Good news from Kelly this morning: they got on the morning flight to Raleigh! By the time I post this they should be “wheels up” and on their way home. Kelly said the kids got to meet the pilots and make the “welcome aboard” announcement, too.
Good to know their travel adventures will soon end. I suppose I can cut Northwest some slack after all.
I just found out that comedian George Carlin died of a heart attack yesterday. What a shame. He was an incredibly clever, funny guy who could cut through all the BS in the world. Its not often you get comedy that makes you think but Carlin did that. I’m kicking myself for not going to see him the last time he played Raleigh.
In light of the family’s airline debacle, take a look at a Carlin routine that was appeared on my blog a year ago when Carlin takes apart airline announcements. Its masterful, hilarious, and like a lot of Carlin routines, not exactly safe for work.
I bet he’s already got a great routine on dying.
Well, the travel gods were not smiling on Kelly and the kids. Northwest Airlines royally screwed up their only possible chance to get to Raleigh tonight. Northwest then went the extra mile, screwing up the family’s chance at tomorrow morning’s flight, too.
Right now the family will be lucky to take the 1:30 PM CDT flight which puts them into Raleigh after 4PM: twenty-one hours after they expected to be home! Is it any wonder Northwest Airlines ranks at the bottom of customer satisfaction surveys?
Just got word that Kelly and the kids missed their Northwest connecting flight to Raleigh, thanks to a ground stop in Detroit which kept their Milwaukee plane from taking off on time. As is typical, they were told their connecting flight would likely wait for them but it was not to be. Though they landed at 5:07, their Raleigh flight left the gate at 5:21 without them. Bah.
I hope they can get on another flight pronto so they don’t have to spend the night in Detroit.
Milwaukee’s city government is very tech-savvy, with its Google Maps transit integration and fresh, easy-to-navigate webpage and all. Turns out the city also has free municipal wifi in a few of its parks.
Its a model I’d like to see Raleigh emulate some day.
I saw the family off this morning for their trip from Milwaukee back to home. It was sad saying goodbye to them knowing I wouldn’t be home for another three days. I now sit in the room Kelly’s parents stayed in, surrounded by empty chairs that used to be full of wriggling children and laughing adults. Feels quite lonely here.
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Remember when I was wishing Google Maps did more than driving? Through a visit to Milwaukee’s transit page I discovered Google Maps now covers public transit. Now Google Maps can tell you how to get where you’re going – without driving! Pretty cool.
Raleigh’s CAT system (or Triangle Transit, for that matter) isn’t listed on the page. Adding it seems to be a matter of setting up a feed of schedules and routes that Google periodically fetches. I don’t know if anyone at CAT is working on it so I might get started on it myself.
We’re in Milwaukee for the next few days for a family wedding. Its my first trip to Milwaukee. Nice place, from what I’ve seen so far.
Its been so long since I’ve flown that it seems to have lost any joy it once held, even when bringing my family along. We flew Northwest (as we didn’t have a choice) and I was dreading the experience, as NWA has one of the worst customer satisfaction ratings. In spite of my dread, the airline did a decent job. Employees overall were friendly, the plane was clean, and we arrived on time.
Sunday, we part ways as Kelly takes the kids home and I head to Chicago to conduct my first product training on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ll rejoin the family Wednesday night.
I caught my first glimpse yesterday of downtown Raleigh legend Rodney Hines, better known as the No Hand King. I looked up from my desk to see this guy deftly maneuvering his bike on one wheel between the tables outside the Raleigh Times. Using no hands, of course.
Its the first time I’ve seen him and I’ve been working downtown for almost five months. Perhaps that’s the way it should be for legends, n’est pas? It was worth the wait, though: the guy is talented!
Last week was the last day of school in the Wake County school system. As I pedaled to work I was once again astonished at how different the streets looked. Gone were all the school buses, idling at lights. Gone was the long line of cars waiting to drop kids off at school. Gone were the stream of pedestrians walking to and from the school.
It was eerily quiet, like Wednesday morning became Sunday morning. A remarkable difference.
I was wondering what kind of difference the area’s air quality sensors detected between Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s CO2 and CO levels. Then the Great Smokeout of 2008 occurred and dashed my hopes of an accurate measurement. Perhaps the county’s traffic counters registered a change?
