My Trip to Atlanta
My trip to Atlanta last week was a very eventful and cautionary tale.
Everything started when my Supervisor called a few weeks ago to see if I would train some technical support people in Atlanta on the new version of our product. It sounded like a reasonable trip; leave one day, train the next day, come back. I would be traveling with Anthony and he would be giving part of the training.
I should stop for a minute to describe the Amarillo Texas airport. It’s never really been an issue flying to other cities. I’ve been to Minneapolis through Denver and Houston. Houstons’s better. Straight to Denver on a small propjet. Dallas for training. And Houston, Portland, and Las Vegas with family. The only direct flights for Amarillo are Dallas, Albuquerque, Houston, Denver, and Las Vegas. There are two terminals, but only the Denver flight uses the second one. Four gates are one each terminal. If your only experience is with a large airport like Minneapolis, Houston, or Atlanta you’re missing out. It rarely takes more than 3-5 minutes to get through security. You can show 15 minutes before the plane takes off and still make it.
After some education on the corporate travel site we got our flights and hotels booked. We would leave the same time 10:58 am, and leave from Houston to Atlanta at 2:00(me) and 2:30(Anthony). Stay in a Marriott Suites across the street from the office, so no car, taxis or rides. Andy would take off a little early and run us out to the Atlanta airport at ~3:00. Leave Atlanta for Houston at 6:30(Anthony) and 7:00(me). Switch planes to the last Amarillo flight at 9:00 and get home at 10:45.
Great we leave at the same time and get back. Looks easy. My experience in many flights to Minneapolis was flying into the B terminal running around to another B terminal, they’re usually very close together, and taking off of the next flight. Even a 15 minute layover was enough and we had at least an hour on both layovers.
The first sign of trouble showed up on the Thursday before the trip. I tried to use my Credit/Debit card at Walgreens and the lady said it was “do not accept”. That one card is my life line. I have a credit card, but don’t know where it is and I haven’t used it since I became debit free over a year ago. My card is my money. Yeah there are checks and cash, but checks take forever to write and cash is always too much or not enough. The last time I ordered a box of checks was 2001 when I opened my second bank account. Correspondingly, they have my address from three apartments ago. And as luck would have they misspelled my DL number by one digit, so I have to write a lot of stuff on a check. I almost exclusively use them to mail bills. If the checks good no one need notice the errors.
Anyway, I called the bank and they had stopped my card, because the card was used in Romainia at an ATM. Notice I said card and not number. Somewhere in Romainia there’s a copy of my card. This made my heart beat a little faster. How do I pay for the hotel in 5 days? Nothing like this has happened before. I always have my trusty CC. It takes a week to get a replacement card and I’m leaving in 3 business days. Friday, minutes after a branch opened I explained my problem to a rep and she ordered a new card as quick as possible, but it might not make it by next Tuesday.
Ok, I thought, I’ve got that emergency card put away, a card I never activated for another bank account, checks, cash, and at least two people that would trust me with their CC number. On Sunday, I tried couldn’t find the emergency card, it’s in a “safe” (unfindable) place. The unactivated card wouldn’t activate it had been too long. I started to think that if the bank had used the quickest FedEx route, that it would arrive on Tuesday before 10:00. It’s Amarillo, I could leave at 10:00 and make the 10:58 plane. On Monday, I called the hotel and explained that I might not have a CC would they take a debit card. “Sure, we just need a card to swipe” A rather odd response since I’ve seen CC machines and they all have a numberpad if the magnetic strip won’t pick up. Just in case I’ll call my Grandmother who works at the front desk of a hotel. She said all they need is a number. Say, I forgot my card, but I have a number.
Tuesday, I’m going to Atlanta today. At 10:03 FedEx handed me my replacement card and I was out the door. Yea! FedEx, that’s why I bought their stock instead of UPS. I get to the airport in a rush. No one in line at Continental. Wow, look at that line in front of Southwest! At security, the nice lady noticed my expired driver’s license. Oops. I get extra screening, probably because expired driver’s licences are easier for terrorists to copy. No problem getting through. Now, I begin the first of my walks to the very end of the terminal.
Why is it that my connections involve terminals on opposite sides of the airport and at the very ends? This is something I ponder every time I spend 30 minutes walking to my terminal. Did you know that Amarillo to Minneapolis through Denver takes so long to walk to your connection you need an hour layover? Even in my home airport. Anyway, minor annoyance compared to what’s comming.
I walk up and there’s Anthony wondering if I’m going to make it or not. 5 minutes later we begin boarding the plane. It’s the normal small jet into Houston. We get there at 12:00 and so decide to lunch at Chile’s Too. Now’s, a good time to activate that card. It asks for the card number, ok. It asks for the last four of my social, not ok. “That’s social security number is not recognized. You are being transfered to customer service please hold.” WTF!! OMG! It’s a joint account with a friend and they must have confused here SSN with mine.
Lunch was nice though our waiter took 10 minutes (literally) to bring our ticket. Anthony heads over to C terminal and I being looking for A. There was a sign back near B somewhere.
Now, I’m hurrying because it seems to be taking forever to find the A terminal. Then I discover the shuttle bus. Egads! I forgot Houston had a shuttle terminal. Over to A we go and now I’m almost running. It’s 1:35 and I can’t find my flight on the monitors near the door. Walk. Walk. Walk. Here’s a monito and it says gate A14 and 3:55 instead of on time. What does that mean, surely the plane isn’t 2 hours delayed. Yes, it is.
So, I’m off to C terminal. My choices are the shuttle again or look A terminal has it’s own security check. Not a good sign. I get on the shuttle which is deserted now and we stop at a propjet on the field. And proceed to wait while all the passengers from that plane load up on our bus. That takes 20 minutes, next stop B terminal, then C terminal. Again, I’m hurrying half way down the terminal to Anthony’s gate and I see that there are no passengers. It’s 2:17 and they already boarded everyone. Later, Anthony told me they boarded 40 minutes early as a policy. So, before I left A terminal he had boarded the plane. I’ve never heard of this policy, but maybe that’s why Continental leaves on time.
Oh, wait did I forget to mention I found out the A terminal is for Delta. I booked with Continental and ended up on a Delta flight. Before this (mis)adventure I had no opinion about Delta. Certainly, you should book flights and the appropriate plane regardless of airline gets you there. However, there was nothing on my tickets or itinerary indicating anything other than Continental. This should be a requirement.
Now, back to A terminal to wait another 1.5 hours. At first, I got a little start in C terminal, because the monitors showed my plane as “on time” and leaving from gate A2 instead of A14. Ahh, those crazy airport monitors, such a sense of humor.
Wait, Wait, Wait… All aboard and the flight was nominal. Anthony left a voice mail. When I land he’s getting dinner across the street from the hotel. It turns out the number I (mistakenly) got yesterday was his home and not his mobile.
Where’s that shuttle bus? Anthony took a pink bus down to Buckhead for $20.50. I get on the bus and we wait till it’s full and proceed to drop one person (there must have been a limit against more than one) at hotels in Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. It takes an 1.5 hours.
Ok, I’ve got one more hurdle and the day’s over, the part I’ve been fretting about since Thursday. I explain that I forgot my CC, but I did have someone give me a number. The real story about stolen Romainian credit cards and wrong SSNs seemed a bit preposterous. That won’t work they need a card to swipe. Again that exact phrase. Are they serious about swiping a card? Ok, I’ve got a debit card, not Visa. They laughed (literally). I don’t blame the my banks ATM cards do look funny. I’ve got checks, but who takes a check these days. They do. Just give them a driver’s license to swipe (wtf with the swiping.). We’re in business until they notice my expired driver’s license. Oops, again. My last choice is cash. I brought a significant amount, but I didn’t think they would take cash. Isn’t there a thing about damages to the room? Later, Grandma told me they take everything too, but she didn’t mention this on Monday. They break out a calculator to figure out the bill. It’s $125.35. I’ve got $120. No problem, where’s the nearest ATM? I assume one would be nearby since they would get kickbacks, I mean rent, from having one. It’s across the street. I hand over my one carryon bag, which seems to way 80 lbs after lugging it all day. Everything, is really funny from their point of view now.
Off to the ATM at 9:15 in a strange city to get $5. WTF! I see an ATM in the bank branch, but the door is locked. So, I walk around to the drive-throughs. Getting money from a drive-through ATM is the only time I wish I weighed 3000 lbs more and had wheels. Of course, some one pulls up just before I get there so I can be that creepy guy hanging around the ATM machine while you’re getting money.
They drive off and I begin using the ATM machine. But wait, they’re just turning around so that the passenger can use hi card and they being waiting on me. Using the Wachovia ATM was an experience. That is the most confusing, outright stupid interface. ATM software is beginning Computer Science problem. No, not the security and ancient data formats. The simple steps of Insert Card, Enter PIN, Select Action,… It looks like Freshmen CompSci wrote this crap. The first thing I did was get a bank balance. Huh, why did it spit out my card I didn’t get to ask for money. Try again, I see ignore the asinine bank balance question, maybe they haven’t heard of internet banking. I want $200 and let’s hurry before that car gets impatient.
Back to the hotel. As I walk up to the counter cash in hand, I can see the lady explaining to the man my very humorous sitation and how crazy I am. I intend to pay the $125 in twenties to break one of them, but I count only $100 from the ATM. A look at the receipt reveals that my second attempt at the Wachovia ATM wasn’t much better than my first. I’m a Software Engineer with 20 yr of shitty computer interface experience and this one pull my shirt over my head twice. So, here’s my money and this is my room key. Finally.
It’s 9:30. A couple of phone calls, shower, ironing, and I’m asleep.
The next day at work goes fine. Of course, I won’t comment about work. That’s not the intention of this article or blog.
We leave the office and amazingly it only takes 40 minutes to get to the airport. At the Continental counter Anthony checks in at the little computers. I remember a couple of years ago when those were optional. How things have changed. I get a little nervous but swipe my expired driver’s license. It works, except there’s some trouble finding my flight I need special assistance. Off to that line. Anthony begins to smile. What is it now?
It’s not too bad. The nice lady looks up my flight and says I need to go the the Delta counter (not again). Where’s that? Around the other side of the airport. No, seriously. Anthony and I walk over there. It is. Holy
At the counter, it’s not possible to get an earlier flight (except the one leaving in 15 minutes. Amarillo you spoil me.) And all of them get to Amarillo at the same time so what’s the point. Uh huh. We head off to security and Anthony can’t wait to read the blog. Atlanta doesn’t notice the expiration on my driver’s licence. That’s nice, but I wonder if she didn’t see it or didn’t care. I kept thinking they are going to stop me. They didn’t but the people in front of me were wearing a few pounds of metal.
We head straight to my plane even though it leaves later. I want to see if it’s later and we have 1.5 hrs. Ahh, the Atlanta train or is it an amusement ride. The little tram easily throws 200 lb grown men off their feet. Once you realize it newbies are hilarious. We saw a little domino falling down action from some people who didn’t hang on.
My plane is 15 minutes late, but I remember my flight yesterday was slipped before it was 2 hr late. I have a 50 minute layover in Houston to make the last flight to Amarillo and Atlanta flies into the A terminal and Amarillo leaves from the B terminal. They are on opposite sides of the airport.
The Delta people don’t think the plane will be later, but if is they will announce it. Yeah. How, do I switch planes? There are phones half way down the terminal. Oops, did I forget to mention that this gate is at the very end of the terminal. I just take it for granted now. The lady on the phone is very nice, but Delta didn’t get a good data dump from Continental last night and it literally takes 10 minutes to pull up the info on Anthony’s flight. It’s full, but maybe I can fly standby if I go to his gate. Off we go on the tram again.
Anthony’s flight is on time leaving in 1 hr. At the counter they can’t swap my ticket, because it’s with Delta. See I booked with Continental and they gave Delta the money and it takes a special handshake and eyewink to reverse the situation. I need to talk to Delta. Where? Half way down the other side of the terminal. At least she didn’t say it was in another terminal. At this point, I say good bye to Anthony. Poor guy followed me around when he could have been getting dinner.
Again, the 10 minute wait while Delta pulls up Continental’s flight info to see what I already know. His plane is full, but probably not overfull. i.e. there may be a standby seat open if one person doesn’t show up. The lady next to me on the phone complains how the regular Delta 6:30 often leaves after the regular 8:30 flight. And the husband and wife on the other side complain that, due to mechanical troubles, they were delayed 2 hrs and missed their connection in Atlanta. I felt for ‘em. It was me yesterday and about to be me again if I couldn’t get on Anthony’s flight.
Which I couldn’t without completely giving up my Delta ticket. Looks like I was going Delta no matter what. Back on the rocket tram and my gate. I did learn the my plane was late, because the regular “equipment” had problems and this one was swapped in place. It was 30 minutes late getting out of Cincinatti. So, the 15 minutes delay probably wouldn’t go up.
To my great relief and great surprise the plane shows up on time. Whaaooo! (I’m a Texan) Everyone troupes onto the plane in a none to quick fashion and it seems to take forever to close the door. In fact, I noticed the pidgeons outside walking right up to the plane and wondered if they were hitching. Then we pull back and begin taxiing and taxiing and taxiing. Then we pull over for a bit and taxi some more (I’m not making it up). The pilot explains that Houston had traffic delays and asked us to pull over for a bit. Finally, we take off at 7:45 with a travel time of 30 minutes (corrected for time zone). If we land at 8:15 I’ll have 45 minutes. That’s ok.
The flight which is really 1.5 hr long takes us over the most beautiful clouds I’ve ever seen. The tropical storm that passed through the day before had left lots of big puffy clouds behind and the sun began to set which added color a normally blue and white scene. It was spectacular.
I asked the stewardess if there was anything I could do about my 9:00 flight. Unfortunately, there’s nothing they can do. See, it was of particular concern, because a few years ago while flying by myself from Minneapolis home to Amarillo my Minneapolis flight spent over an hour on the tarmack. When we land I was close to my Amarillo gate and ran almost the whole way. I got there with a few minutes before it was due to leave to discover that it had left 15 minutes early. Early! Though I applaud their efforts the last plane home left me behind and I was hassled coming back through security the next day and got home at 11:00 am. It sucked all the way.
We landed and taxied up the gate to find another plane in our spot. WTF! How does that even happen. We had to wait for it to deplane and then we unloaded. The guy in the seat next to me was going my way and he had grown up in Amarillo. Small world. We walk/ran to the shuttle I had taken the day before. And then waited. I called Anthony and told him to hold the plane or something in case they decided to board 40 minutes early and/or leave 15 minutes early. Then we waited some more. A propjet on the tarmack was loading passengers on our shuttle. Anthony’s not worried he laughs, apparently it’s very laid back there at B84. At 8:30 Anthony tells me our ride home is boarding and hangs up.
By the time the shuttle drops me off I’m running through the airport. Damned if I’m going to be left again. And wouldn’t you know B84 is way, way out there on the other side of the B terminal from the shuttle drop off. It’s so far out they don’t use elevated gates. You walk on the tarmack and use the airplane stairs.
As a near the gate I surprised to see people. The rest of the gates had not been empty, but they weren’t full. The B80+ gates are crammed full of people. I quickly walked to the last gate in the building where I find an older white lady feeling very annoyed with a younger hispanic lady. The clock read 8:53. It seems the younger lady had not been paying attention. Planes were stacked up, thus the people, and the older lady was busy sorting everything out. I asked if 2427 was boarding and she said very curtly that no planes were boarding. Very relieved, I looked around for Anthony. Huh, no Anthony. Well, there are a lot of people here. Then the younger lady walks over to the mic and says no boarding for Amarillo and list of names. One of the was mine. Holy
And that’s my trip to Atlanta. I was so busy I forgot my souvenir shot glass. My lessons are many. Hotels take any payment, bring enough cash at least for the hotel bill. There a CC theives in Romainia. Delta sucks, but the people were very nice. In fact, I’m seriously wondering if Delta won’t be bankrupt in 1-2 months. Keep your DL up-to-date. Keep several credit cards and know where they are. Memorize all possible SSNs that might be on your bank accounts. Double check mobile phone numbers when you exchange them. Make sure they are mobile phones. Work out a lot to run the gates.
Container Gardening Links
These are some of the sites I’ve found useful for designing the patio garden this year.
Texas A&M Ag Extension
Plant Answer (Texas Coop Extension)
Dave’s Garden
Companion Plants
More Companion Plants
Update 1:
Allergen free Kitties
It seems I may have to make a category on the blog for genetically modified animals. Now along with glow in the dark fish and green pigs there is a hypoallergenic cat. Though, after reading the article I think low allergen cat would be more accurate. The process for making the little kitties started out as a high tech approach to slice and dice genes three years ago, but the method of genetic testing combined with old fashion breeding techniques delivered. The cats are $4000, but this technique led to other breeding lines that are simply less allergen.
Bored with What’s on TV…
Check out what’s on the ‘net.
Whedonverse Parody’s
Rocketboom
Rain Gutters are Silly
It’s a sign of bad design to add something to the design later for one exception case. In this case, rain. A roof should be shaped to channel the water to where you want it. How many hours will a roof be on a house and during how many of those will it rain? Gutters are a poor solution to a problem that shouldn’t exist. They collect leaves and dirt, require installation, cleaning, and maintenance. I would hazard in my arid area that all this takes more time than the gutter gets rained on.
It seems the simplest solution is to adjust the roof joists, while a house is being built, to angle or channel the flow of water, snow, and ice. This doesn’t work for existing houses, but all news ones could avoid this excessive and unnecessary cost. A few inches here and there could save thousands of dollars and hours in the life of a house, which may be 20 to 100 or more years.
New Breast Enlargement using Own Fat Cells
This press release is concerned with reconstructing breasts for cancer patients. However, I see a much large use in the breast enlargement market.