Back to Tenn.

Oi....

Such a trip home.

Minor delays caused me to be late to the airport. This wouldn't have been a big deal, if the check-in kiosk, had been built the way I expected it to be, but it wasn't. While I was fishing for my passport (because it didn't recognise my bankcard), the kiosk closed.

So I got in line, and by the time I got to the counter (another couple of minutes) it was too late to check my bag. No problem, the bag could be sent to me; my companion was willing to send it along.

By the time this was figured out, the counter-staff decided there was no time for me to get to the gate, and so I was told to come back in the morning; stand-by back to Tenn, as I was on a red-eye and there was nothing else going out that evening.

Grabbed some In-n-Out, and a room and the shuttle to the airport the next morning. Two hours later I was at the head of the line, where I was asked if the crew the night before had continued my ticket. Seems the, repeated, assurances that all I needed to do was come back, weren't quite the case. Luckily my ticket hadn't been cancelled and I was duly listed as a standby to Dulles, and then to Knoxville.

I get to the plane, and the waitlist (which I was 3rd on) isn't moving. As the time draws near it seems the flight from Sydney has been a bit delayed, and clearing customs hung up enough people that all of us got on the plane.

Dulles. Dulles is a strange airport. I get to the commuter terminal and it's packed. There are three agents, and everything is being done at the gate. The flight to Albany is overbooked, and when I go to let them know I'm here, I get told to come back 30 minutes before my flight. It turns out that between my walking from the counter to the gate, the fight was moved from 9:54 (24 minutes from then) to 11:25.

By 11:00 all the flights pending, save mine, are out. The plane is going to be no problem to get on. Except... I'm not on the stand-by list. I am, in fact, no where to be found. They call the help-desk and the help desk asks how I got there; because I'm not supposed to be at Dulles.

I produce my baggage claim. They are confused, and as helpful as they can be. They call for a manager, and poke about the guts of the system. At that point I have no ticket. To get home I'll have to buy a ticket.

I confess... I started to get upset. It was late, I'd been travelling for about 24 hours. I took a breath, and apologised. The baggage guy had come in and he laughed. If that was my idea of "losing my cool" I was just fine with them (the guy who looked like he was going to blow a gasket because the flight to Dayton wasn't boarding as quickly he wanted).

The manager showed up, and asked confusing questions.

Then the baggage guy asks about Kuwait. The manager does too. Somehow the second leg of my flight was coded to Kuwait, and I am, even then, missing my plane. For values of missing my plane which don't involve any interest in catching it.

They cut me a ticket (no standby), I call a friend in DC, and spend the night at her place, get to the airport... where it takes more than an hour to clear security (of all the airports I've been in, I think Dulles does the worst at layout for TSA, but with a couple of hours planned I made the flight, and back to Tenn.

My bag was waiting for me and so I am back. Work to do, but right now I'm collecting myself and recovering from a 40+ hour saga of planes and automobiles (with a small dash of trains while in SF).

(comments at Better than salt money)

Personal stuff

Apart from the seminar, I went to the Bay in the hope of meeting some people, and seeing some others. Mostly, I didn't get to do that. I did have a nice time meeting tiger_spot and Brooks Moses. Other people I thought I was going to see, I didn't get to.

Next time.

I did... to my great amazement, have something else happen. I've had a crush on somone for a while. She and I met at a party, and passed comments here, and some other places. Critiqued each other's photos on Facebook, had dinner (and failed to have dinner), etc.

All the usual things of a vaguely distant not quite romance; not quite not romance. What with the sturm und drang of my life the past nine months (or a year), I'm not surprised she got mixed messages from me. I wasn't really getting any strong sense of interest from her.

I was wrong. Clueless and obtuse; or something. Friday she was at the seminar (and one of the things I was hoping was she'd be at one of the events). There were some sparks. There were some more sparks on Saturday. We went to breakfast on Sunday.

She took me to the airport, and dropped me off at the hotel when my flight didn't work out, so that I'd not have problems making the airport in the morning.

We are, in short, somewhat besotted.

(comments at Better than salt money)

A small bit of begging

What with the conference (and the adventures of the trip home), money is tight.

I've worked out a way to get prints made, and shipped, from Canada. There's a printer there I've used, who's very good. There is a framer there, who is also very good. There are pre-fabbed frames which can be used, or the framer can do them to suit.

I have a reliable agent in Canada to oversee the work, so it will have hands-on care, and quality control from beginning to end.

Anything at Terrence Karney Photography should be available (I think I have all the parent files wth me; thought it's possible I'll have to dig them out from the "negatives"). Prices are dependant on sizes, but the they start at about $200 (US) for a mounted print, framed at 12"x16". Shipping adds a bit more (as I recall it's about $30). The price quoted is for a pre-made frame. Custom will be higher.

I've also found a canvas printer. They have three styles; unstretched (with a 2 1/4" border, for stretching). Stretched, ready to frame, and "gallery" (which I think of as, "bleed", but there you go). The Gallery Mounted prints are on a deeper bar set, and the image goes all the way back to the wall.

Prices for them start at $50 US for an unstretched 8x10, to $550 US, for a Gallery Mounted 36x48.

More practically speaking a 16x24 (poster sized) would be $120/200/250(unstreched/ready to frame/Gallery Mount). Shipping to the continental US is $15.

Nott all of my images are standard sizes, so prices will vary some. If you want it on canvas, you can have it, but I'll let you know if I think something won't look good that way, becaus some images aren't really suited to that medium.

(reply at Better than salt money)