Anchorage, for now

I just looked out the window at what I thought was a bird, then realized it was a leaf, falling from a tree, but fluttering at length. It really reminded me of the plastic bag dancing scene in American Beauty.

Back from a lovely wedding celebration in Maryland a couple of weekends ago, I'm off to Boston tomorrow. Then DC. Then Atlanta. Then back to Anchorage.

We got our first real snow night before last, and by real, I mean just an inch or two, but enough to stick to the ground. The mountains I look out the window at as I sit at the computer, in the Chugach range, are now pretty much covered with snow.

D.C., D.C., oh how you annoy me

I had an excellent time and J and C's wedding ceremony. It was truly beautiful, and had loads of great people, in a gorgeous setting. I was up until 1:45am looking at stars, and since I didn't want to interrupt people sleeping in the barn, just laid out in the passenger space of the ridiculous SUV I was given at Alamo. It was just about the comfiest sleeping I've ever done in a car, though.

Lots of good conversation and good people. I was the bartender for much of the night, and helped people imbibe with the extensive good booze to be had, including lots of outstanding merlot from Trader Joes, and a couple of organic wines. The potluck was excellent, too: lots of vegan goodies. It was designed as a way of contributing and sharing with our community, and it was wildly successful.

Had a great time this morning helping clean up, including moving straw bales on J's bike with the fantastic work trailer attached. At one point, we moved five bales with it, and it wasn't particularly difficult.

At DCA now, awaiting my first flight DCA-SEA, and then on to ANC with mom. See you in Seattle, mom!

At SeaTac, and why [some] Horizon ramp agents suck

After flying in last night and spending the night in a priceline hotel, I'm back at the airport to continue the journey to DC for the wedding of two friends. I ended up getting lucky with my flights: I was booked on AS 162, didn't get on standby on AS 96, got rolled over to AS 148, but then AS 96 went mechanical and they had to swap equipment, and AS 162 was delayed, so of the three ANC-SEA flights, I got lucky with Door #2.

The bus from SeaTac to downtown Seattle, #174, was damn near intolerable. Since the #194 "express" (a very relative term) doesn't run after about 9:15pm, I had to take #174, the milk run. In was a nasty slog, with about half the bus yammering loudly into their cell phones (many of them ramp/handlers for QX, i.e., Horizon Airlines) and then yammering excitedly to one another about what they'd just yammered about on their cell phones. One of the worst offenders moved to jam in next to me, in a sideways facing seat that is already somewhat cramped due to the metal poles, and remained there until he disembarked, despite there being at least half a dozen available seats immediately nearby.

Two of the QX ramp agents actively tried to cut in line getting on the bus (for no apparent reason, since the bus was not full, and there were only about a dozen of us unlucky enough to be standing there and waiting for it.) A moderate bit of stinkeye and asserting myself prevented both, at least from cutting me off, though they actively cut several other people.

Confidential to Horizon Airlines (and/or Menzies, if QX ramp work is also subcontracted to Menzies, as AS is): you might want to ask your employees to take off their company clothing before acting like complete asshats for 45 minutes in public.

In other news, I spent about 45 minutes at the Alaska MVP/First Class ticket counter with an extremely pleasant employee, while we sorted out my fouled up reservation. Because a multi-city itinerary (totally legal, and booked through alaskaair.com) included two ANC-SEA and SEA-ANC trips over a week, when I boarded the first of these legs the computer decided to 'use' both of my roundtrip sets of flight coupons. Like I said to the agent, if you can have one cookie, why not have two?

In the Board Room now, enjoying the free wifi, free Alaskan Amber, free chips, and awaiting the free veggie chili. Gotta fill up before the 5.5 hour SEA-DCA flight!

Travel

Lots of it coming up soon. Happily, a couple of complimentary MVP upgrades just cleared on Alaska. I had exit row seats, so I would have been reasonably comfortable leg-length-wise, but it's nice to also have the seat width and not have encroachment from my next-door-seatmates.

Speaking of chest thumping right wing Christian conservative no-bid defense contractors:

Specifically, of Blackwater USA, the mass murdering American defense contractor solely run by Erik Prince, a right wing Christian conservative wingnut with strong ties to the Bush administrationS:
"No doubt about it, if you shoot everyone around you, you reduce the risk that you will be shot."
-Daniel Schorr, NPR (10/01/2007)