It has been a bit of a crazy week -- I left Hilton Head last Wednesday and flew home. Charlie was in a play, Little Shop of Horrors, for school, and I wanted to see him in it. Maddie also had a revisit day at Endicott college on Friday, and I wanted to be there for that as well.
The flight out of Savannah was quick and easy, but once in Washington Dulles airport, things started to fall apart! I was flying United, which has recently merged with Continental, and really all I could see was that things were not going smoothly. First another flight was boarded, then they all returned to the gate. It seemed that the plane hadn't been cleaned and they would load them as soon as they could. Then, they said they would load the flight to Manchester. Which they did. And I was all buckled in and ready, when the pilot, who was approximately 12, said that there was a problem. Apparentlya computer had crshed in Atlanta and they couldn't track planes in the sky? I put a question mark there because it didn't make a whole lot of sense that there were other planes departing from the same terminal. Only certain planes are affected by a computer shutdown in Atlanta? There was another flight headed to JFK in NY that was told their plane hadn't been maintenanced. They were almost loaded but had to return. Their excuse never changed and the flight to Manchester left before them.
I felt a bit concerned because it seemed they didn't know what they were doing. Once in Manchester they couldn't get the bags off the plane -- something wasn't working --and it just seemed a whole lot of things weren't working, and that is scary when you are talking about large things going into the air!!!
After living through multiple snowstorms throughout the six days I was home, the final insult was that my plane was cancelled on Monday. Due to the weather? Well, the plane never left Dulles to arrive in Manchester to take us to Washington. I mean, ever. It never left. Another computer crash in Atlanta, perhaps? A maintenance issue? Guess we will never know, another day in the life of United slash Continental slash merged airlines.
On Tuesday I flew out with no hassles whatsoever. Both planes were on time and they were clearly proud of it. Enough so to impress upon me that it probably doesn't happen all that often! I am glad that I am driving home. Sure, it takes longer, but you are in control and not left to the whims of random computer crashes and other such excuses that make no logical sense. I hate to be lied to.
But I can't abandon the airline altogether, although I would like to. Maddie and Charlie are flying the quirky airline in a few weeks and I have to have faith that their trip will run smoothly. I should point out that no one frisked me fondly or otherwise and all trips through security were brief and painless.
The strangest thing was being caught between snowstorm city and the beach! I had one day where it was possible to hike in the woods and enjoy the snowscape. But after that it was one blizzard after another. A few days of that and I was jonesing for the ability to be outdoors in blue skies with birds singing. I am lucky to have the luxury of changing worlds.
Know that I appreciate it immensely.
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