Travel

[pecunium]

Feh.

They say it broadens the mind. Well, in that I read Persuasion for the first time (for some reason Austen had failed to grab me whenever I previously attempted her. I confess this with the sense of some moral failing), and enjoyed it a great deal, it may be.

But, for all the freedom of my having a Space-A ticket (which means it's completely reschedulable, with no penalties), gave me, the trip was an adventure.

My flight wouldn't come up on the kiosk. It was some work to get it to come up when the clerk went looking for it, and the pricing was hidden from her. It cost a bit mroe than quoted, but I didn't have to pay bag fees, so it was less than I was expecting.

Then the security fiasco. Oy!. They have a single screener scanning a pair of monitors (which are above eye level), and that controls the flow of people through the metal detector (they want you to be somewhere near your bags, so they can call out the bags they want to go through again).

Not only does this slow things down, it's a recipe for bag theft; because the metal detector can't keep up with the flow of bags. Happily this was the only security I had to clear. I got to the counter, and the flight looked good (Space-A is a form of standby flying). It looked good to Phoenix, after that sort of dicey.

The flight to Charlotte was overbooked. Which meant I might be at Sky-Harbor for 6-12 hours, waiting for a seat. By, Phoenix is a USAirways hub, so the odds of making an alternate flight plan were better. Off I go, into the wild blue yonder.

Get to Phoenix. Gate B-11 is my connection. I have about 40 minutes (because we were late out of LA). No, my connection is now B-28... some distance across the airport. I go, and check in. The area is jammed. The clerk tells me she might have a seat, just standby. I wait. I hear a lot of people asking about Minneapolis. That flight was moved to Gate B-11.

I am so glad I am not in Logistics. The arcana of keeping things something close to moving smoothly is headache inducing.

They get everyone on. There seem to be a couple of through passengers (who got off another flight), who've not shown up. Apperently they go lost in the fleshpots of Phoenix. I get to move on to Charlotte.

At Charlotte it's rush (because we were late out the gate from Phoenix too), and onto a small bird for Knoxville, where my sister was waiting, but my luggage wasn't. It's supposed to arrive here in an hour or so.

Comments

[evilrooster.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a game of Mornington Crescent.

Persuasion is probably my favorite Austen novel. The main characters have more sophistication than, for instance, those in Pride and Prejudice. It's a mature work.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I think that may be part of it. I've tried Pride and Predjudice a couple of time, and (I seem to recall), Sense and Sensibility, and just bounced off of them.

There are some really artificial passages; more a case of idealised conversations, I think, but all in all the players seem to be pretty believable, though the openining is still a trifle forced.

One wonders what she might have done had she lived longer.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

Please give Naomi my best regards.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I am not seeing her. She's in Ariz. I'm visiting my dad, and three of my other sisters.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

My apologies. I didn't know (or remember) that you had other siblings, all I remember is you and Naomi, and of course your mom: in a club with so many backbiting gossips, your mom never said the proverbial "discouraging word" about anyone, never acting in any way but kindly and decently. Your mom is an Ace.

I'm pretty certain I never met your dad.

[stringmonkey.livejournal.com]

Persuasion is easily my favorite Austen novel. It's the only one where the heroine is a grownup.

Good luck with the luggage.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Oops! Tried to post a comment, but didn't notice my system had, for unknown reasons, logged me out. On top of that, I got an error message about the post, so I don't know if it even reached you.

Travel: A great boost to one's reading.

I hope your visit with your sister goes well and your luggage arrives promptly.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Pride and Prejudice is the only Austen novel I've read.

It does sound like a pretty awful flight, but travel these does does seem to be getting worse and worse. Especially when you have to make connections.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

See, Terry, this is why you and I have to be friends: Persuasion is my Austen of choice.

I'm full of admiration for your multi-change flight; I've got to get to Seattle to catch the Empire Builder a week from next Wednesday, and that's all the complications I'm up to.

Julia, having lit for a moment and now charging off to Tacoma in pursuit of shoes. God save us all.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

If I could have done the trip on the train... I might have gone for it. But the train to the "South" isn't really doable. It's to Chicago, and then down to St. Louis, and then by bus.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I know we'd have visited our Oklahoma relatives more often if there'd been Amtrak service when the kids were younger. We did the kind of transfer you suffered through at DFW once, on the way to Will Rogers International with a four-month-old and a two-year-old; it's part of why I am sort of over the glamor of air travel.

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

USAirways is notorious for last minute gate changes...sometimes they don't even make it up on the monitors.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I am so glad I am not in Logistics. The arcana of keeping things something close to moving smoothly is headache inducing.

Scheduling aircraft is so complicated that computers can't handle it. The fine work has to be done by humans.