I’m off to Gaithersburg tomorrow for the day. For those keeping score at home, I have just five weekdays in Raleigh for the next three weeks, and some Sunday travel thrown in, too. The good news is I’ve got some frequent flyer credit, though with no obvious kidsitting solution K and I won’t be going anywhere together anytime soon.
At least this one’s just for the day. See you on the flipside, y’all.
I had an interesting limo ride from the hotel to the airport this afternoon. It was the same guy who picked me up from the hotel this morning, only he had his dad in the front seat with him.
We’re driving along and they’re shaking their heads at all the idiot drivers pulling out in front of us. One truck full of kids comes close to hitting us, drawing the ire of the father. “Yeah, go ahead and laugh,” he mutters as they drive by. “Step out of the truck and I’ll show you laughing.”
Oooooookay. I’m raising my eyebrows at this point and trying to occupy myself with the passing scenery. Next thing I know the dad asks him about his sports bets.
“Last month I made fifty-eight hundred, and it was a slow month,” he’s telling his dad.
Damn, I think to myself. Why would a guy who makes six grand a month doing something else also drive a limo? Then I remember how useful running a cash-based business can be.
Talk turns to some schmuck who’s overextended on his betting. The driver and his old man shake their heads at the thought.
“A guy like that deserves to get mushed,” the dad says. Ooooookay Moment Two.
At that point, the driver remembers I’m here and laughs. “So you’re getting a ride to the airport and a little bit of Sopranos, too, huh?”
“Welcome to life in the big city, ” his dad laughs, adding he forgot I was here. With a nervous laugh I tell them I’m just enjoying the ride, all the while wondering what I’ll hear next.
We were soon at the airport. I told him I’d call him for a lift the next time I’m in town, not having had this much entertainment in a while.
Did I leave a big tip? You bet. And if you ever need a ride around Boston, give Gerry a call and tell him I sent ya.
There was one of those moments of Radio Zen last month: the kind of moment when a song that’s playing connects with you. I was with the family waiting for dinner at Schooner’s. While the house band was setting up XM satellite radio played throughout the restaurant. The song was Catherine Wheel’s Black Metallic [warning: music] and hearing it put me in a trance, taking me back fifteen years. I silently mouthed the lyrics to a song that I’d be willing to bet no one else in the restaurant knew. That song was for me.
That’s the power of good radio. It takes you somewhere.
I took radio with me on my trip from Chicago to South Bend. I had Sirius cranking on the drive, listening to ex-VeeJay Alan Hunter play John Mellencamp‘s Cherry Bomb right as I crossed into his home state of Indiana. I’d been thinking of Mellencamp right before Alan played the song. Very cool.
These kind of moments are rare on what passes for broadcast radio nowadays. Stations are programmed to the hilt, with little regard for what song feels right at any particular time. Our robot overlords have killed broadcast radio.
Still, I was happy to find some breath of life on Raleigh’s radio dial. I’d tuned into 100.7 The River from time to time and frankly been impressed. In spite of The River being owned by evil ClearChannel, it did things no other local radio did. It played good songs. Not only that, but it played those good songs in their entirety. If there was a gratuitous guitar solo or a long introduction in a song, The River played it all. Sure, it was a robot station, but it offered more music than other Raleigh stations do.
I read by way of the excellent Raleighing weblog that evil ClearChannel has nixed 100.7’s alternative format in favor of Yet Another Classic Rock Station (YACRS). Just what the Triangle needs. Fuckers.
If I want good music I guess I’ll soon be tuning up Sirius now that the radio dial has been relegated to the museum.
As the fifteen readers of MT.Net know, I travel a lot. That gives me an up-close look at the War on Terra, as fought by the fine folks of the TSA. Thus when I saw USA Today’s headline “Liquids not as risky as first feared”, I was about to let rip a “woohoo!” Then I read the new rules and was left scratching my head. If the ban on liquids wasn’t an example of asshattery to begin with, this new move takes the cake.
The essense is this: FBI tests have shown that its “highly unlikely” that terrorists could bring down a plane with small amounts of fluids. This comes to no surprise to anyone who’s looked into it, yet it took the feds a little more time to figure it out. In the meantime, airline traffic has taken a hit, lines are longer for checking bags, and because of the huge volume of checked bags those that do get checked are often rushed to the plane without adqeuate screening. Thus, the things that really can bring down planes aren’t being detected. Feel safer?
Okay, so now the TSA admits that liquids on planes don’t pose a threat. Does that mean we can fly with our toiletries properly stowed in our carryon bags? No. Even though they just admitted there’s no threat, they roll out even more rules! Liquids have to be in tiny travel bottles and must be packed in a clear plastic bag. Now everyone in line at security will know the contents of your toiletry bag. Screeners will have yet another thing to check, which means even more delays getting through security as people fish their bottles out of their bag.
But wait! Haven’t experts told us that liquid explosives can’t be detected by X-ray? Why, yes they have. So what’s the point? The screener’s not going to directly see the bag since its on a belt in an enclosed machine, so what good is it to take it out of your luggage? The screeners are going to have long lines with people fishing out new stuff for inspection, so guess what they’re going to do? They’re going to speed the bags through the machine without carefully checking them.
In the past few weeks, I’ve actually seen that happen. At a major unnamed airport, I watched as an X-ray screener moved a half-dozen bags through the scanner without as much looking at them! Start to finish, the bags never stopped moving. I predict this won’t be the last time once the lines start backing up again.
I’m all for keeping the skies safe. After all, I spend a lot of time in the skies. Eventually, though, someone has to apply some common sense. The liquid ban wasn’t being enforced, or only half-heartedly at best. The odds of someone pulling this off were extremely remote to begin with and the TSA said as much yesterday. Instead of saying they were wrong about the ban, TSA weasels new rules into place which just make a dumb idea dumber.
Like many pilots will admit, the screening process is a charade. If you’re going to do it at all, do it right. Adding rules for the sake of adding rules does nothing but increase self-importance of a government bureacracy.
Paid To Smile
Lemonheads
Could you see your way clear
and arrange your eyes away from mine
Sorry I’m here
but you get paid get paid to lie
You get paid to smile
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If there’s such a thing as a Rube Goldberg triatholon for getting someplace with the most changes in transportation, I may have won it yesterday. Here’s how my day went:
I got here around 10 PM, with plenty of time to relax. It didn’t make sense to rent a car in Providence since my customer is right next to Logan. Thus, I’m taking a one-way flight from Boston to Raleigh this afternoon to complete the complicated trip.
Sometimes I wonder if the myriad ways I travel could be considered art. But then I think about something else equally stupid. 🙂
I’m in South Bend tonight, somewhere near the famous Field Goal Jesus of Notre Dame, and set to begin a whirlwind of a trip. After I visit a customer Monday morning, I’m off to Providence, RI via a drive back to Chicago. From Providence I take Amtrak to Boston, where I visit another customer before flying out of Boston back to Raleigh.
Then on Thursday I go to Gaithersburg, MD for the day. Those frequent flyer points keep on coming, don’t they?
We had an awesome sail both Saturday and today, though, so that makes up for a lot of stuff. A lady on the flight today was talking to someone about sailing at Annapolis. A guy coming off the plane last week had a copy of Sailing magazine on top of his bag. It seems that everywhere I go I meet fellow sailors. Pretty cool.
Anyway, well past time for bed. I’ll blog if I can find a minute at Midway airport tomorrow.
We were out enjoying our family sail when I had to make a decision about how to return. I mulled choices over with Kelly.
“We could go to the left of the island,” I told her. “Or maybe the right side would be better.”
I decided the wind favored the right side. “Okay, let’s go to the right side.”
The next thing I know, Hallie says something and Kelly bursts out laughing. “What? What is it?” I ask.
“Hallie just yelled ‘it’s starboard!’”
Our girl is only four years old and already she’s got this sailing thing down.
Empire
Queensryche
Last night the word came down, ten dead in Chinatown.
Innocent, their only crime was being in the wrong place, at the wrong time
Too bad, people say what’s wrong with the kids today
Tell you right now they’ve got nothing to lose
They’re building EMPIRE!
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The space shuttle landed early this morning. Seeing that flying rock land right on the centerline in the predawn darkness made me appreciate just how amazing that spacecraft is. Sure, its thirty years old and not without its faults, but its still a magnificent thing to watch. I’d like to drive down to witness a launch someday.
