately perk up, I was finishing up the last book for book club and asked the person sitting in front if me if they had understood. They said they didn’t so I walk up to the stewardess and ask her, what was going on. She tells me there is a mechanical problem and that we are being taken to Dulles. Me, being me, instead of going quietly to my seat, I start asking why Dulles, the airports are 18 miles apart? Why not National, can’t they fix it there. Also I ask her who is paying for my cab to DC, I mean it is a 60 USD cab from Dulles to DC, not the usual 20 from National. She says she is not sure and that people will be there to help us. Well I almost through a hissy fit, and demand to talk to the pilot but then his voice comes over the speaker system and he tells us something about something not coming down, and that there would be some type of customer service waiting for us.

I storm back to my seat and one of my coworkers who was on the flight seats with me, and I ask him what the hell is the problem, and he tells me the flaps can not come down, and I have no clue what they are, so I just complain about having to take a cab, and being late for dinner and who is going to pay for the cab and all that. He stops me and explains how if the flaps do not come down we will not be able to land. Oh, shit! I think, not able to land, you mean they are going to keep us circling he sky until they work?. Anyway, we finally start out descent and I have talked to the stewardess again telling her I expect some help when we get to Dulles and sit and continue reading. Well the plain approaches the airport and we start to see the runway and the plane takes forever to land, I mean forever, it went for minutes on end. I even started to get worried, I mean, what if we do not make it, I started thinking, and we have been trying to land for 5 minutes now. Finally we bump 3 times and come to a stand still, and the fire trucks come to check the plain and it finally dawns on me that I am kind of lucky, to be there safe. So I shut up, until we get to the gate, and then I fight to get my luggage and be able to get on a cab … but that is another story.