Air Travel

This weekend I went to visit my sister for her baby shower. It was good to see her and spend time hanging out. But I have to say the travel down there, and back, left something to be desired.

Almost all of my recent travels had been on another airline. An airline that doesn't charge extra for checked bags, and doesn't charge for drinks once on board. Seeing both of those shocked and annoyed me. As if travelling these days isn't annoying enough.

Security for me has generally been pretty smooth, if at times a bit slow. But I know for a lot of people that is the first annoyance they encounter. But on this occasion, my frustrations started before security: at check in. It seemed the airline lost my seat reservations. So rather than getting an aisle seat near the front of the plane, I got a middle seat at the back of the plane. Oh, and the AC thing didn't work (but that's another story).

As I said, security wasn't a problem, so I'll skip to boarding the plane. Once boarding started a mass of people clustered around the boarding line while waiting for their zone to be called. Of course, this meant that the people who's zones had been called had difficulty getting to the line. Once on board there is a struggle to get your bag into the bins, because people disregard the carry on limits. They bring on enormous bags, or three or four normal bags.

The well-travelled know that carrying on all your luggage means you save time at your destination and lessen the chance of losing a bag. Unfortunately too many people know this and there is a dearth of space for all of everyone's stuff. It probably doesn't help when the airlines charge extra for checking bags. Wouldn't it make more sense to charge people for the additional carry on bag? Or actually enforce the carry on rule? On the last leg of my trip back, a number of people had to check bags because the overhead bins were full. Big surprise.

On the first leg of my trip back, I was a bit excited because I managed to get the aisle seat in the front row. Unfortunately right before the door closed the passenger who had the seat next to me got on. He looked, and worse yet smelled, like he hadn't bathed in a day or two. I'm glad it was a short flight.

On the last leg of my trip, the guy sitting next to me was an armrest hog. He had the aisle seat, so was uncontested for one armrest. But he took over the armrest shared between us, and kept jabbing me in the side with his elbow.

I'm really trying not to be one of the jerks who complain about what jerks other people are. But as is obvious by this blog, I'm not entirely succeeding. However, since my readership is so low, I figure this is more like writing therapy. I can pretend I'm actually venting to someone.

So, the next time you travel, consider whether you're exceeding the carry on limit, and if the five minutes you save is worth the frustration to yourself and the other passengers. When you go to put your seat back, take a look behind you and see if you're about to smash the knees of the man or woman behind you.

First Houseguest

I survived my first house guest. Although to use such strong terminology implies something about my house guest that I don't intend. Since the trepidation I felt had more to do with my lack of housekeeping than any stress actually caused my my guest.

My cousin Elizabeth came to Boston to attend an APA convention and she stayed with me for four nights. It is always good to see her, even though in many ways we are diametrically opposed, specifically politically and in terms of diet. But we do have similar tastes in movies and can enjoy a bowl of popcorn together.

In other news, I'm totally vegging out watching the Olympics. Although, I tend to prefer the events that don't make primetime. I've really gotten into watching handball, waterpolo, weight lifting, wrestling, etc. I also prefer indoor volleyball to the beach volleyball. Indoor just seems faster, crisper, and the athletes don't look like postergirls for skin cancer. Now I'm looking forward to the track and field events, mainly the field events.

Olympics

I've just starting watching the Olympics, and it's always amazing. Like many people, I've participated in some of the games, but definitely not on the level of these athletes. It's hard to say which I find more impressive, the events I'm familiar with, such as volleyball, rowing, badminton, or the events I'm not familiar with, such as saber.

There are definitely some events that I can't identify with at all, like equestrian. Am I watching something that is impressive, something so-so? Without the commentators I have no idea. Then there are the events where I know when they are doing something really hard, but if they are doing it really well or just okay, such as gymnastics and diving.

So far today, I've watched women's saber, women's 48kg weightlifting, men's 4x rowing, some volleyball, some badminton, women's air rifle. I'd say the most riveting so far was the weightlifting. They are really tiny women lifting a whole lot of weight.

Parking Lots

Do people get stupid when they enter a parking lot? Or are parking lots just where I am most often exposed to stupidity? Actually, that brings up a second issue which is the people who design parking lots. Why do they put the traffic lane next to the buildings so that everyone has to walk across traffic? Wouldn't it make more sense to put the traffic lane at the far side of the parking lot?

Anyway, when getting groceries today I was once again amazed at how thoughtless people get when in a parking lot. Walking aimlessly diagonally through traffic, walking parallel to traffic on the road. The drivers are no better, often stopping at random times, starting to turn into a parking lane and changing their mind, snarling traffic behind them.

Although parking lots aren't the only place people display such behavior. Outside the building where I work is a T-intersection. For those walking parallel to the terminating road, there is a walk/don't walk sign. If you are walking towards the terminating sign, if you have made it to the median you can proceed safely when the don't walk sign appears because the traffic to the right is stopped while the terminating road turns left behind you. Unfortunately people walking in the opposite direction, will often see the people walking towards them and assume it's safe. Not paying attention to the traffic behind them that is trying to turn left where they are walking obliviously.

I might jaywalk, but I don't jaywalk in a manner than inconveniences traffic that is travelling legally with the right of way. In return I expect traffic to yield to me when I'm in a pedestrian crosswalk and I have the right of way. For some reason the worst offenders of this are public buses.

Ants

I hate bugs. Ants are bugs. I think Michael J Fox said it best in the Secret to my Success, "Anything with more legs than me..."

So this weekend I discovered a trail of ants. They somehow discovered the soda that I accidentally spilled a week or more ago. Actually I didn't spill the Coke, it came from the manufacturer with a defect. Regardless of the blame, some Coca Cola was spilled and I didn't clean all of it. There was still some left clinging to the plastic bag and some that splattered further than I expected.

I have a trail of ants and a decisions to make. I pressed ahead and decided to exterminate the invaders. I went to the grocery store and bought the poison. This was the "ants take it home and poison their friends" kind of poison.

But that wasn't enough for me. I looked online and decided more decisive action was required. I cleaned the area where the ants were going. I cleaned all the areas I thought that ants might be interested in. Then I set out the bait traps for the ants.

That wasn't enough. I couldn't wait for the poison to take effect. So I looked online. I found that ants don't like spices, and a number of spices were suggested. Looking in my spice rack, I found one spice that was mentioned: Cinnamon. So I drew a circle on the ground around the ants POE (point of entry). I placed a group of traps within the circle, just in case.

It turns out the ants really don't like the smell of Cinnamon. They literally climbed the wall to avoid crossing the line of cinnamon. Thankfully, they actually seemed to like the poison, so only a few ants ventured up the wall.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one with any problems. A number of my fellow condo-mates complained to the condo management company and they sent in the pros. But, the pros didn't show up until this morning, and my anti-ant methods seemed to eliminate the ants before they even showed up.

So I will claim victory!

Long Commute

Today was the first warm day of the year, meaning it cracked eighty. But it was also rather muggy, which is the thing about Boston summers that really bother me. Well, I don't like the temperature either, but the humidity really is terrible.

Anyway, the humidity wasn't the only weather we had today, there was also the little matter of the thunder storm. It snuck up on me during a telecon and when the thunder came down it really startled me. Anyway, a minute or two after the big lightning strike, I started hearing sirens. So evidently the lightning found something that didn't agree with it.

I put all that out of my mind, and a couple hours later I was ready to go home. The subway platform was especially full, I'd even say unusually full, and that is never a good sign. As I made my way down the length of the platform, I was again worried about the number of people. I got to the far end of the platform and there was an annoucement about fire department presense at one of the stations which was causing delays.

I'd heard disabled trains causing delays, I'd heard about medical emergencies causing delays, but this was the first time I'd heard about a fire department delay. Anyway, a few minutes later a train did finally arrive, and it was even on my side of the tracks. The problem was it was a train going the wrong direction. I hope for the best and got on the train, but they announced that they were holding the train because of problems at one of the stations. They also said they would be sending buses to make up for the service gap.

So I decided to find an alternate way of getting home. But the only game plan I could come up with was walking about a mile to the #1 bus, taking it across the river, walking a bit further and taking another bus. I walked Mass Ave where the #1 bus is known to run, and waited. I waited a little longer, and eventually the bus did arrive. Two buses right in a row in fact. The problem was they first bus only let on four people, and the second bus didn't stop at all.

I decided just to walk across the bridge, since it was only another mile. Except it started raining again. Oh, and then halfway across the bridge another #1 bus went by. It looked pretty full, so I might not have gotten on it anyway. But the important thing, at least for the story, is I was wet, and the bus left me behind.

I stopped to have dinner between where the bus would have let me off and where I could pick up the other bus. By that time it had stopped raining, of course. But, I didn't really mind that much that it was raining. It was kind of nice, actually.

From there on my commute was quite straight-forward, not more glitches. Although coming home, still being rather damp, I realized all I wanted was a shower. It's kind of ironic really. I don't know if I needed to be fully wet so that I could then feel dry or what. Just one of those quirky things I suppose.

Weather moods

I've always been a bit different than the average person when it came to my feelings for weather. I much prefer cold weather to heat, and avoid getting too much sunshine. I burn easily, and am slightly photophobic as a optometrist once told me.

But I think one of the oddest things is that "foul" weather seems to put me in a good mood. I know I seem to sleep better when a front moves through. It might be that it is darker outside so the early sun doesn't intrude on my sleep, although it could also be the drop in pressure. Going outside in the wing and rain also seems to put me in a good mood.

I don't know... Maybe it's the challenge that appeals to me. Fighting the wind seems to invigorate me. There also seems to be more air and cleaner air. It is also cooler and there are less bugs. As for the rain, I appreciate the cleaner air more than I mind being slightly damp. Sure a lot of consecutive rainy days starts getting annoying, but it's really not so bad.