This was a memorably disastrous business trip. I flew into Seattle last night, and had my connecting flight to Edmonton cancelled for weather, with no other flights scheduled until this morning. Of course, after standing in a long line, there were no seats left on it. There was no point in my getting a later flight, because the meeting was today, and the next flight wouldn't get me up there until about 6 PM (and my return flight was scheduled for 6:30 tomorrow morning). So I got put on the standby list in the hope that I could still attend the afternoon part of the meeting.

Since it was an act of God, the airline didn't pay for my room in Seattle, but they did get me a discount at the Ramada. Unfortunately, when I got there, along with many other stranded Edmontonians, the computer at the check-in desk was down, so there was another long line there.

I finally got a room, about 11 PM (my original flight to Edmonton had been scheduled to leave at about 9), with a lottery ticket for a flight at 9:50 AM this morning. When I got to the gate, I was greeted by a sign asking for volunteers to give up their seats--the flight had checked in overbooked, and I was about fifth in line on standby. To add to the fun, there was a weather advisory on the flight, meaning that there was fog in Edmonton, and that there was a good chance that it would be diverted to Calgary. If this happened, I'd still end up not getting to Edmonton until this evening, just in time to find out what happened at the meeting and fly back to LA in the morning.

At this point, this trip was so snake bit that I was getting to be quite confident that if I did manage somehow to get on the flight, it would not only get diverted to Calgary, but the bus that was supposed to get me to Edmonton would break down on the road, and then the weather would move in with a vengeance, preventing me from getting back to California on Saturday, where I was scheduled to celebrate my birthday with Patricia, who is flying in here from Florida tonight, with a hotel room reserved up in Cambria for Saturday and Sunday nights.

So I decided to just cut my losses.

Fortunately, the people on Horizon Air (who operated the Dash 7 flight that I was supposed to take to Canada) were willing to simply refund my total ticket, and get me on the next Alaska flight back south. Unfortunately, they were having trouble finding the forms they needed to fill out in order to make it all happen. Eventually, though, they did get a credit on my credit card bill, and a return ticket to LA.

Of course, when I got to LA, the people at the place where I'd valeted my rental car couldn't take my money, because there was a problem with their receipt printer, on which one of the women was performing surgery with a pair of scissors (a servicing tool that I'm sure is not approved by the factory at which the device was manufactured). But finally, they accepted payment, issued the key to the valet, and I got my car. I just got back to my room with a sigh of relief. I'm not going anywhere for a couple hours.

Ugh. At least it was a safe debacle.

Sorry to hear about that, Rand. The next time you're sleepless in Seattle (or even wide-awake), let me know and we'll meet up. You can even stay at our place (though the Ramada may be more luxurious) ;-)

Thanks, Alan--I should have thought of that. But by the time the magnitude of my problem was apparent, it was getting pretty late, and there was little time to do anything other than crash for a few hours at the hotel.

While weather delays are unavoidable, there's one lesson to be learned here -- never give your keys to a valet.

BTW, you have a link to "Warblogger Watcher" -- whcih seems to be immediately redirected to sexsearch.com.

I have to say, it's quite facinating how dependent we are on computers and computer equipment these days. This incident reminds me of a day when I was shopping at the local grocery store and the central computer went down (the computer all of the checkout lanes were tied to) and it was instant queue. All the lines backed up and the store didn't had any backup way to record your purchases. The store went from efficient processing to a stand still in a blink. Of course, most of the customers (including myself) were planning to pay with an electronic card of some sort, but that wasn't working either. Fifteen minutes later they had to close the doors because they couldn't sell. Irritating and humorous all at the same time.