Thursday October 13 The Flight from Hell

I left my hotel for the hour long flight to Portland Maine at 11:00 planning to do a TV interview at 3:30. On the way there I discovered my flight on US air was delayed so I rebooked on a Delta flight that would get me there by two thirty in good time for my interview. Having changed my flights, I was subject to the indignity of the ultimate maxim search which unnerved me so much I left my computer at the security check. Not a great idea. I got it back an hour later and decided no matter what happened from now on in, it was trivial compared to loosing my computer.

It was good I decided that. The Delta flight got delayed a couple times, but suddenly they rushed us all on a bus to the plane, stopped the bus, where we sat for an awful half hour with the motor running and told us the flight was cancelled.

Our only choice was a flight to Boston, followed by a bus to Portland. After an hour wait I recovered my luggage, took a long bus ride to the marine terminal to get the shuttle. Arrived in the pouring rain and had to carry my bags a very long way. Waited an hour for the shuttle, asked and learned the other passengers had already gone to Boston and taken the bus and they’d forgotten about the bus for us. Was selected again for the killer security check

I had a very rough flight to Boston, to discover my bags were still in NY. The bus came late and told us the vouchers Delta gave us were no good because Delta was in Bankruptcy. My hour flight stretched into a ten hour epic.

I’m writing this on a Trailways bus speeding from Boston to Portland and my spirits are not too bad. I just got a call they have my bag in Boston and was able to persuade them to deliver them by truck rather than on the flight via Cincinnati which was what they suggested. Annalise gave me an IPod with my favorite music on it and I must say at times like this, the IPod is a life saver.

I recently read that Bhutan looks at the net happiness of their people rather than the gross national production as a measure of the success of their country. The Ipod definitely increases the net happiness index even thouth the forecast for the book launch climb of Mt Washington is rain.

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