Home again

Today was a travel day, the kind of travel day that grabs you by the throat and says, "Welcome to the packing plant, Meat!"

The best part of the day was not having to get up insanely early. I time-shift to new time zones pretty much instantly, so for me the wake-up call came too early, but at least I had almost seven hours of rack time. Sweet.

The San Francisco Airport Authority some years ago decided that returning rental cars was entirely too easy. Millions of dollars later, the process is now sufficiently complicated that if you miss one sign, you can end up in Reno--where they'll charge you an extra fee for the car return.

After overcoming this challenge, we rode the airport train the many stops to our terminal, waited to check in, waited for security, waited for what proved to be a passable lunch at a taqueria, and waited to get into the Admiral's Club. Sense a theme?

Our flight to DFW was late due to weather. When it arrived, it was a classic case of spam in a can--and we were the spam. The large, obnoxious man in front of me leaned back so far I had to work by holding my laptop open in a V in my lap and reaching inside it, but I did finish some work.

We pulled up to the gate at DFW a luxurious 30 minutes before our flight to RDU was to take off. Much speed-walking through the terminals and AirTrain riding later, we made it to our next flight--where we were again the spam.

To my pleasure and amazement, we landed on time, our luggage arrived, and I've finished my writing for the day.

Circumstances conspired to stop me from working, but they failed. Life's small victories are victories nonetheless. I hope your day included a few.