Off the grid, maybe
So I’m here at LAX waiting for my new flight to Amsterdam and thought I’d take a minute to let you know I might not be posting much here the next week. Yes, I know the internet exists in Europe, too (certainly moreso than here at LAX, where this T-Mobile Hotspot has a lot of nerve calling itself a hotspot. The connection is so slow it’s more like a NotSpot). So we’ll see.
Why am I waiting for a new flight to Amsterdam? Because the flight I was booked for — and, I should note, for which I got up at the unhappy-making time of 7:06 after going to bed earlyish at 1:30 and then, of course, not sleeping well — was canceled. Or late. Or something. They couldn’t decide, although the various Northworst Airlines personnel working the lines kept calling out to each other, “He missed his flight!” so that I could keep calling out, “No — I didn’t! It isn’t scheduled to depart for more than two hours!” Getting humiliated is a no-no; adding a public scolding, and incurring both of them when you are unquestionably deserving of neither is strictly disallowed. I was not late — I was early. The PLANE was late, and would make me late for my transfer in Detroit. (A city I hadn’t intended to add to my Facebook Places I’ve Been map anyway.)
The ticket agent very helpfully got me onto a direct flight to Amsterdam. Upside: direct. Downside: Waiting here an additional 5 hours. A quick scouting of what exists here in the dank end of Terminal 2 — some “Route 66” eatery, a knickknack kiosk, something laughably calling itself a Wolfgang Puck’s, and a Burger Kringe — told me it’d be a long 5 hours.
So now I’m checking email and downloading apps for my iPhone, including one called Flight Tracker. I checked on my (previous) flight to Detroit. Flight Tracker tells me that that flight is delayed. Good to know.