Homecoming

Holy hell, we made it out. Things looked touch and go for a bit, because people had the idea that yelling at the gate agents would somehow improve the situation, when really all it did was slow things down for the rest of us. As we sat waiting for baggage to load, one guy decided he was going to "gallantly" give up his seat for a friend to keep the guy with his wife and kid. Apparently it didnt matter how many families he seperated while we delayed more so they could take off his baggage and figure things out. Fortunately the friend got bumped up on the standby list (maybe yelling does work....) and so we didnt have to wait any longer. 

The relief when we took off was palpable. People had started telling each other horror stories of five hour waits in the customer service line.... No hotel rooms available anywhere... Days before another flight. Im not sure how much if it was fact and how much was panic, but the line for customer service was longer than most of the lines ive seen at PAX. One was so long it went around corners and looked endless. I can think of a lot of cities i wouldnt mind being stuck in for a few days. Houston doesnt make that list. Houston with my liberal mother in a campaign year seems like a recipe for disaster.

I think maybe this was our punishment for keeping captive crabs.

This sort of thing has happened before, once on a cruise, my mother and i werent content having only two dinners, and decided to go to the formal dining room for a third. Everything went wrong. The food was terrible-- I got the most disgusting soup, that i am pretty sure was actually dishwater. They were out of a bunch of stuff. My mother accidentally threw a dirty kleenex at the waiter. It was generally unpleasant. We were clearly being punished for the hubris of taking a third dinner.

Now ive done my time in houston, i should be in the karmic clear for a while.

Sadly the trouble wasnt over when we got home. We left houston at 3:30 AM local time (3.5 hours late) and arrived in Portland 4.5 hours later. My parents had checked a bag, and it never turned up, which meant waiting in another line to start the claim process. This took about an hour. We have been travelling for more than 24 hours, and have eaten one mealtype thing at an airport panda express. We are all wiped out and cranky.

Three hours later we made it back to my parents, to find out my car battery was dead. Another hour to charge it, an hours drive, and i am finally back onboard The Violet Vengeance at 1:30PM Seattle time (5:30PM Bonaire time, almost exactly 36 hours from when we got up to leave for the airport.) My plan for the day is to lie in bed with cats and watch tv til i pass out.