Limbo

#17
01.17.10

This photo of Q may seem unremarkable to anyone else; but for me it is
both poignant and wistful. Our trip from Alaska to Puerto Rico via
Seattle and Houston came to a screeching halt shortly after I posted
the 'brass fish in flooring' photo within the SEA-TAC terminal.

After boarding and the proper discussion on How To Behave As Your
Plane Burns In The Sky; we then had a 30 minute delay before we could
pull back from the gate, only to immediately break down. A series of
updates spaced at 30 minutes ensued for about 150 minutes, until we
were greeted with "This is the cockpit... Please gather your
belongings, exit the plane, and find alternate travel arrangements at
our pulpit in the concourse".

{Sigh}.

After about 8 hours of continuous standing in line for the single
(read: lone, solitary, only) agent Continental bothered to dedicate to
the cause, we had accomplished the task our fearless (crappy) pilot
had given us. We were switched to a different airline, even
(Hooray!). I frankly loathe Continental, and fly them as
infrequently as possible. I did not book this trip; a travel agent
did, and sadly my misgivings bore fruit.

So now we've been stranded at SEA-TAC for about 14 hours, and will fly
another red eye flight tonight to Dulles in DC before picking up an
8:30 am flight to San Juan.

Thus the title "Limbo". Purgatory, even. We're neither here nor
there, we're unrested, away from home, not at our destination, and
frankly we're a little bit cranky.

Q's pose at the window looking out at Alaska Air jets, one of them
painted light blue with Disneyland characters struck me in the ways I
have described above. I might add that for the 8 (eight, 10-2, 5+3)
hours we stood in line to get re-routed, we saw literally dozens of
our trusted and beloved Alaska Air flights come and go.

Things are looking up though, now that we're on United and they're
bending over backwards to make us feel better (i.e. They bother to
book flights on planes known to be in good repair), so we're thinking
another sleepless night can be tolerated, and then 7 days of sleeping
under the tropical sun.

Until tomorrow... Thank you for listening (to me whine), looking and
reading. CCE