Jane spent the time trying to get the marine tank into shape: I came back to discover she’d bravely resolved the plumbing problems with the tank, moved and cleaned all the equipment, worked out the water quality problem…What more can you ask?
I have more to say about the airlines…Lord! what a mess! I’ve flown in Turkey on an airline where they closed the doors DURING the takeoff run, an airline in which goats figured…and it ran more smoothly. Passengers are glum, nobody talks. On three of my flights, nobody would even open a windowshade. Sheesh! The most beautiful country in the US under our wings, and the stews want us to have the shades drawn so we can watch the same television dvd as we watched on the last flight…And rude! Don’t get me started!
Ain’t that the truth! The airlines are just el stinko these days, and the passengers not much better. That’s about the only positive side to my company putting the kibosh on most travel.
Glad you’re back and in one piece! We do a transatlantic flight about twice a year … and wish, every time, that 1) we didn’t have to, and 2) the flights inside the US would at least come up to the international standard. Sigh.
At least Jane figure out the tank. She didn’t put any pictures up on Flickr, though. 😉
All hail Jane, who whips tank problems into submission!
Yet another vote for airline quality going into the toilet. Reduced amenities on all fronts, unless you are willing to pay through the nose for an upgrade, and general snarliness on both the parts of the passengers and the crew. Crew is overworked and has little leeway or incentive to make passengers more comfortable, and travelers are tired of being treated like cattle. Every time we have to fly I wish for a return to the days of luxury ocean liners and Orient Express level trains.
Actually, you can still do both. http://www.orient-express.com/web/vsoe/journeys.jsp
For transatlantic travel, the Queen Mary 2 is on schedule. There’s even a webcam on the bridge, updated every minute 🙂
http://www.cunard.com/bridgecam/qm2_cam1.asp
With best regards
Ektus
Welcome back, CJ! We missed you while you were away, and I hope your life gets going in good order again.
I will be flying to Kentucky in a week and a half to see my youngest grandson (not the same one that made me miss ShejiCon!) and I hope that we have a better experience than you did. I am sure that the reason for my trip will help my experience a bit, as I will be full of excitement to see my daughter and grandsons. I hope the flight won’t dampen that, much.
But as I said. I am glad to see you back and about ordinary things again. Good luck in all.
Glad you survived the trip. It sounds as if the weather in The City co-operated for once.
I do a transpacific flight annually (DH won’t do it any more). There is no terminal in the US as bad as Tom Bradley International in LAX, particularly if you are waiting for the check-in lines to open. It’s truly horrendous; busy, noisy, and nowhere to leave your luggage so you have to schlep it everywhere. When I have a truly long wait (over 4-5 hours) I get a hotel room outside the terminals. That way I can stretch out, nap, snack and have a shower before getting on the flight to SYD.
Good to see you back!
Airlines – I think they are a thing of the past, sadly not to be replaced by any new kind of transportation but no longer economically viable. The decline in standard reflects aggressive cost-cutting, with staff and planes constantly in the air, doing as little recovery and maintenance as possible. Accordingly planes and people break.
I’m sure affordable air plane tickets will soon be a thing of the past.
Alas. Real ocean liners are also a thing of the past. I was fortunate to travel on several in my youth. The Q M 2 like its predecessor the Q.Elizabeth 2 appears to be a sort of floating Marriott! Any resemblance to a real ocean liner is purely accidental.
The best travel that I recall was on the Royal Interocean Lines which had several mixed passenger/freight ships.
Welcome back. Missed you too.
Welcome back. Looks like you missed most of the heat there. Hopefully it’s begun to moderate now. I booked a flight for mom to visit family in Mich and was dismayed that AA would dock you $15 for the first bag checked. I prefer Southwest. They never pretended to be anything other than a low cost airline. And still don’t charge for the second checked bad. Yet. ‘Course I might think twice taking them after their recent maintenance mishaps. :0
Welcome back! I hear you about the airlines. A friend wanted me to join in a Chicago-New Orleans round trip. Even though I live in California, I was thinking, “How long will it take me to drive there?” Flying just never entered my mind, it’s so odious these days.
This is really a case where a little government regulation setting minimum service standards would help the airlines. Shoot, let the airlines write the standards: just have SOME minimum levels of service!
(One adds his voice to the chorus of Welcome Back!) Part of the reason I went to ShejiCon2 was that I don’t get to fly very often, and had always enjoyed it, especially if I was in a window seat. But on the flight up, the first flightcrew was just off minimum manadated time off. I barely made my connector, some of the passengers didn’t. On the way back I decided to splurge $6 for a drink–and was told “creditcard or debit only, we don’t take cash.” Coulda used the drink, at that point. Oh, yeah, the small bottle of huckleberry syrup I purchased? Checked bag fee. Lol, still wouldn’t have missed that weekend for AnyThing.
CJ, welcome back. This has been an exhausting week for funerals. Pete was laid to rest on Wednesday with full military honors. His widow gave the flag that draped his casket to my mother, as well as the shells from the firing squad. It rained during the Benediction at the gravesite, but cleared right afterwards. superstitious..who, me? Not hardly, knock on wood.
Last time i flew (other than coming home) was out to Las Vegas, where I got to meet Spence. Since he’s coming east, I’d invite him up to my place, but I believe he’s going to be at Ft. Campbell or Ft. Knox, which is a 2 hour drive from me. I used to love to fly, I’d get along with the attendants very well, but any flying these days is only in my dreams. I hate being in an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet with 300 other people, breathing in dust, other people’s halitosis, and of course, the odd unwashed person. No, I’ll drive, or take the train, or just forego the trip. I guess I’d never make it in sales.
Joe, I’ll only be a two hour drive from you when I am at Fort Knox? Hmmmm. I will try to see if a little side trip is in order. Don’t get your hopes up to high, though.
Welcome back.
I refuse to fly these days. On my last air-travel trip, my flight out of Buffalo was canceled, and it took over four hours (and three trips outside the security zone) before they could figure out a way to get me home. On the last trip back into the security zone they set us up for a special search because we had gone into and out of the security zone so much. But apparently the airline didn’t have any computer terminals inside the zone that could figure out its flights.
I’m taking a cross-country train trip in the next few days. It’ll take about as long as driving, but ought to be fun.
{Waving hi to all.}
Even our trains aren’t what they were. I swear, if somebody wanted to do a startup airline, rail, even bus, with real service, they’d get takers. I used to love to fly. I don’t like paying money to be treated like a criminal.
And not to malign the security people, who were the most courteous and with-it lot on the trip—but I was at a con moving into a hotel on the heels of the interview process for hiring our tireless security folk, so-so hush-hush about their methods and so touchy about Security, and just so important…
Well, it turned out they didn’t know how to break down their highly-classified computer equipment and the hotel was having litters of kittens about their overstay, with their lobby becoming crowded with irate incoming guests, some of whom were carrying battle axes. So our pointy-eared geeks moved in and helped them. Shudder. I somehow wonder if they reported that favor.
And could we even YET get into the area? Their blood tests had rendered the entire wing a biohazard zone, needing special cleaning.
We decided if our fates were in the hands of the testers, we were all in trouble.
I was on vacation while you were away. We flew a rather short flight – Phx to Denver – on United. My experience was actually very positive since we were given the option of paying a higher price ($39 per person) for 5″ more leg room. We decided to try it out and see if it was really worth the cost. All members of our family agreed – it was.
People weren’t especially friendly but we weren’t looking to chat – all of us have our technologies (Apple Touch, Amazon Kindle) except my husband who doesn’t enjoy flying and really just wants to sleep. (Not a fear, just hates the wasted time spent in transit.)
It is a different age. The main thing that annoys me is the fact that thanks to terrorists we have to be so careful about how we pack our carryons. I remember when you could get away with ONLY having a carryon.
Of course they didn’t want you looking out the windows; you might see the Thing that is sitting out on the wing, eating your engine!
😀
Which reminds you that, in the Chicago crash, it would have been very helpful to the pilots had the passengers had time and opportunity to tell the crew the engine had fallen off.
And in one instance, the fact I had a wing seat and spotted the half-foot wide leak-path over the surface of our right engine was somewhat useful to the pilot. I punched ‘stew’, told her we had a problem, she got the co-pilot, he came back, said, sweetly, “Oh, ma’am, they always vent at this altitude.” I replied, “I’m a frequent flier.” “Oh.”
He goes back to the cockpit, we get to a scheduled landing in Denver, and they don’t give us a gate. They keep us sitting on the tarmac. Bad for the continuation of this flight, which is supposed to get me to a con in Salt Lake. They open the doors finally, telling us, “You can get off for a few minutes, but be ready to reboard.”
Ha. I had only carry-on, gathered up all my stuff, hiked to the terminal, to the first desk I can find and say: “I’m due in Salt Lake, and I need a new plane. This one’s not going on.”
I got one of two seats available.
When I took off, that plane was still sitting where it had sat, with its baggage being offloaded.
It IS valuable to have those windowshades up, and I think that federal regulations ought to mandate they stay up at all times except during blinding direct sun.
Good on you for spotting the problem, correctly assessing it, and once the problem was addressed, making sure you weren’t further inconvenienced. “Fortune favors the prepared mind.”
Welcome back! Our thoughts were with you.
Airlines, pah. Just had a round-trip to Atlanta on Delta last week but, luckily, it was a direct flight both ways so I didn’t have to worry about connections. Just as well since the first flight was delayed by over an hour and the return flight was delayed by more than two. No explanations forthcoming, just ‘delayed,’ and no questions welcome either, thank you, please keep the desk area clear so other travelers can waste time asking for non-essential and non-available information.
These days, I just keep my head down, my expectations extremely low, and shuffle barefoot through security like the rest of the cattle, expecting long lines, crowded flights, unreasonable delays, and endless indignities. Oh, I also travel with only carry-ons whenever possible, since luggage is so often rerouted, lost, stolen, rifled through, damaged, or otherwise mangled.
Whoops, I think I sound a little bitter… I used to enjoy flying, too. It was a special occasion and people actually used to dress up for it. When I was a child, I had to wear my Sunday best to fly out to meet my grandmother.