Category Archives: Weird

Administrative, Business, Weird

My Return Trip From Hell

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I started to leave Las Cruces for LA on Thursday evening. I got back last night.

I missed my flight on American Thursday night by not allowing enough time to get to the airport in El Paso. They put me on standby for a flight at 6:15 the next morning, so I kept my rental and got a room a couple miles away.

I got to the airport, but the flight to LA (via Phoenix) was full. My next opportunity was a non-stop to LA at noon, but also standby. This was all complicated by the fact that an early-morning Dallas flight had been delayed due to mechanical issues (brakes) and it was a nightmare for the agents to reroute people while they dealt with the issue. I was in a long line with Dallas people, and in front of a couple heading to New Orleans. But I did get my standby opportunity, and spent the morning working on my laptop.

At noon, the board for the flight was down, and there were no standbys listed. I was told to wait, but once again, it was a full flight (including Garrett Reisman of SpaceX).

My next chance was another one through Phoenix, at 2:45, also overbooked. I missed that one too, but as soon as I did, I went over to the agent who had switched me to that one, and just asked her if I could get to Dallas (the next chance out of ELP was the flight that I’d missed first thing in the morning, though this time I would have been confirmed). I figured that once I was in Dallas, I’d have a lot more options. Fortunately (this is about 3 PM), the Dallas flight that had been delayed since early morning had finally gotten its brakes fixed, and was about to depart. Because they’d rerouted people, it had a few empty seats. The one they issued me, by bizarre coincidence, ended up being between the couple heading to New Orleans that had been behind me in line hours earlier.

My confirmed flight to LA from Dallas was at 10:10 PM, to arrive about 11 in LA, meaning about a four-hour layover. When I got into Dallas, I looked at the board, and saw another flight leaving from another terminal in about ten minutes, so I took the tram over. But it was overbooked. I went to look for another agent who wasn’t busy boarding a plane, and asked him if I could get out earlier than the 10:10 (there was an 8:45 on the board). He looked, and said, how about 7:30? I told him, sure, but I didn’t know there was a 7:30. He told me that it was a 4:20 that had had mechanical issues, but would be ready to go. I asked him for a window seat, and he said sure, and gave me a pass, with priority boarding (sweet).

Turns out that it was a 767 that they’d brought in to replace a 737 that they couldn’t fix, so it had lots of empty seats. As a bonus (which believe me, I hadn’t asked for), they put a cute nursing student from TCU on a weekend visit to her sister in LA next to me (though I later suggested that she take the empty row behind, when she wanted to study but the woman in front of her put the seat back).

So thanks to maintenance issues with American, my day that had started out disastrously ended up on a run of good luck. I got into LA about 8:30, after flying about 2800 miles to get 800, and was beat, but I’m recuperating this morning.

Health, Weird

My Bad Night

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Had a weird experience after going to sleep last night. I woke up in the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life. It was in my back, in the region of my right kidney, but it felt like a severe muscle cramp or strain. It was a dull pain, not sharp (as I’d expect a kidney stone to feel like). I couldn’t lie down, and could barely tolerate sitting. We thought about going to the emergency room, but after putting on a heat bandage, taking a couple ibuprofen, and then a vicodin, and lying up in bed with several pillows behind me, I eventually managed to get back to sleep.

Woke up this morning, and it was a little sore, but nothing like it had been when I went to sleep. Now I can barely tell it happened, but I’m feeling slightly nauseated (haven’t had anything to eat or drink except water and a couple cups of coffee, though that’s normal for me). Still don’t know what it was, or if it will recur, but if it does, I’ll definitely have to go to the doctor.

[Thursday-morning update]

Just got off the phone with a friend who’s an ER doc with decades of experience. He said that unless it persists for more than a couple days, to not sweat it, other than maybe peeing in a bottle to see if I can get a sample for testing. “Don’t waste money on urologists or scans.”

[Bumped]

Business, Space, Technology and Society, Weird

The Donald Enters The Space Race

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Doug Messier has the story:

The tycoon is backing calls for Prestwick airport in Ayrshire to be chosen as the launchpad for commercial space flights and will offer VIP packages for passengers at his nearby Turnberry golf resort if it is.

In its bid, a consortium will unveil Trump as the exclusive hotel partner for rich space tourists jetting into the region from across the globe. Tailor-made packages will include castle tours, visits to distilleries and island-hopping in the Hebrides.

I wonder if he’s been talking to Chuck Lauer?

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Weird

The Upside-Down World Of Robert Reich

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One group leaves its demonstration sites cleaner than they found them, and wants to clean up an overgrown corrupt federal government. The other poops on police cars and has rape tents. Guess which ones he calls “wreckers” and which he calls “rebuilders”?

[Update a couple minutes later]

This seems related, somehow: Hillary’s big donors are giving to Jeb, too. It’s almost like it’s all just one big-government party.

[Update a few minutes later]

This seems related, somehow, too: Chelsea Clinton is the closest thing America has to a princess. Just what we’ve always needed.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Thoughts on Princess Chelsea, from Jonah Goldberg:

As for the bit about her being the closest thing America has to a princess, well, when you think about it for a second, I think that’s right. The problem is that the closest thing to a princess in America is very, very, very far from an actual, you know, princess. We don’t do royalty here very well. The thing that makes her most princess-like is that she really doesn’t seem to know what to do with herself except get caught up in the lie of her family business. What I mean is that she may actually believe that the Clintons are a kind of secular royalty and a dynasty. No doubt she’s been told that a lot. No doubt her parents don’t loop her in on the seamier side of how the Tudors of the Ozarks operate. She probably thinks the primary purpose of the Clinton Foundation is philanthropy rather than extending the Clinton brand and empire, in much the same way descendants of the original medieval robber barons believe their family has always been about public service. Bless her heart.

And Jim Geraghty:

The comparison to a princess is a pretty accurate one, and you’re right, the profile piece in the Post doesn’t quite gush. But throwing jobs, awards, opportunities, speaking fees, and other honors at Chelsea seems to have been a pretty easy way to build goodwill with an ex-president and a future president, and I feel like we’ve all been asked to avert our eyes from this.

[Afternoon update]

Heh.