AAL75, Seat 30F, 34,000 feet and bumpy

Well, I’m finally giving in to writing an offline blog post.  From a plane.  At the time of this writing, I’m somewhere over the eastern seaboard.

I’ve spent the last few days in the DC area on business, and got to meet up with a few good friends for food/drinks.  Karl sent me an IM on Friday just before I left to let me know that he had gotten a new job and had moved to DC, and to let me know if I ever made my way out there.  This was great timing, as I was able to respond: “How about drinks on Sunday?”  I don’t think he expected that.  Also got to hang out with Ben for dinner and Dan for drinks on Monday night.

The work I was doing took a lot longer than I anticipated.  I had hoped to visit the Smithsonian one of the days I was out here, but, alas, it was all work, all the time.  As a result of our longer than planned workday today, I wasn’t able to catch an earlier flight back to Seattle.

We were supposed to leave Dulles at 6:15pm, and then I was to have a 2 hour layover in LAX before heading home to Seattle.  Mother Nature had other plans:  just after we boarded the flight (15 minutes late, natch), the captain came on and told us that all westbound flights were on-hold due to weather.  I checked my smartphone, and sure enough, a line of red thunderstorms was just west of our location.  Then, I looked out the window and saw them.  Sign #1 you might be addicted to tech: you check the weather on your phone before looking out the window to see it.

We sat on the ground in the plane until about 8:30pm.  If you’re following along and doing the math, you’ll note that’s a 2.25 hour delay – and I only had a 2 hour layover in LAX.  This means, of course, that I’m going to miss my connecting flight, so I’ll be stuck in LA for the night.  The weirdest thing is that this is the first time I’ve ever missed a flight in all my travels.  And to be frank, I’d say I’ve traveled quite a bit over the course of my 29 years.  Sure, I’ve gotten bumped on standby plenty of times – but never missed a connection.  Until today. Oh well, it’s a first.

So, we’re now cruising along somewhere around mach 0.82 (we’re probably going at just the right speed that’ll make me miss my connection) at 34,000 feet.  It’s turbulent, and I’m surrounded by an army of high-school kids on their way back from a class trip to the east coast.  I’m also cranky: I haven’t eaten since lunch, and that was (*checks watch, calculates time zones*) … 10 hours ago.  The flight attendants are coming by soon, though, so I’ll be sure and snag a $6 turkey sandwich.  Did I mention that American Airlines doesn’t even serve peanuts anymore?  I remember laughing at Southwest Airlines a few years back cause that was all they served.  Times have changed. 

Ok, turkey sandwiches were sold out, so I ended up with the last sandwich on the plane – a $10 chicken sandwich.  The lady in seat 30C is now scowling at me; I guess she wanted a sandwich, and now she’s stuck with potato chips, cheese, and crackers.  I avoided the temptation of staring at her and chewing with my mouth open to make a point: the last sandwich is mine. 

The nicest thing about our flight so far is that we’re chasing the sunset.  I’m sitting on the right side of the plane, so I’m being shown a beautiful display: for the past hour, I’ve been watching the sun set.  It’s dropped a bit, but I can still just see it.  That in and of itself isn’t so neat, but the fact that the duration of the sunset (due to our westward travel, of course) has been so long is awesome. 

Two hours into the flight now, and the sun has set.

Well, I think that’s it for now.  It’ll be nice to get back on the ground in Seattle sometime tomorrow, and I’m not going to complain about the cold/damp weather Seattle’s having for quite a while.  If I’ve learned one thing on this trip, it’s that I’m no longer built for 100+ temperatures.

Guess I’m going to power down since I’ve got nothing else to do on here.  I’ve replied to a bunch of emails (which will send when I connect), reviewed some documentation I have been meaning to review, and that’s about the end of it.  I’m now mad at myself for not prefetching RSS feeds in FeedDemon.

Oh well, nap time.  3 hours of flight time left.