RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
Did anybody else used to carry this weekly paper when they were a kid? They were 20 cents a copy, and people would give me a quarter and tell me to keep the change. I thought I was king of the world!
Though I never considered Michael Hutchence to be a necessarily great vocalist, this song by INXS is terrific! “Original Sin!”
Monday the 15th – ELDERLY ECSTASY! – My alarm was set to get up earlier than usual for a telemed visit with my doctor to refill a prescription. Then I drove over to Paty’s to enjoy a salad on the patio in the heat of the day. Then I went over to Igloo studios to do another four hour session on the foreign show I’m dubbing for Netflix. Since we had already done the lion’s share of work for my character in the first six episodes of the eight (the last two episodes weren’t scripted and ready for dubbing yet), we turned our attention to a few short scenes in the series where my character appears as an older man, some 40 years in the future. It was a challenge I was ready for; how to make him sound older and believable without going into “cartoony” territory. I chatted with Vernon the Voice Director about how we wanted to approach it, and he said we’d try a few things until we found what seemed to be working correctly. I tried one run-thru of the first scene, and his only note was to make him sound even older. We tried it again. I ran the entire scene and Vernon said that was spot-on. I added more “crack” to my voice, and loosened up my cheeks so the “s” sounds would be looser and sloppier. It seemed to work perfectly. For the next three and a half hours we dubbed all of the old man material we had. I felt wonderful after the session as it was a real challenge. A check for a session from an animated film I worked on back in April was way overdue, so I spent the better part of the last several days trying to acquire it. They said they mailed it in late June, but so far it hadn’t arrived. Since it was only coming from one city over, I thought it was odd. Finally I told them I had to have it in-hand before I left town so that I could close out all of my second quarter business. I sent my assistant Emily over to personally pick up a replacement check, after I instructed them to stop payment on the first check. (Sidebar: after three weeks the check still didn’t arrive – so I doubt they ever sent it at all.) After the session I hit CVS to get some supplies for my upcoming trip to the Voices Against Cancer event in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I met Emily for dinner at Paty’s (again) and she gave me the check. Then I went home to relax for a bit. Later I did some work around the house, took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and spent some time afterwards decompressing outside in my anti-gravity chair – just looking at the sky and meditating. I had lots on my mind concerning the upcoming trip. I didn’t want to forget anything. I came back inside to write Wally’s Week, and then prep for a short dubbing session on Tuesday. There wasn’t much left to do on the foreign show, so they told me I’d probably only be in for an hour and a half. By the time I get back from my trip in South Dakota the materials for the last two episodes will probably be ready for me to work on. I scanned some checks for a deposit, and hit the hay. The countdown is on!
Tuesday the 16th – BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN! – Since I had been promised it would be a short dubbing session, ending at 3:30, I’d have plenty of time to hit the bank when I was done recording. But despite that I went with my gut instinct and hit the bank BEFORE the session started. Then I hit a different CVS to pick up some supplies that the CVS I went to yesterday didn’t have. I picked up a package at my box which contained three of the new Sideburn Transformers figures that were just released. I’m keeping one for my collection, I’m giving the second one to my pal Dr. Doom in Sioux Falls (a Transformer fanatic), and I’ll take one with me to show to sign and sell at my table. Once we started recording they decided to start revisiting some older scenes that we had already recorded. It didn’t look like my promised out time of 3:30 was going to be a reality. They ended up keeping me until 5. Good thing I hit the bank BEFORE the session, as the bank would have been closed by now. I told my friends at Alex In Wonderland that I’d be over around 3:30 or 4 to pick up my “Travel Cookie” Cookie Monster puppet, but since I was so delayed, they decided to go to lunch until I got there a little after 5. I was quite shocked and disappointed that, even though I had left all the materials for Cookie at their shop last Friday, that nothing had been done on him at all! The idea was that they would work on him over the weekend and do the stuff they needed to do, so when I arrived on Tuesday we’d do the final few things and I’d be on my way. I was running late anyway, but this delay would set me back even further. Add to it that it was so hot in their studio that the epoxy wasn’t curing properly. I told them I couldn’t wait any longer and I just would go to Sioux Falls without him. But Alex’s husband Mike said he would wait until it cooled down and glue the eyeballs into the suspension plate and he would bring it by later in the evening after the epoxy had time to cure properly. I picked up my “undressed” Kermit the Frog puppet (the second Kermit replica I bought to turn into Frogenstein for the recent Monsterpalooza convention) and headed out. Not only had Alex removed his Frogenstein costume, but Mike painted his arm rods a matte black. I finally got back home and tended to my cat Spooky. Between getting out of the recording session later than promised, and the frustration of not having any work done on Cookie Monster when I arrived, I was ready to curl up in bed and pass out. But my gal Angi came over and we headed to dinner at Chin Chin. That cheered me up a bit. Just as we returned back home, Mike brought the finished “Travel Cookie” over and the eyes were glued into place very well. Now I needed to stay up all night and place his pupils on the eyeballs, and make an armature hand to fill out his right hand. But first a nice refreshing WOG and some time in the anti-grav chair. I drilled a hole in one of the practice eyeballs and mounted a pupil with a screw. It worked pretty well! So I was ready for the real thing. I put a small hole in one of the plastic pupils, placed it on the eyeball in the place where it would eventually sit, and marked a dot on the eyeball through the hole in the pupil. Then I carefully drilled a hole in the eyeball and screwed in the pupil. It worked GREAT! I did the same thing with the second eye and it turned out terrific as well. I took out some armature wire and some foam rubber and made an armature hand. This will be just like a fake hand with wire in it, that I can put in his right hand (my hands go in the mouth and his left hand) and pose it accordingly. Then I can pin the right hand to his body so it’s not flopping around. There’s still a little packing I need to do on Wednesday before my flight on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. But I’m very happy with how “Travel Cookie” came out! I made a salad and watched last week’s episode of “Collector’s Call” before bed.
Wednesday the 17th – TRAVEL TRIALS: PART 1 – THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS! – Early in the afternoon I headed out to pick up a package, and went over to the cleaners to pick up some dry cleaning. I didn’t want it languishing in the cleaners for a week while I was gone. I got home and did some more packing, and finished up several hours before I was due to be picked up for my Wednesday night/Thursday morning red-eye flight. I got “Travel Kermit” and “Travel Cookie” all snug in their case. I hope they make it OK. I napped for a short while, and then cleaned up. I was all set to take my red-eye flight from LAX to Sioux Falls, via Minneapolis. I was excited to see my family and friends, and to participate in the third annual Voices Against Cancer 605 Pop Culture Con; a children’s cancer charity event I formed with Dr. Lou George back in 2019. I had taken this red-eye flight before and found it to be delightful and convenient. A 2.5 hour layover in Minneapolis allowed me plenty of time to traverse the enormous airport to find my connecting gate, all the while looking for suitable, relaxing breakfast options. In my experience with the Minneapolis airport I’ve learned that the big jets that fly in from major cities like Los Angeles all dock on one side of the facility. The smaller planes that fly to cities like Sioux Falls dock on the opposite side. Given that it’s a huge airport, there IS a way to get from one side to the other fairly quickly on tight layovers. However, you have to haul ass pretty hard, and pray that your flight of origination doesn’t leave the gate a little bit late, as this will severely cut down on your connection time. Emily picked me up at 10pm and we headed to LAX. She would also be house sitting and tending to Spooky while I was away. Traffic was smooth and I got to the ticket counter around 11pm. I checked in a roller bag full of clothes and a hard-sided box which contained my travel puppets. I was anticipating having some puppet fun at the convention over the weekend. This journey would be the maiden voyage for my new roller bag, my new hard-sided puppet box, my “travel” puppets, and my newly acquired Known Traveler Number which would ostensibly get me through the TSA Pre-Check line quickly. Everything was moving smoothly as I made my way towards the security screening area with my carry-on bag. But at that hour of the night the TSA Pre-Check line was closed. So I didn’t get to actually enjoy many of the benefits that come with having a Pre-Check number. However, once I got to the screening area, I only had to remove my tablets from my carry-on bag, and I didn’t even need to go through the X-ray machine. I also was allowed to stay dressed; I didn’t have to remove my cap, my belt, or my shoes. It was pretty slick. Feeling really good about the weekend ahead I found gate 30 to get ready to board and get a little sleep on the flight. But as I rounded the corner I looked at the overhead monitor at my gate and it read: “Flight 1308 – 12:35am – now departing at 8am.” WHAT?! Just mere moments before I was told by the lady at the ticket gate that everything was on-time and running smoothly. How could things have changed this quickly? As I stood and stared at the monitor in disbelief, the gate agent came on the PA system and said that we should all make our way to the local Help Desk and get rebooked on alternate flights. I spun on my heels and headed right over there, luckily beating the majority of the group who had to get up from their seats and make their way to the Help Desk. When I got there I was 5th in line. As I stood there waiting, I recalled getting a message from my pal Sheriff John in Florida earlier in the day telling me that his original flight had been canceled (oddly enough on the same airline). He and his wife Officer Kelley were heading to Sioux Falls as well to meet me for the event. I automatically assumed it was due to weather issues. As I stood in line, my cell phone was dinging with constant updates from the airline informing me that they had already rebooked me on a flight that would leave Los Angeles at 8:20am, with a connecting flight that would leave Minneapolis at 2:20pm. But the text was devoid of some crucial information. What time would the 8:20am flight actually arrive in Minneapolis, and would I have a suitable amount of layover time to make my connection to Sioux Falls? While people waited in line the airline staff brought out a cart of salty snacks; beef jerky, potato chips, etc. But there were no beverages available. I thought, “They’re going to feed 200 people salty snacks and not offer them anything to drink?” Because it was late, all of the shops in the terminal had closed, so snack and drink options were non-existent. I abstained from any salty snacks. This was a really dumb idea on behalf of the airline. Many of these people had come from other cities and were simply connecting in Los Angeles. So they were basically prisoners. However, they were awarded a measly $12 meal voucher for their trouble. Not sure if you’ve checked airport prices lately, but you can’t even get a bottle of orange juice for 12 bucks. Sheesh! But since I lived in town I had the option of going home and sleeping in my own bed. I felt really bad for many of them knowing that they had 8 hours of waiting in the airport, plus another 4 hours of flight time before they would reach their destination. After standing on my feet for 1.5-2 hours waiting to be seen, I finally got to the Help Desk. I asked the guy if the delay was weather related, but he said he wasn’t sure. For being a major airline in the digital age of communication, they sure aren’t very knowledgeable about what the hell is going on with their flights. And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that they knew of this delay many hours in advance, but chose to wait until the last minute to inform us for some unknown reason. Bizarre! I first gave him the information that had been texted to me regarding the automatic rebooking the airline performed. My first question was, “What time does the 8:20am flight arrive in Minneapolis?” He said it would land at 1:30pm local time. Knowing that my connection for Sioux Falls would be leaving at 2:20, I told him that wasn’t enough time to make the connection in that airport. And being in the peak of summer travel season, getting rebooked on another flight to Sioux Falls would be nearly impossible. This is especially concerning considering that the flights to Sioux Falls are on very small planes anyway. I was looking at the high likelihood of being stranded in Minneapolis for a considerable amount of time. Mr. Spock always said, “There are always alternatives.” In the moment, I weighed mine in the most logical way possible. Option 1 – Stay in the airport all night with no stores open to obtain supplies, and hope for the best. Then, in 8 hours when the flight was scheduled to leave (even though there was no guarantee it would actually leave at 8:20am), get on it and hope I make my short connection in Minneapolis and get onto Sioux Falls. This wasn’t a very appealing option. Option 2 – Have my assistant Emily turn around and come back and get me and take me home for a short while. Then she would have to bring me back to the airport at 6:00am (less than 5 hours from now), fighting the crazy morning traffic all the way back to the airport, so I could get on my flight. This didn’t appeal to me or Emily very much. Option 3 – Book a seat on this exact same red-eye flight the next night, and since I’d be losing a day in South Dakota, extend my return by one day. Instead of returning Tuesday the 23rd, I’d shoot for returning Wednesday the 24th. This seemed like the best option. I could call Emily and be picked up, sleep in my own bed, and return the next night knowing that I have a nice, leisurely layover the next morning in Minneapolis. As a sidebar, the agent at the Help Desk said he could fly me out of Burbank instead of LA, but the flight would go to Salt Lake City, to Portland, to Minneapolis, and then to Sioux Falls. That sounded completely crazy to me and I declined without even giving it a second thought. As Mr. Spock would say, “That sir, is totally illogical.” Before I decided, I asked him if it would be possible to retrieve my two checked luggage items, and he said it wasn’t. He said they would be on the flight to Minneapolis the next morning, whether I was on it or not, and they would meet me in Sioux Falls when I eventually got there. So, I opted for the third alternative; to be booked on the same flight the next night and to try it all over again. “Déjà vu?” asked the Help Desk agent. And I said, “Yup. Déjà vu, take two.” I phoned Emily to come get me and take me home so I could spend 20 hours at home. But as I mentioned earlier, since it’s the peak of summer travel season, finding available seats on this new flight was not easy. He booked me in a window seat in the first row (neither of those qualities appealed to me), but I didn’t have the luxury of being very choosy. Plus I’d most likely be asleep on the flight to Minneapolis anyway. Since I needed to extend my trip a day (to make up for the lost day I would be incurring with this cancellation) the return trip on Wednesday the 24th proved to be more difficult. But I didn’t want my already-brief trip cut even shorter by a full day with this new flight schedule. I would still be leaving at 4:09pm from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis (like my original ticket), but I had the option of either a 45 minute layover, or a 4 hour layover. Gravitating toward the side of caution, I opted for the 4 hour layover. I told the agent, “It’s always tough making a short connection in Minneapolis. Even if it were possible, if the flight out of Sioux Falls leaves 5 or 10 minutes late, I’ll definitely miss it and need to be rescheduled on another flight.” Again, that contingency is very nearly impossible in the summer travel season. I opted for the four hour layover just to be safe. I was all booked, the boarding passes were printed, and I headed out to the curb to wait for Emily to arrive to pick me up and take me home. She got me by 1:30am and I was home by 2am. I stayed up all night making calls to the car rental agency, the hotel, and trying to get the airline’s baggage staff on the phone to see if they could hold my bags in L.A. until I actually departed. Given this mission, my nightmare continued. It was easy enough to contact the hotel as they have a local number in Sioux Falls and they actually answer the phone. I told them the situation and they made the appropriate alternate arrangements. However, the car rental agency had no local Sioux Falls phone number; only an 800-type number. I called it to let them know I wouldn’t be on the Thursday morning flight as planned, but would instead be in on Friday morning, and to please hold my reservation. The 800 number sent me into an annoying phone tree that wasn’t giving me the options I needed; to speak to an actual person to alter the reservation. Once I finally did get a real person on the phone, it was clear that I was sent to a call center in a foreign country and I could barely understand what the associate was telling me. Through all of the gobbledygook, I managed to understand him to say that their policy was that if I didn’t claim the reservation within 12 hours, it would lapse. But in order to get the car for my new arrival on Friday, I would need to rebook the entire reservation anew. Given this information, I still preferred to speak with somebody in Sioux Falls and confirm this. I didn’t want a charge showing up on my credit card that I would have to fight later. I also became concerned about my baggage, as I was completely unable to navigate the airline’s annoying phone tree – which just didn’t give me any of the options I needed. If the bags were leaving on the 8:20am flight as planned, would they be transferred to the 2:20pm Sioux Falls flight as well? If so, I needed to contact a friend in Sioux Falls and ask them to retrieve the bags when the flight from Minneapolis landed at 3:30pm and hold them for me until I got there. And I didn’t want to land in Sioux Falls on Friday without having any luggage. As it was now morning in Sioux Falls, I felt comfortable calling a few friends. I didn’t want to burden my elderly parents with this task, so I called my pal Dave and left a message. No answer. I called my brother-in-law Roger. No answer. Then I called my pal Scott and explained the situation on his voicemail. I managed to get my pal Maguire on the phone to tell him what had happened. He said between him and Scott it would be taken care of. Just then, I saw that a call was coming in from Scott. I clicked over. He told me that he would be at the airport at 3:30 to retrieve my bags, and would immediately deliver them to the hotel for me. What a pal! He said he would call me to confirm when “the Eagle had landed.” He took copious notes as to the description of the luggage and I thanked him. I also texted him a photo of my luggage claim tags. In regards to speaking with somebody on the ground at the car rental agency in Sioux Falls I was undeterred. I wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully wondering about having a car ready for me when I arrived on Friday morning. I went on-line and found that the rental company also had two other facilities in Sioux Falls besides the one at the airport. The two other facilities listed local Sioux Falls numbers. So I called one of them. I talked to a guy named David and told him my situation with the foreign country. I told him how frustrating their phone tree was, and how annoying it was to have to speak with someone I could barely understand. He said, “Yeah, I wish corporate would do a better job with that.” I asked him if there was some sort of “backline” at the airport location that I could call; some sort of local number. He said they did have a satellite phone that I could call. I took the number and phoned them. I told the agent at the desk that I would not be in that morning at 10 to get the car, and for them to hold it for me until Friday. He said I would need to go back on the website and rebook the reservation for Friday. It was basically what the foreign guy told me, but at least it was confirmed now by a local guy, and that I would not be charged. I told him in that case, given all of the hassle I had been through with his company, I would not be rebooking with their company, and instead would use another company that had a local Sioux Falls number I could call in case of trouble. I got on-line and found another suitable car rental agency with a local number and booked my rental for Friday morning. With that, I went to bed to sleep soundly. It was now Thursday morning the 18th. But the nightmare was far from over.
Thursday the 18th – TRAVEL TRIALS: PART 2 – THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES! – When I got up late in the afternoon I got a call from Scott at the Sioux Falls airport. My bags had not arrived on the rebooked flight. Rats! He walked over to the help desk at the airport while I was still on the phone, and talked to the agent who tracked them and assured him that my bags were still in Minneapolis. As predicted, the connection in Minneapolis was so short that even my bags couldn’t make it. And if my bags (which are transported by a motorized cart with wheels) didn’t make the flight, I for sure wouldn’t have made it on foot. I could have been stuck in Minneapolis for a very long time. The agent said she would try to get my bags sent from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls on another flight, and they would keep them safe for me in lock-up until I landed in Sioux Falls. So at least I’d have luggage when I landed! Whew! Just like déjà vu, my assistant Emily picked me up at 10pm and we headed to LAX again. But this time traffic around the airport was awful. Since it was now Thursday night/Friday morning, everyone was hustling to get somewhere for the weekend. Luckily I had plenty of time before my red-eye took off at 12:35am, and I had no luggage to check! I got up to the ticketing desk, showed the lady my baggage claim receipts and asked her to put eyes on my baggage. Did they make it to Sioux Falls? Or were they still stuck in Minneapolis? She looked up the barcode and ascertained that they were still in Minneapolis, and they would be on my connecting flight to Sioux Falls later that morning. So basically, they were waiting for me to catch up. I said that was great, and showed her the boarding passes that the Help Desk agent printed the night before. She printed new ones as the gate information had changed, and I was on my way up to security. But unlike Wednesday night, the Thursday night line at security was like a line at Disneyland. But once again, because I had a Pre-Check classification, all I had to remove were the tablets from my carry-on bag. I breezed through and headed to gate 38. But on my way to the gate, one of those motorized carts passed by in the opposite direction. It was being driven by an airline employee, and he had two elderly passengers on board. I briefly overheard him say, “All of the flights that departed have been told to turn around and come back.” I was hoping (praying, actually) that he was talking about another airport. I got to the gate and asked the gate agent if everything was set for a 12:35 departure, and she assured me it was. This time it was really happening! I went to one of those “Just Walk Out” digital kiosks (which are very creepy, by the way), got a sandwich, some beef jerky and a lemonade and went to sit down to wait to board the plane. The area was very crowded with late-night travelers looking to get to their destination. But within 5 minutes of sitting down, preparing to eat my sandwich, the gate agent came on the PA system and said, “Due to a system-wide outage, we have been put on a mandatory 3 hour ground delay.” WHAT?! What did that even mean? There was a collective groan amongst the waiting passengers. This couldn’t be happening again! Earlier I assured Emily that the statistical likelihood of a second night of canceled flights was so infinitesimally small that I would be willing to bet that everything was smooth sailing. I sprang up and asked the gate agent, “So does a mandatory 3 hour ground delay mean a REAL 3 hours, or could it be 1 hour? Or could it be 10 hours?” He said he didn’t know as the problem was some sort of IT issue. I told him even at 3 hours I would miss my connection in Minneapolis at 8:50am. He said we would all be rebooked on new flights once we hit the ground in Minneapolis. This really was déjà vu all over again! I told him, “Dude, it’s the summer travel season and the planes to Sioux Falls are really small. In fact, I was on the seating charts for my flights earlier to see if I could obtain a better seat, and every single one of them were full! Given those two scenarios, the likelihood of getting a seat on one of those flights last-minute will be nearly impossible.” Once again, I foresaw myself sitting on the ground in Minneapolis all day waiting for somebody to get me on a flight to Sioux Falls. This could very likely turn into a 20 hour ordeal before I even got to my destination. Again, I logically weighed my options. I called Emily to see what she thought. I told her to please stand ready to come back and get me (again!) as I was about to go with my gut and pull the plug on the whole damn thing. I weighed my options. First, there’s no guarantee that the ground delay would be only 3 hours. It could go on much longer, and I was once again facing the prospect of sitting around the airport for 8 hours. At this stage, I was already in danger of missing the big Voices Against Cancer soiree at Dr. George’s castle on Friday night, and most likely I’d be so tired over the weekend that I wouldn’t have much fun at the convention anyway. I thought about going back to the same Help Desk from last night, but I decided to head back to the ticket gate to inquire about a total refund. I was going to call it all off. I can take a hint. I can read the writing on the wall. I simply was not meant to be in Sioux Falls this weekend, for some reason. Too much bad luck. By now I was sweating from all the brisk walking. I found my way to the ticket desk and there were only four people in line as it was now 1am. But the lighted sign behind the desk stated that my flight was now leaving at 1:35am. Could this be true? Could they have fixed the problem already, and would the flight be leaving in a half hour? If so, this is great news, as I would make my connection in Minneapolis very easily. I got to the ticket desk and spoke with one of the agents. First, I inquired if the 1:35am departure time on the lighted sign was for real. He said he didn’t know, so he made a phone call. But the look on his face as he spoke with the person on the other end wasn’t promising. He looked as if somebody just told him his dog had died. He said all he knew was that it was a system-wide outage and the departure of the flight could not be determined. That was all I needed to hear. It was not meant to be this year. I told him that for the second night in a row my flight had been canceled. Two nights in a row of bad luck. I asked for a full refund, and he said he would issue it. I inquired about my bags in Minneapolis to see if they could be returned to L.A. for delivery. He instructed me to go downstairs to the baggage desk first to arrange for their return, and THEN he would issue the refund. As it was 1am I said, “You’re not about to close are you? You’ll still be here when I get back, right?” He said they would be staying open. I rushed down to the baggage desk and was third in line. I showed my baggage claim stickers to the agent and told him that, under the circumstances, I was canceling my trip and would like my bags returned to L.A. asap. I asked, “Will they deliver them?” He said if it’s the airline’s mistake they will deliver them, but since I’m the one canceling the trip I would need to return to retrieve them myself. Great. More good news. I described the items in detail and he filed the report. He said I would be contacted when they returned to L.A. and were ready for pick-up. Then I high-tailed it back to the ticket gate. By that time there were only two people left behind the desk. Whew! Glad they were still there. I spoke with the same agent and told him my baggage had all been taken care of. He issued me the refund and I called Emily to come pick me up and take me home. As I sat outside the airport, enjoying the nice summer night weather and staring at a nearly full moon, I called the hotel and informed them I wouldn’t be coming in at all. They understood and I wouldn’t be charged anything. I also called my parents phone and left a voicemail message explaining the situation. I also called Sheriff John’s voicemail and told him to abort the mission. I wouldn’t be going after all. He and his wife were also battling a long ordeal with canceled flights. I was starting to get the idea that this “system-wide” outage was bigger than we were originally led to believe. As I sat there I heard only one plane taking off, which is odd for LAX. Emily arrived and took me home. I was so sad and disappointed to be missing out on my trip to see my friends and family, and to attend the third year of our little children’s cancer charity convention. But, it was very obvious to me by now that it was not meant to be. When I got home and got on the internet, the news was blowing up on all the news sites that a major Microsoft outage had caused banks, airlines and businesses to shut down operations. This thing was a LOT bigger than I originally thought. Then it occurred to me that this was not going to be a simple fix that could be rectified in a short 3 hour time span. My instincts had paid off. Yup, I think I made the right decision to call the whole thing off. The circumstances of this outage were going to be felt for days to come! Although I was sad, I was glad to be out of the mess! And looking on the bright side, by giving up my seats on the flights, I made it possible for somebody else who was really in need of that seat to get to their destination. I went to bed to get some sleep.
Friday the 19th – THE NIGHTMARE IS OVER – KINDA! – When I awoke I got a text from my pal Dan. He told me he had been at the airport all night waiting for his flight, which eventually left at 7 in the morning and landed in Dallas. But then he was stuck in Dallas for quite a while trying to get on to Pittsburgh. All in all I suspect it had turned into a near 20 hour ordeal by the time he finally arrived there. Sheriff John had emailed me to tell me that he and his wife were in the process of canceling their entire trip too. According to the news reports, it wasn’t looking very good for flights all over the country, and even the world! Luckily, with all of this craziness, only one guest at Voices Against Cancer had to cancel because of the outage. Other guests were severely delayed, but luckily several of the main guests were flying in on Dr. George’s private plane, so that helped their situation immensely. Dr. George texted me his disappointment that I wouldn’t be there and asked if there was anything he could do. He said if I could get to Minneapolis he could send a car service to pick me up and take me to Sioux Falls. But given the last few nights, I wasn’t even able to get THERE! I told him how sorry and sad I was to be missing the event. Would it have been possible to eventually make it to Sioux Falls with all of the chaos of canceled flights and system-wide outages? Sure. Probably. But would I have been very happy once I arrived there? Probably not. In the past, I spent a small portion of my traveling days sleeping in airports and putting up with weather delays, canceled flights, missed connections, etc. But the fact is, these days I’m just too old for that shit, as the saying goes. If I’m stuck under these circumstances during a layover, I’m a prisoner – and there are no good alternatives but to wait it out. But since all of my troubles started with my flight of origination, I decided to do the logical thing and remove myself from a stressful, arduous situation. That being said, I’m now planning on another trip to Sioux Falls soon to see friends and family, and I will NOT be taking that airline ever again. But I couldn’t help mulling the situation over in my head; could I have stayed on the flights, fought the good fight, and made it to Sioux Falls eventually? Most likely – yes. But it was the prospect of a 12-20 hour ordeal that I just wasn’t prepared to endure. And even if I HAD gotten to Sioux Falls, would the resulting circumstances of the chaos be rectified by then? Or would there be a considerable amount of residual madness that would prevent me from even getting back home to L.A.? These are questions I’ll probably never know the answer to. But as I perused the news reports over the weekend, it didn’t look very promising. I texted a lot of people about my canceled trip, and talked to my dad about it all. I was so sad about how the whole thing worked out. The maids came over to clean Planet Wallywood, and after they left I met my pal Sara at Paty’s for lunch. Afterwards I stopped at Baskin-Robbins because I felt I deserved some ice cream. Then I came home to rest some more, and later I typed out the entire 48 hour ordeal with the airline. Later I took my nightly WOG and it felt really good to be out again! It was warm and there was a mostly-full moon out. I got in my anti-grav chair and enjoyed an iced tea and a nice cigar. I felt I deserved that too. I saw a shooting star (something I had not seen in the skies in a while) and then came back inside and began unpacking my carry-on bag.
Saturday the 20th – DEJECTED & DESPONDENT! – When I awoke I realized I had just slept a full 9 hours. This is a rarity for me when I don’t have some sort of medicinal help (like Advil PM!). I was truly exhausted and perhaps a bit sad by the whole experience. Later my pal Edi came over (who had ALSO canceled a weekend trip) to enjoy some pizza and the documentary “Jim Henson; Idea Man.” Later I took my nightly WOG and said hello to the studio security that was on our property keeping an eye on the studio that’s next to our complex. After my WOG I sat back in the anti-grav chair and reflected on the past few days. With a full moon peeking at me through the trees on another warm, summer night – I decided I deserved another cigar! I realized I was probably over-thinking the situation (as I often do) and thanked my lucky stars that I was out of the whole mess. According to some of the news reports I’ve seen, some people will end up being stranded for a full four days! Some of my “over-thinking” included the thought that next time I take the red-eye I could cash in some points at a local hotel, stay there for a few hours, take a shuttle to the airport, and if it’s canceled again, I could just shuttle back to my room at the hotel and wait it out there. After all, I’d have the room until 11am the next morning! I also thought that perhaps I should have had my baggage returned to the Burbank airport instead of LAX, since it’s closer to where I live. Oh well, next time. I always thought I was a pretty seasoned traveler, but I’ve learned so much by all of this. I’m still pondering the larger reason for why this didn’t work out. I can see one night of canceled flights, but TWO in a row?! Bizarre! But again…overthinking. I spoke with Sheriff John in Florida and he was feeling exactly the same way I was. He emailed me later to tell me that he was feeling a lot more relaxed about it now though. I feel bad for them because I really wanted to show them a good time in South Dakota, and they were planning a road trip to see Mount Rushmore. I monitored all of the activity at the Voices Against Cancer event on their social media posts. It looks like they had an amazing event!
Sunday the 21st – STILL NO CALL! – Sunday is my usual “crash day” and boy did I really need it THIS week! I got up later to work around the house, but I still hadn’t heard anything about my baggage from the airline. I carefully perused the little pamphlet they gave me when I filed the report, and I noticed a website address where I could track my baggage. I got on it and found out that my bags had made it back to LAX that night at 9pm! But still no call! I’m pretty sure they won’t be calling me, considering the abject chaos of the past few days. I would make arrangements to go get them first thing Monday. So really, the nightmare isn’t quite over yet. It’s funny that I’ve told everyone here in L.A. that I won’t be back until Wednesday, so I’ll have several good days all to myself before I have to get back at it.
And how was YOUR week?! (Hopefully better!)
PIX FROM THE WEEK
“Travel Cookie” turned out pretty sweet!
Saturday night sadness – drowning my sorrows in Little Toni’s pizza, Diet Pepsi in my Dracula mug, and donuts!
