Man, I am not good at this journaling thing- who has the time?!?!?!
I went back to MA last month – the weekend of Halloween (see previous “friends” post).
Decided to take the earlier flight – didn’t want to land in RI at 12:15 am. It was supposed to take off at 5:15 and land at 8:30.
It didn’t.
Around 5 pm, the captain came over the speakers.
“Well folks, there is a slight problem. My chair is broken and I cannot move it up to the controls. It shouldn’t delay us much. I call maintenance, and they will arrive shortly to fix it. So I am thinking that we will be delayed about twenty minutes or so.”
OK – I have plenty of reading to do for class with me, so I might as well start on that.
I read.
Captain again, “OK folks, maintenance has tried to fix my chair, but the lynch pin is broken. They are going to have to replace it. It won’t take more than an hour. They will need to get a new chair from the hanger across the runway. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.”
Well, taking the earlier flight does not seem to be working out as planned.
So maintenance gets the new chair from the hanger, installs it, and the captain comes back on over the speaker.
“OK folks, we are sorry for the delay. We are ready to head to providence. We are headed to the runway now.”
Cool. It won’t be too late.
So we taxi for about 15 minutes on the runway (O’Hare is a very busy airport), and it was our turn!
The plane speeds up….faster….faster…we have a bit of lift (maybe a foot – tops), and then we slow down….slower…slower…back to taxiing. OK – what’s going on. I am thinking we have a practical joker for a pilot. Nope.
“Well folks, as we were about to take off, an indicator light came on letting us know the door wasn’t sealed. We can’t take off like this because I will be unable to pressurize the cabin. We have to go back to the gate to have maintenance look at it.”
This is not my day. Why am I going home? Ohhh….water…
So after about another ten minutes or so, se arrive back at the gate. Maintenance looks at, and it can be fixed quickly.
“Okay folks. Thank you for your patience. I have good news and bad. Maintenance said they can fix it pretty quickly, but our flight crew is approaching the maximum number of hours they are allowed to work per federal regulations. So we have called in to scheduling and they are calling in a new crew. We cannot guarantee how long it will take them to get here. I’ll keep you updated.”
This is really not my day. I start chatting with the guy on the side of me. I felt bad for him. He was sick, and way to tall to get any head support in his seat. It turns out we both did not go to class that afternoon to catch the earlier flight (he goes to a different college). What a waste. Well, I am here, and have already made plans for the weekend. Plus I want to see my parents – mom made me birthday cake. I cannot NOT show up. So I waited.
By the time everything was all set and we were landing in Providence, it was 12:15 a.m. I didn’t have dinner because I thought I would grab something to eat after I landed. What was I thinking??!?!?! By the time I landed, nothing was open! Oh well. To sleep I went. At least I got home in one piece!
Friday morning I was settled in. Went to my parents’ house, borrowed the car, and up to Bridgewater State College I went to pick up the ‘bounded thesis’ – they couldn’t mail it to me because they did not have padded envelopes. OK then…
Back to my parents’ for a little yard work and fall clean-up. After all, it had been raining for weeks, and this looked like the only dry day that I was going to be there to get the stuff done.
Mowed.
Cut back the tree.
Put away the lawn furniture.
It looks good!
That night was fun. I got to go out to dinner with Kara and Shannon – I miss those guys! I know that Shannon knocked ‘em dead with her comp exams…you go girl!!!!
Saturday my mom cooked dinner and baked me my birthday cake. It was a bit early, but I wasn’t going to be around for it, so we celebrated! It is nice hanging out with them. They are pretty cool.
Sunday morning, back to the airport. This time the trip was on time…even landed in Chicago a bit early. Home I went to go work on a paper…back to the grind.
Georgette's musings 