Trapped in Seattle - will we ever get back?
Okay… here we are. Its 4:49 a.m. in Seattle (Saturday) and we are trying to get back to Jersey. So far the best we can do is Houston to Philly. That means tacking two hours on the trip once we touch down in Philly. Since we don’t know what the roads are like and how the driving is later today we are somewhat freakin’ out trying to figure how to get back there.
We are trying to get a flight from here directly back to Newark. (There is a rumor that we might get a flight at 10:30 am that will take us to Newark about 6:30 or 7:30 P.M. tonight). It looks very flaky and we are just praying and sort of hanging on hoping that God will grant us favor. The reserve agent informed us there were some seats on a flight that would have taken us home, but that they were first class and they couldn’t possibly put in those seats. Oh well, one can hope. I was sort of dreaming of having a upgrade to compensate us for our delay, but they were not having it. So here I sit, watching the lad Troy standing at the “Special Needs” counter trying to get the attention of “Elaine” in the hopes that she will have mercy on us and get us on the 10:30 A.M. flight back to our beloved Newark. Alright, so its not our beloved Newark, but you have to admit that “beloved” makes the whole thing sound pretty noble. You know as though we were on some kind of quest to return to our homeland, kind of like pilgrims.
One of the things I really like about flying is the spacious area in which you get to stick yourself while flying. 
To the right you see an example of those spacious accomidations. I especially like sitting in the seats that are found on airplanes. I can’t imagine how Rudy S or Karl S can even remotely be comfortable on a airplane. Everytime I get myself into the seat I hope that I can stay perfectly still and not have to go to the bathroom or move. Once I put myself in the very comfortable reclining position (is it possible to have a seat that reclines less than a airplane seat?) I’m sure airplane seat engineers have a formula somewhere which goes something like this: Number of seats on the plane divided by the absolutely smallest amount of space a human body can be stuck into equals maximum profit. Well, perhaps I’m being cynical. Perhaps the airlines really do care about my comfort. Perhaps they really do want to serve me. Although I am somewhat dubious. They seem nice. But if you get just a little ticked putting up with the crap they suddenly get very officious and kind of “Hey, sir, you better watch yourself.” I guess that’s like their “back you off stance” if you start to get a little to agg
ressive. So it really doesn’t work to well to get all huffy, but man is it tempting. I was actually thinking of having Troy act like something was “mentally” off… you know start acting all strange and rocking back and forth, maybe grabbing his head and slamming it against the counter and crying “daddy, I need to go home.” But I couldn’t convince him that that would work, so we stayed with something more normal and proper. Here is kind of what I imagined… now that’s just in my mind, I wouldn’t actually do that. But its real frustrating. It looks like the Houston - Philly thing is all that is open to us.
Attention! After expecting to have to fly to Philly, God who is merciful, provided for us to be able to fly back to Newark directly from Seattle. On the left is an understated example of the kind of celebrating we did after receiving this news. Troy, who was very patient, kind and polite (in that downhome Downsville way, if you know what I mean), managed to keep smiling and talking very gently to the reservation agent until we were booked on the flight. I am going to put in for a special commendation for Troy when I get back. I believe that the ARC issues these for “duty above and beyond the call” while waiting for flights back to your city of origin. So “its happy, happy, joy, joy” time here in Seattle. Now we have about a 5 hour wait in the airport - but hey, don’t cry for me Argentina… we are fine - eating Ivar’s Fish and Chips at 6:00 am and drinking diet soda…
See you guys in Sunday School.