intertwingly

Haven't made it to Portland yet. 

It started with a call at 11pm on Tuesday that the 9am flight on Wednesday would be delayed and I would miss my connection.  The reason?  Weather delays left the pilots stranded elsewhere.  It is a familiar story by now.  I was re-booked to fly out at 10.

When I arrived at the airport at 7:30, just to be sure, I found out that the helpful person who re-booked me had changed my destination in the process... instead of going to Portland, I would have gone to Phoenix.  Had I arrived an hour earlier, I would have had another choice.  Sigh.

So my one and only hope was a flight out at 4:15.  No hope to make dinner with friends.  Damn.  Upon request, they checked other airlines.  Only viable alternative was a flight though LAX involving a change of carriers.  Been there, done that, LAX is a big place.  As that will only get me there 45 minutes earlier, I take a pass.

Get to the airport at 1:30.  Again, being super conservative.  This time, things look good.  Board plane at 3:45.  Plane leaves at 4:15.  No, let me rephrase that, the plane pushes off at 4:15.  We were six in line to depart when all departures from the airport to any destination are shut down.  An hour and a half later, we are back at the gate.  No possibility of making my connection.  No possibility of making it to OSCON.  Damn.

Where there was only possibility left today, there are less now.  I'm imformed that because weather delays that the airlines will not be responsible for my hotel.  Yea, right... but that's not my focus at the moment.  The bigger problem is that the airlines don't know where the planes will end up tonight, so they can't predict which flights will be delayed due to stranded crews from the night before.

The only question left was where to spend the night.  By this point, some flights are leaving, but heading west still does not appear to be a viable option - all such flights are currently listed as having a 4 to 5 hour delay.  And one by one, they are being canceled.

It turns out that I am a 37 minute flight away from home.  The pilot, crew, and plane are in the air and scheduled to arrive ten minutes late.  This looks good, and effectively Raleigh isn't any further away from Portland.  So I accept this... and other than leaving and arriving 10 minutes late, it actually works.

After a good night's sleep, I get to start over.  To be quite honest, I'm not sure I have the will to do so.  Perhaps a cup of coffee will help.