The long and winding flight...
Jan. 22nd, 2004 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
klsiegel320...so I went home this past weekend. Had a bit of a delay on this end, because of wind; not much but some. Got home at a reasonable hour. Had a pretty good weekend - went to the company holiday party, up at the Meadowlands racetrack; actually even came out ahead on the evening - even including the parking and tips!
I may already have mentioned elsewhere - in a reply to a comment, I think - that I got an unexpected extra day at home, because of a holiday here that we weren't expecting to observe. So I got all of Sunday including both playoff football games at home, snuggled down with husband and cats.
And then Monday evening came, and time to return to Florida. As usual, the actual leaving part of leaving was upsetting. I'm always fine once I get here; it's leaving home that makes me miserable. I did check to make sure there were no delay notifications; nope - no delays.
Right. Got to the airport, got checked in and through security, got to the gate - and we're delayed at least half an hour. So I sat down and got a few things done... and we're pushed back to 9:15 (8:15 original departure). So I went off to forage for food.
I'm sitting with my pizza slices in the deli just up the concourse when I could swear I hear them paging everyone on Continental Flight 3395 to Gate 114 for immediate boarding and departure (it's now 7:55). Not what I expected, but maybe we got lucky - so I gather up my dinner, I dash to the boarding lounge - and no, they were not paging us for immediate departure, they were simply announcing the gate change. But I'm here now, so I stay.
Now this is the downstairs boarding lounge at the end of the terminal, because these are little ERJ-145 regional jets we're on, the kind where you actually board by climbing a flight of steps. And a little while later, when they start boarding the Baltimore flight, I realize that although the boarding doors open onto jetways, those jetways are open to the outside air. So they open both doors (Gate 114 and 115), and icy blasts of wind starting pouring into the boarding lounge. And I'm sitting there in a light coat-sweater and t-shirt, because of course I'm going back to Florida where it's warm so I don't need my heavy jacket, right? Wrong!
So now I'm sitting there shivering from cold, (not so) patiently waiting for my flight to board. And about 9:30 they start boarding our 9:15 departure. We get on the plane and get settled, and we're sitting at the gate...and sitting at the gate...and sitting at the gate...
And the captain comes on the PA and says something about thanking us for our patience with the air traffic control delays, and now if we'd please continue to be patient because they're addressing a little maintenance issue they're having...
This is not something I want to hear. I am even less pleased when they come back a little while later to explain that they need to replace a part, so it will be about 10 minutes for them to go get the part, and ten minutes to install it, and then we should be underway. I called Don to tell him what was going on, and I'm sobbing on the phone, because all I can see in my mind's eye is the headline in the paper the next morning: "last minute repairs made in a hurry; plane crashes on take-off" or something like that.
So we sit and wait some more. And we notice that somebody has opened up the plane sitting next to ours (also an ERJ-145), and the lights are on. And about half an hour after we were told that it would be 20 minutes before we were underway, we're told that they're maybe going to put us on that other plane over there instead. This makes me rather happier, even though we're still waiting and we're still not off the ground and it's getting later and later and later...
Another wait, and we get word that we will be switching planes - and everybody leaps up and starts grabbing their stuff, and the pilot says, "Oh, I didn't mean to get everybody up yet - they still have to do [various airplane stuff] first." Another wait, and they say, "Okay, let's go." To the other plane, right?
No. Not to the other plane. Back down the steps, back across the tarmac, back up the jetway steps, into the boarding lounge. We are now back where we started two hours ago; we are not on a plane; and we are not any closer to Jacksonville. Sigh...so at this point I call my manager and tell him I'll be in the office no later than noon, but I'm almost certainly not going to be in at the regular time. And we wait some more.
We finally board about 11:45, and get off the ground maybe about 12:15, and land in Jacksonville about 2:30 in the morning. By the time I got the bag, got to the car, got to the apartment, etc., it was almost 4 a.m. And of course at this point I'm wide awake from all that running around, so it was probably 4:30 or so before I fell asleep.
I did actually make an abortive attempt to get up at the usual hour, but knew I wasn't going to manage, called my colleague with whom I'm sharing a car, and said "go without me, I'll take a cab." Finally got here about 10 or so on Tuesday; very out of it, but I got through the day. Gave my manager a great laugh when he asked a simple question and it took about half a minute for me to process the question and respond. And of course, it has led to subsequent caffeine consumption on record scales, such that I still haven't quite gotten a decent night's sleep...but then, that's what weekends are for.
I may already have mentioned elsewhere - in a reply to a comment, I think - that I got an unexpected extra day at home, because of a holiday here that we weren't expecting to observe. So I got all of Sunday including both playoff football games at home, snuggled down with husband and cats.
And then Monday evening came, and time to return to Florida. As usual, the actual leaving part of leaving was upsetting. I'm always fine once I get here; it's leaving home that makes me miserable. I did check to make sure there were no delay notifications; nope - no delays.
Right. Got to the airport, got checked in and through security, got to the gate - and we're delayed at least half an hour. So I sat down and got a few things done... and we're pushed back to 9:15 (8:15 original departure). So I went off to forage for food.
I'm sitting with my pizza slices in the deli just up the concourse when I could swear I hear them paging everyone on Continental Flight 3395 to Gate 114 for immediate boarding and departure (it's now 7:55). Not what I expected, but maybe we got lucky - so I gather up my dinner, I dash to the boarding lounge - and no, they were not paging us for immediate departure, they were simply announcing the gate change. But I'm here now, so I stay.
Now this is the downstairs boarding lounge at the end of the terminal, because these are little ERJ-145 regional jets we're on, the kind where you actually board by climbing a flight of steps. And a little while later, when they start boarding the Baltimore flight, I realize that although the boarding doors open onto jetways, those jetways are open to the outside air. So they open both doors (Gate 114 and 115), and icy blasts of wind starting pouring into the boarding lounge. And I'm sitting there in a light coat-sweater and t-shirt, because of course I'm going back to Florida where it's warm so I don't need my heavy jacket, right? Wrong!
So now I'm sitting there shivering from cold, (not so) patiently waiting for my flight to board. And about 9:30 they start boarding our 9:15 departure. We get on the plane and get settled, and we're sitting at the gate...and sitting at the gate...and sitting at the gate...
And the captain comes on the PA and says something about thanking us for our patience with the air traffic control delays, and now if we'd please continue to be patient because they're addressing a little maintenance issue they're having...
This is not something I want to hear. I am even less pleased when they come back a little while later to explain that they need to replace a part, so it will be about 10 minutes for them to go get the part, and ten minutes to install it, and then we should be underway. I called Don to tell him what was going on, and I'm sobbing on the phone, because all I can see in my mind's eye is the headline in the paper the next morning: "last minute repairs made in a hurry; plane crashes on take-off" or something like that.
So we sit and wait some more. And we notice that somebody has opened up the plane sitting next to ours (also an ERJ-145), and the lights are on. And about half an hour after we were told that it would be 20 minutes before we were underway, we're told that they're maybe going to put us on that other plane over there instead. This makes me rather happier, even though we're still waiting and we're still not off the ground and it's getting later and later and later...
Another wait, and we get word that we will be switching planes - and everybody leaps up and starts grabbing their stuff, and the pilot says, "Oh, I didn't mean to get everybody up yet - they still have to do [various airplane stuff] first." Another wait, and they say, "Okay, let's go." To the other plane, right?
No. Not to the other plane. Back down the steps, back across the tarmac, back up the jetway steps, into the boarding lounge. We are now back where we started two hours ago; we are not on a plane; and we are not any closer to Jacksonville. Sigh...so at this point I call my manager and tell him I'll be in the office no later than noon, but I'm almost certainly not going to be in at the regular time. And we wait some more.
We finally board about 11:45, and get off the ground maybe about 12:15, and land in Jacksonville about 2:30 in the morning. By the time I got the bag, got to the car, got to the apartment, etc., it was almost 4 a.m. And of course at this point I'm wide awake from all that running around, so it was probably 4:30 or so before I fell asleep.
I did actually make an abortive attempt to get up at the usual hour, but knew I wasn't going to manage, called my colleague with whom I'm sharing a car, and said "go without me, I'll take a cab." Finally got here about 10 or so on Tuesday; very out of it, but I got through the day. Gave my manager a great laugh when he asked a simple question and it took about half a minute for me to process the question and respond. And of course, it has led to subsequent caffeine consumption on record scales, such that I still haven't quite gotten a decent night's sleep...but then, that's what weekends are for.
