January 2004 Archives

no, I haven't forgotten how to type or anything, I've just been having way too much fun to bother to sit down and type. so yeah, still alive and all that, just building up stories to tell.

off to, well some place, I don't really know, but it'll be good.

And yes, I am on very little sleep.

Final status of the flights from yesterday. My flight arrived in Detroit at 10:02 pm. My outbound flight to paris was delayed until... 9:59 pm. So I would have arrived 3 minutes too late. Glad I stayed here.

However, checking the current status on my flight scheduled to leave (again) at 12:35 today for detroit it's already delayed 15 minutes. I've got an hour and a half window for my arrival in detroit and transfer to my outbound flight, it's just shrunk by 1/6th.

Apparently this trip is meant to be an adventure, a "getting there is half the fun" lesson or something. Ah well, it least it makes for different weblog fodder :)

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking, if you look out the right side of the aircraft you'll see mount raineer.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain again, unfortunately we've had a hydrolic failure and need to turn around and head back to seattle, we should be on the ground within a half hour.

Ladies and gentlemen, the "maintanance crew" (see image at right) are onboard now to diagnose the problem, it should be minor and we should be back under way in 10-15 minutes.

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears the repairs will take a few hours, we've begun arranging hotel rooms for those of you who will miss your connecting flights...

It's at this point that I start to heed the word of the girl sitting in the seat next to me. She's been on the phone with her father in detroit who says that "snow and ice storms" are forecast for the next day or so for the detroit/chicaco/whole eastern side of the nation area. I elect to spend the night here and see how things develop rather than stay in chicago.

My luggage, however, will be enjoying the auto capitals attractions tonight since they were unable to remove it from the plane.

Ahh, to be in Paris and freaking cold! It having finally dawned on me that I leave tomorrow at noon, I just checked the weather for paris for the coming week - it'll be snowing the day I arrive and should peak to a high of 40 whole degrees while I'm there. I don't mind the cold, but it poses an interesting packing problem for me. I've never (besides ski/snowboard trips) travelled anywhere colder than seattle. Even if the place is capable of being cold, I always travel when it's really warm. As such my packing usually includes one pair of shorts, a pair of pants that can be zipped into shorts, the occasional pair of jeans that never get worn and a whole mess of T-shirts. That's obviously not going to cut it in the cold and I'm not really sure how to pack light with heavy clothes. Layers I suppose, we'll see.

Today consists of laundry and packing, then running to a few stores for the things I've invariably forgotton (I already can't find my travel towel, and douglas adams would be loathe to see me on the road without a towel). After that it's twiddling my thumbs and reading through books to see what it is exactly I want to do for my 7 days. There are the obvious attractions, but the only slightly less obvious destiantions that people have been able to suggest to me are:

• The Museum d'Orsay - that won't be spelled at all correct, but it's supposed to be fantastic.
• Rodin's museam - I want to see this just so I can finally see Caryatid Fallen Under How Stone in person. See "stranger in a strange land" for why.
• A strip show - and this is because, I quote, "French boobies are really nice".

And that's it. Two museums and a peeler bar. Well I guess it makes for a well rounded experience :)

Then I'm home, have a few days to recover from jet lag and I'm back to work again. I don't know what it is, but this 100 days has flown by so much quicker than I remember the previous two. Odd spacing of activities I suppose.

Send me an email (duffman still works) or leave a comment if you want a postcard. I can't remember anyone's address so that's the only way you'll get one. And don't worry, paris shouldn't afford me as many opportunities to send cards with a dozen shots of statue genetalia on them as rome did... well probably not :)

A new definition of irony.

Any extremely overweight woman looks down at my dog and says, "well you're kind of chubby", then turns to her companion and says, "Isn't that dog fat!?".

For the record, my dog weighs 59 pounds, she's supposed to weigh about 55 - see the picture. This woman weighed easily 350 pounds and didn't carry that weight very well.

Pot, kettle, I'd like you two to meet.

Add to the injury toll one sprained ankle - and the rib is officially cracked. Advice to avoid sprained ankles while snowboarding; do not attempt to land a jump on the nose of your snowboard sending the rest of your body crashing forward another foot and a half, subsiquently wrenching your ankle. Just a helpful pointer.

Getting back down to get that diagnosis was probably the least efficient day of my life. Martin and I had planned on leaving at around 8:30. Starting our cars up in the -18 degree weather was kind of sporting, it was so cold the computers in both of our vehicles misbehaved. Martin's LCD displays went a little screwy and my doors decided to lock of their own accord. Car running, we call the tow company to come jimmy my locks. 40 minutes later they call to say they finally got their tow truck running and will be up the mountain shortly (you know it's a cold day when the emergency vehicles won't work). 20 minutes later the guy arrives, exuding a less than competent air. After trying every jimmy in his tool kit he decides to start combining tools in an effort to unlock my car. 3 implements later the door is unlocked and open, unfortunately only two of said implements can be removed from my car. So yes, two hours late, I begin the 7 hour drive home with a hunk of formed metal bar protruding from my drivers side door, unable to roll the window down more than a few inches - this proved fun at the toll booths and border crossings. An hour at the border - that's including ducking in the duty free shop to avoid the longer line - another hour in bellingham because of the snow and I'm home. It was a long drive.

I did finally get the slim-jim out of the door, had to remove the interior panels to do it though.

Given the immense pleasure I obviously derive from snow boarding, I can't help but remember when my boss - after explaining how I had bruised my sternum last year - asked whether it wouldn't be less expensive and time consuming if he were to just whack me in the kneecaps a few times with a hammer. Probably.