I woke up with my brain ready to write, but then I made a mistake – I started scrolling through a news aggregation app. Initially it was under the guise of finding some interesting tidbits, but as my brain turned to mush I realized that while I’ve been doing a good job of staying away from social media, this was just a replacement and the scrolling for those little dopamine hits does the same thing whether it is social media or so-called “news.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m also fighting a cold, though I am hopeful that I’ve taken enough preventative steps to keep it from developing into being hull on “sick.” Just the basic stuff – vitamin C, neti pot, and zinc swab – but it seems to be keeping the true misery away. Right now it seems to be isolated to one side of my face, so I know it’s in my sinus cavity, but hopefully it will be over with soon. I think I’ll also add a shot of apple cider vinegar to help loosen everything up a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On to the trip:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love traveling to new places, but these days I hate “to travel,” if that makes sense. Exploring new areas, finding new bookstores, seeing new landscapes, and so on – these are what I look forward to, but getting from point A to point B is certainly not one of them. Cramming yourself into an uncomfortable seat with little padding for however long it takes to get there is miserable – especially since my injury and health issues. Frankly I prefer driving, as I can choose when I need to pull over and stretch (and I love my Jeep), but depending on the distance and time-frame in which I need to travel, that isn’t always an option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well the trip out wasn’t so bad, save a few hiccups, but all in all it wasn’t bad getting to the wedding location. My car rental allowed me to select a new Jeep, and I did notice that in PA there were a lot more people doing the “Jeep Wave<\/a>.” (My wife said it was because in the urban areas, people choose a Jeep “to be a Jeeper,” rather than getting one out of the actual need for a 4WD vehicle in more rural locales.) I enjoyed the new model, but I don’t think I’d want to swap what I have out for one of the new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wedding itself was so much fun! As mentioned before it was a Lord of the Rings themed event, and we dressed up for the festivities. In my youth I was a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA)<\/a> which was a medieval reenactment organization where we’d all dress up, fight in armor, and often times party all night. It has been close to 30 years since I’ve done anything like that, however. (Coincidentally, the timing lined up with turning 21 and being able to just go to a bar to drink instead of sneaking it at an event.) This was for friends from Twitter so there were a bunch of others who traveled in and met up in person for the first time as well. It was great meeting old online friends, and making new ones – though I’m still not planning on going back to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While everything went fairly smooth on the way there, the trip back was a disaster. Our connecting flight was delayed in departing, and the pilots decided to try and go for it to beat a storm rather than just hold the flight so the passengers could relax in the terminal with food and drink. Also likely because United has been hit with fines for delays like that in the past, and I know airport rules are weird about delays and can cause airlines to lose takeoff slots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Needless to say, they did not beat the storm. It’s probable that we would have beaten the storm if we had left on time, but the delay was enough to force us to divert to another airport about the same flight distance away from where we started. So now the ~1 hour flight had tripled in duration, and that didn’t even include the time on the ground where we were diverted. We spent close to 2 hours on the ground refueling and waiting for the storm to pass – 2 more hours in a cramped, uncomfortable seat just waiting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The original flight had suspended the drink and snack service because of turbulence (we were trying to beat a storm after all) but with the delay, they did hand out those half-filled small cups of water and snacks. Goddamn, do I love those stroopwafels, but one of those and a sip of water was NOT enough to keep from getting hangry and dehydrated on a 5 hour flight leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I absolutely understand the need to divert a flight due to weather, and am appreciative that the pilots did not try to land in that storm, but I do feel that they should have just held the flight instead of making the attempt, especially since we were already delayed and the original flight time would have been cutting it close as well. Frankly, I feel it is the fault of the airline itself, who’s policies are in place to maximize profit and avoid fines rather than look out for the best interests and comfort of their passengers. The storm was a bad one (there were spots on the drive home that looked like it had snowed due to the accumulation of hailstones) and no plane should have attempted a landing in it, but c’mon, if they had made that announcement at the airport and delayed the flight there, we all could have enjoyed some real food and relaxed much more comfortably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time we were home and getting into bed, it was about 6AM and the sun was up. A long and exhausting trip, and the event was a lot of fun, but I’m glad to be home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Song of the Day: Jet Airliner<\/a> by Steve Miller Band<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n These Are Your Rights During a Lengthy Tarmac Delay<\/a> – “These frustrating delays can mean sitting on the tarmac for hours before even taking off\u2014here’s what to know if that happens.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Original Iron Maiden Singer Paul Mario Day Dead at 69<\/a> – “The vocalist was part of the legendary metal band’s original lineup formed in December 1975”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fake Guitar Center websites set up to scam players are on the rise<\/a> – “A player was recently scammed out of $1,000 after falling prey to a scam website \u2013 and the retailer\u2019s CEO has shared the red flags you need to be mindful of”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I formed this band for God\u2019s sake! And I helped Roger a hell of a lot because he wasn\u2019t a musician when we started.” The lost Richard Wright interview<\/a> – “On the back of a Classic Rock cover story for Pink Floyd’s The Wall back in 2000, keyboard player Richard Wright was determined to have his say. And he did”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018My Legs Do Not Work!\u2019: Texas Cops Order Paralyzed Man to \u2018Crawl\u2019 Out of Car During Stop Over Bogus Marijuana Claim<\/a> – “In one of the most disturbing videos to surface in recent months, Texas cops ordered a paraplegic out of his car during a minor traffic infraction after claiming to have smelled marijuana, forcing the man to urinate on himself under threat of arrest before releasing him after finding no marijuana in the car.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ACLU Says a New York Official Violated the NRA’s First Amendment Rights. They Still Can’t Sue Her.<\/a> – “A federal court concluded the official was entitled to qualified immunity in a case that united two unlikely allies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sig M18 Pistols Pulled From Use By Air Force Global Strike Command<\/a> – “A fatal incident prompted the order to pause M18 use, which also comes after the disclosure of a concerning FBI report that Sig has pushed back on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nInteresting Tidbits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n