This is our page for keeping track of our Nintendo GameCube game titles. We never bought a GameCube but play GC games on the Nintendo Wii.
December 30, 2007: Snow Storm
I got up around ten and unfortunately had to log in and do some work this morning as I am the primary on call for the office this weekend which didn’t work out as well as I had planned. But there wasn’t much to do this morning.
After working I showered and got ready to go to lunch with dad when he got back from teaching Sunday school down at Union Presbyterian Church in Leicester. We drove over to Geneseo and ate lunch at the Omega Grill. On the way over we remarked as to what a fine day it was turning out to be and what perfect driving weather Dominica and I were going to have on our way down to Newark this evening.
We got back from lunch and I had to log in again to the office and do the Sunday afternoon work which isn’t a lot but it does take a little while.
After work my afternoon was spent getting the Mazda PR5 loaded and ready to go back to Newark. We had a lot of stuff at dad’s house that we wanted to take back with us. Dad took apart a lamp / table combination piece of furniture that we have that we really like so that we could bring that down to Newark with us. It perfectly matches our Newark furniture set even though we had original purchased it for the office in Geneseo when we had the house on Hawthorn Circle.
There was a lot of stuff to go into the car. We are moving quite a load around in this trip. It is our first trip in a long time with the PR5 and it can carry many times as much as the BMW can.
At four thirty dad ran down to the York Deli (York Landing) and grabbed some cold subs for us for dinner which we ate just before I had to leave to go meet the Toccos in Henrietta to pick up Dominica from them. While dad was out I had to do some more work for the office but got it done just in time to eat with him when he returned.
After eating it was time to head out. At this point the weather was still looking okay. It was ten after five in the evening when I set out from Peoria.
I met the Toccos at the Henrietta exit from the New York State Thruway. I only beat them to the meeting point by about ten minutes. Just long enough to get the last bits of the car situated and to read a few pages in “The Crystal Shard”.
It was a little before six when Dominica and Oreo climbed into the Mazda and we headed south on Interstate 390 to head for home and the Toccos climbed back onto the Thruway to continue on towards Frankfort.
We made our first stop on the trip at the gas station that we always use on the south side of Dansville just off of the southern Dansville exit off the highway. We stocked up on drinks and snacks and topped off the fuel so that we wouldn’t have to worry about it later.
It was between Kanona and Corning on Interstate 390 when we started seeing some bad snow. We didn’t think too much of it but called dad to see what we should be expecting. It looked as though the southern route was clear while Interstate 86 / NY 17 was seeing a bit more snow. So we continued on our intended path down Interstate 99 / US 15 towards Mansfield and then to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. But even by Gang Mills, New York the weather was getting increasingly bad and by Mansfield, PA we were getting pretty concerned about the driving conditions.
The snow worsened and the road conditions deteriorated continuously all of the way from Kanona, New York until Tannersville, Pennsylvania. Once we crossed the Delaware Water Gap and came into New Jersey the snow turned back into rain and we were able to drive mostly normal again. A trip that normally takes just five hours ended up taking us eight and a half hours! Much of the trip was spent at no more than thirty miles an hour.
Luckily we had Sue Grafton’s “T is for Trespass” along with us and we managed to make it through quite a bit of the book during the trip.
It was about two in the morning when we finally pulled into Newark. We had to walk Oreo and it took two trips up to the apartment to unload the car. We were exhausted but unfortunately Oreo had gotten into something along the trip and he had to have a bath before being able to go to bed! What a night.
December 29, 2007: Rochester?
I was up at eight thirty this morning with roughly two hours of solid sleep under my belt. Oh well, it isn’t like I have to drive anywhere today. And I feel fine.
I did some work right away this morning and then called Dominica to let her know what my status was. She had no idea what was going on at this point other than that I had sent an SMS message to Francesca late last night to let them know that I was stranded in Atlanta but we had no details.
Dominica, Joe and their parents left Texas by car at seven my time. Just a little later than they had been planning on. They are doing the less fun part of the trip where they lose an hour while driving instead of gaining one. That will make the trip seem to take that much longer. Dominica is very excited that I will be waiting for her in Rochester now.
I learned today that Schmap has two of my photos of Montreal on their shortlist to be used in their travel guide. That would be pretty cool. My photos are starting to show up in the weirdest places these days. More people see my pictures now than they ever did when I was working for the newspaper.
I got breakfast delivered to my room. Just the continental breakfast with pastries and coffee. I wasn’t very hungry for some reason. I am sure that I will get something more when I get to the airport this afternoon.
I also orchestrated a late checkout so that I can stay in the room charging my BlackBerry up until the very last second so that I am as prepared as possible to get stranded somewhere again.
I left the hotel at a quarter until one in the afternoon and took the hotel shuttle over to the airport. I grabbed a quick sandwich at Plane Delicious and ate that while I waited for my flight.
Luckily today my flight was on time and we had no problems getting out of Atlanta. I landed in Rochester a little before five. Dad was waiting for me at the airport. On the way home we stopped at Jay’s Diner in Henrietta for dinner. This was my first real meal since my small lunch yesterday at the deli in Williams Tower and my first really substantial meal since the Melting Pot on Thursday night.
We drove back down to dad’s place and we visited for a little while and I got settled in. It was pretty late and dad was getting tired. Art had emailed me earlier to let me know that they were around this evening so I gave them a call and went down to the Ralstons’ to visit for a while.
At the Ralstons’ we played two games of Mayfair Games’ Settlers of Catan. Settlers is a popular German boardgame that is reminiscent of Sid Meier’s Civilization for the computer. It is a resource gathering and civilization building. It is pretty easy to learn and a lot of fun.
We hung out until one in the morning or so. But it was time for me to get to bed. It has already been a long trip from Texas to Rochester and I am not very close to being in Newark yet.
I read some more of R. A. Salvatore’s “The Crystal Shard” before falling asleep.
December 28.2, 2007: Travel Update
Nothing ever goes as planned. My flight out of Houston was delayed by half an hour. I checked at the gate and they were confident that I would be able to connect to my flight from Atlanta without a problem. But even when boarding in Houston we had to leave ten minutes later than the delay simply because the locals were unable to manage finding their seats in an orderly fashion. The whole thing was so bad that the captain came over the public address system and asked people to get out of the aisle and to do nothing but find a seat as we were waiting for them and that we were going to be late getting to Atlanta because of it.
We didn’t get to disembark the plane in Atlanta until 10:50 Eastern Time – the same time that I was scheduled to already be pulling away from the gate a full concourse away. We had arrived at a low “C” gate and my departure was from “D-2”. So there was no way that that was going to be happening.
I asked at the gate if my flight to Newark was delayed or if I had missed it. The woman at the gate said that the flight had been canceled and instructed me to report in to customer service. So I trudged down to C-16 where customer service was located and discovered that mine was not the only flight canceled and that I had arrived quite late to the party.
It took over two hours to get to the front of the line. Most everyone had been grounded because of the weather and people were already beginning to camp out all over the airport. Everything had been canceled by this point and no one was flying anywhere tonight.
Just as I got to the front of the line two incredibly drunk guys in their twenties pushed ahead of the line that was, by the point, likely three hours long behind me and tried to get service. I wasn’t about to let the hundreds of people standing behind me wait for these two yahoos who had been walking up and down the airport the whole time that we were in line catcalling the women in the airport and yelling at those of us in line for being whiners and wanting the airlines to do something for us. So I called them on it and made AirTran send them away. They weren’t exactly happy. They threatened to attack me right there. Verbally. Actually threatened me in the airport. With hundreds of witnesses including the AirTran staff.
But then again, we tried to get security to respond for half an hour and no one ever came. The guys remained a problem and the airport never did anything about them and just let them be a danger to everyone and a total nuisance besides. All of this effort of “increased security” and when something actually happens in the airport and we have a security problem there is no one to be found anywhere. What a joke. And in the nation’s busiest airport no less.
AirTran had no way to get me home to Newark until next week. My only other options, being as far back in line as I was, was to fly to White Plains in a couple of days (how White Plains would help I have no idea) or to wait for Newark to become available. But luckily I had been scheming in line for two hours and had a plan. I had already heard that Newark wasn’t an option and since my flight was grounded because of an AirTran mistake and not because of the weather I had a lot of flexibility. So I offered to take the next flight that they had to Rochester, New York instead.
AirTran was very grateful that I had a real solution to the problem and immediately set me up with a flight, tomorrow, to Rochester leaving a 2:53 in the afternoon and arriving just minutes before 5:00 pm. They also set me up in the Renaissance Concourse hotel which is still on airport property making tonight much easier to deal with. I will need to check out just in time to go check in for my flight. Perfect.
I took the hotel shuttle over to the Renaissance and got checked in. On the way over I rode in the shuttle with a girl who was flying to Newark but is currently living in Rochester while going to RIT for school. What a coincidence. Small world. Two RIT students meeting on an Atlanta shuttle while neither was traveling to or from Rochester.
The hotel was great. I got checked in and had to sign in to the office as I have been on call already for two hours and have been getting pages too. So I got right to work.
I didn’t get much sleep. First of all it was almost two when I got to the hotel and was checked in. Secondly all I have had to eat all day was a sandwich at noon. No breakfast, a tiny lunch and no dinner. So that kept me awake somewhat. And then work and I just wasn’t tired. I listened to Bill Bryson’s “Neither Here Nor There” for a while and finally fell asleep around four.
Dad called around five thirty to see if I needed picked up then or in the afternoon as I had been vague in my emails. Then at six and six thirty some insane alarm in the hotel room when off. And then at eight thirty I was simultaneously paged and had four consecutive fire alarms go off in the hotel making sleep no longer an option at all. So back to work I went.
So that is my evening in a nutshell. Boy am I glad that I have the phone chargers, a change of clothes, a book to read and my iPod with me!
December 28, 2007: Last Day in Houston
Between the heat (not the temperature outside which is fine but the temperature in the house with the furnace blasting) and Oreo pushing me off of the bed I didn’t get very much sleep even though I was probably in bed for over ten hours. I am looking forward to getting back to my own bed in Newark.
I got up, showered and headed straight into the office without any breakfast. Not the best decision in hind sight since I hadn’t considered the fact that I have no idea how to find any food around Williams Tower without driving and I am certainly not going to be attempting that. So lunch may prove to be a challenge.
Like the rest of the week, today has been incredibly slow at the office. There is practically nothing going on at all. I don’t anticipate any real work until Wednesday at the earliest and very little likely until the following Monday.
I did the bill paying today. Ouch. Nothing hurts more than paying the Christmas bills. You would think that as a society we would recognize what a problem this is and do something about it but no, that isn’t how people think. But on the upside, I discovered that my scholarship from RIT came through after I had paid my bill last semester and now I have a nice credit on my account. So that is almost $1,000 that we had to spend that we hadn’t been counting on that we now have “back”.
For lunch today I waited until pretty late and then just went down to the ground floor of the building that I am in and went to a little deli there that people recommended here in the office for “easy” food. I just had an assorted cheese sub with lettuce and tomato. But at least they had toasted rolls. It was a fine enough lunch.
I volunteered to do the weekend coverage for the office this weekend. It was perfect timing as I have nothing planned for this weekend and will be home all alone. What better possible time to put in my primary coverage weekend and get a few extra hours of work? Dominica will be very happy about that.
I am going to post early this evening so that I don’t have to post when I return to Newark at one in the morning. My flight leaves Houston at 7:20pm CST (8:20 EST.) I will fly to Atlanta, have a layover and then fly to Newark. It will be about one in the morning when I land. I will be taking a taxi home from there.
Dominica did all of my packing today so I should be ready to go as soon as I arrive back in League City. I am not taking any “extra” luggage with me as everything else is going back with Dominica in her parents’ car as they drive back to New York. They will be taking the new GPS with them to try it out on the long trip. So today I am just taking the bare necessities with me on the flight.
I am leaving the office at Williams Tower at 4:00 pm (CST) which is 5:00 pm back in New York which is roughly the end of the day and since it is a Friday during the freeze no one should be needing me at all. I have a lot of traffic to fight through yet and I need to get to the airport. We know how bad missing a flight can be 🙂