Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Well, we were up and out a little
earlier than planned. Clay was awake about 4:30am and said he saw a spark shoot
out of the thermostat and then realized my bathroom nightlight had gone out. He said, very loudly, Debbie Wake Up! The power's out! We
eventually learned the power was out in the entire hotel and part of the
airport. The story was that a car wreck had knocked out a utility pole. When I
finally got someone to answer the phone, which thankfully was still working,
she said they were hoping to restore power within an hour but waiting for someone from the city to arrive about putting the pole back up. Well, that wasn’t
going to help us, so using phones and tablets as lights we went about trying to
get dressed so we could open the door and get some of the emergency lighting
from the hall. We got some streetlight from outside by opening the drapes. It
was still dark as a tomb especially in the bathroom and you know we had stuff
spread around everywhere to get ready to use it quickly this morning. Another thing that I always pack, seldom use and didn't pack this time but really could have used was flashlights. Clay had
showered last night, but I didn’t get one, so I left with dirty bed hair for
the long trip home. We walked down the 11 flights of stairs and came out to
find the airport shuttle parked right there and loading. Clay turned in our
keycards and we boarded and left.
The Southwest terminal was without power and closed as we passed it and
it had a very long line outside in the cold night. The next 3 terminals had
power and were open, including ours. Good news! We checked our bags and headed
for security. We had been happy yesterday to find that we were both TSA
pre-checked but it didn’t mean much this morning at LAX. The TSA people were
too busy chatting in clusters amongst themselves to be bothered to get people
sorted into the proper lines and we wound up standing in 3 different lines
before finally making it to the TSA pre-check line, which had lots of people in
it who were not pre-checked and so the whole thing was moot. Not nice.
Once we got inside to the gate area, there was only one
restaurant open for breakfast. We think it may have been because people
couldn’t get to work on time because of the wreck-caused power outage, but who
knows. We did get breakfast and then spent about a half hour waiting at the
gate for the plane to arrive empty. Mercifully, this was not a full flight. We
had an empty seat in our 3 seat area and so could spread out a little. I had a
little girl behind me though that just pounded and kicked on the backs of our
seats. I did ask nicely that she not and her mother apologized but what are you
going to do. The woman sitting on the row with them got up and moved into the
empty bulkhead row in front of us and after the mother and child got spread out,
it got a little better. The other good news was that it was only about a 4 hour
flight home, vs. the 6 hour flight over. We actually got home a little early.
The luggage came right out. The rain had stopped so we had a dry walk home after
a quick bus ride to Moore Square Station for $2. Everything was good at home.
Clay found his repaired blood pressure monitor on the front porch and it was
working. So, more good news.
Clay said he was exhausted and so glad he didn’t have any more trips planned
this year. We leave for Florida in 8 days! He said he didn’t consider that a
trip, but a relaxation. He is wishing for a warm season in Florida this year. It was 18 degrees F
this morning. Of course he is still planning to go to NYC, Philadelphia and
Washington, DC during the first 2.5 weeks of January to see the Vermeers,
weather permitting. But, I guess that counts as next year.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
