Rök on

My drive home from Philadelphia today was not bad. It's a long one, but I was listening to an interesting presentation on the Vikings by The Teaching Company. Pretty interesting stuff. I kind of thought they were just sort of primative barbarians who pillaged for a few hundred years and then started making Volvos. The real story is a bit more complex and interesting. I didn't finish the whole course on the drive, but my curiosity is piqued.

An interesting tidbit - men who died in battle and women who died in childbirth were thought to be treated as heros in the afterlife. If you died a peaceful death in old age, you were condemned to a less than pleasant afterlife.

Bad call

After my travel experience the other week and envisioning a similar outcome, I made the call to avoid the huge ice storm predicted on Friday and return from Indianapolis on Saturday morning instead. Turns out, the weather was not so bad and my flights today were basically on time (or at least within the one hour window that Delta considers on time). I can't win at this travel game.

I'll probably drive

I was recently looking into booking a business trip to Philadelphia. USAirways has the only direct flights from Roanoke, so I was looking at their prices for that trip. A round trip to Philadelphia with seven days of lead time would cost $740. If I were to fly the same schedule on the same airline to London, it would cost me $372. I know stupid airline pricing isn't exactly news, but that is absolutely insane.

Troglodytes

UPDATE: Even Indiana has a bar and restuarant smoking ban. It was quite a nice experience to have a beer without smoke wafting about.

I can't believe the Virginia legislature can't even get a bill to ban smoking in restaurants out of committee. I remember a few years back when they first instituted this ban in NYC thinking that it was a bit over the top, but the results were great. Now that this kind of thing has been in place for 5 years or more, it is time for Virginia to step up and restrict it by law. How can our legislature be so out of step with the times?

Coincidence?

I just noticed that the Staron color my wife picked for our planned kitchen counter upgrade matches the solid surface counters at Starbucks. If she was sure of anything in the kitchen showroom we were in, it was the counter top color.

No heat, light, Internet or coffee

Roanoke had a pretty significant windstorm yesterday and last night. I didn't realize how signficant until I read the news report this morning. Since we are one of the 80,000 without power and I work at home, I had to find an alternate worksite. Somewhere with heat, light, an Internet connection and, most importantly, coffee.

Those criteria match a few places, but Starbucks is the closest. Since my company subscribes to T-Mobile Total Internet, I figured I would use my account to access the hot spot there and be able to work in a super-caffineated haze for the day. But, my account wouldn't work. I tried a couple of times and then called tech support. It turns out that we migrated all of our corporate accounts to one account on Friday and T-Mobile had to reset our connections. It takes up to 48 hours to become active again (which answered the question I had last night about why my T-Mobile Connection Card would not connect in the dark and cold house last night).

At this point, I ponied up the $9.99 for a day pass and got to work. Now if only I could stop shaking.

Soft reset

My T-Mobile Dash went completely insane yesterday. As part of the fun of the past week, it started to randomly call people (?!?) and forget my contacts list. I'd go to call someone and hit the first letter of their name and nothing. Since I don't actually know anyone's real phone number just how to select them from a list, that is a problem.

The final straw occurred yesterday on the flight home during my stopover in Atlanta. I hit the power button to turn it on after we landed (I actually think this is now a Pavlovian response - if I am in an airplane that has just landed, I must turn something on) and it just cycled through the T-Mobile startup screen over and over again.

Since I now realized something was seriously amiss, I pulled out anything that can be removed (battery, SIM, microSD card), replaced them and restarted it. That was enough to start it back up. I made a phone call and noticed that my battery was just about dead, just in time for my Roanoke bound flight. Since I was headed home (late, but within the 2 hour window that Delta seems to consider part of the schedule), I fought the urge to restart it on landing in Roanoke (I did notice some drooling) and just plugged it in for the night once I got home.

This morning, after a full charge, I tried to start it up again and it started the doom loop again. Time to hit the internet. After some searching, it seems that a soft reset was needed. Of course, this would clear a year of installed applications (among them Kevtris, Viigo, Nine Hole Golf), bookmarks and customization. I somberly played taps and then held down the fateful two buttons that reset a year's worth of phone use.

The good news is that my phone seems happier now with the painful memories of the past erased. And the circle of life starts again...

Peoria or Bust

A strange week, this one. My mission was a visit to a customer I've been working with in Peoria, IL. It all started at 5 AM ET on Monday morning with a trip to the airport. Since it had been raining and Goldie (my 1999 Subaru Legacy with no antenna and a nice new vanilla tree) has developed a slight leak in the sun roof right over the driver seat, my butt was a little damp on arrival at the airport. Not a great start, but if that is the worst that happens, I'm in good shape. It wasn't.

The TSA line at ROA was a bit worse than usual for a Monday morning and people were testy. They had to bring out the cops to kick some people who had been cutting in to the back. Not a pleasant way to start the week.

The flight to Atlanta was uneventful and I slept the whole way (after staying up a bit too late the night before to watch the Super Bowl and clean up afterwards). At Atlanta, the real fun began. My flight to Peoria was delayed due to fog at the airport there and so we waited around for 30 minutes or so before they started boarding the plane. A 30 minute delay out of Atlanta on a Monday is like hitting the jackpot, so I was feeling pretty good. They get us on the plane and everyone is settling in for the flight. Just before they close the door, the pilot comes on to say that conditions in Peoria haven't improved so they are going to take us off the plane and update the status in an hour.

A hour goes by and we reboard the plane. This time we push back and get in the air in a remarkably short time considering it is Atlanta on a Monday morning. So, I put on the headphones, neck pillow and eye shade and go to sleep anticipating a good hour nap. About 40 minutes in, I hear the captain come on the intercom. Since this is an ususual time in a flight to be annoucing anything, I pull the headphones off and see what he has to say: we can't land in Peoria so we are turning around to go back to Atlanta. At this point, I'm imagining some kind of monster fog that has actually eaten the city. With that in mind (and after my fog landing experience a few weeks back), I'm pretty glad we are turning around. I go back to sleep convinced that I'm not going to be making it to Peoria at all.

When we get back to Atlanta, I call Delta (only suckers wait in the customer service line at the airport) and try to see what my options are. If I return home, they can't refund all of my ticket since I used part of it (this doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but arguing with the CSR isn't worth it - if I had been stuck in Roanoke, they would have probably refunded me. If you don't get me 100% to the place I want to go, why can't you give me 100% of my money back?) She suggests Chicago, a three hour drive from Peoria. One look at the delays and cancellations on the board in Atlanta shows that this is probably not a good move. However, St. Louis, which also about a three hour drive away from Peoria looks clear and there is a flight boarding right now that she can get me on. Of course, it is on the A concourse and I'm in E, so I have to hustle down there to be the very last person on board.

I get seat 31A on the MD88. That seat might be considered a good option for interrogating Al Qaeda suspects if waterboarding is determined to be illegal. It is slightly narrower than the typical seat and is against the rear bulkhead so you have all the advantages of being both compressed (you can't recline and are wedged against the window) and subjected to extreme levels of engine noise. A couple of back to back cross country round trips in 31A with a 350 pounder adjacent and a 5 year old fully reclining his seat and bouncing in front and you would crack the hardest terrorist.

What I can't complain about is the weather in St. Louis - it is 75 degrees and sunny. I had to take off my coat when I was outside to stop sweating as I waited for the the rental car shuttle. I got a Mazda 3 from Florida that felt like someone had been spinning cotton candy in it. Every surface I touched was sticky. Since it was now almost 4 PM and I wanted to drive as much as I could before nightfall, I decided to not try my luck getting a different vehicle and donned my surgical gloves and haz-mat suit that I carry in my travel bag for just such an occasion. I'm trying to block out any consideration of what exactly was making the car sticky - I just don't want to know.

The first half of the drive up to Peoria was your typical experience driving in the Midwest - straining every last neuron in your brain to stay awake from the intense boredom of driving straight at the same speed for hours. The second half of the drive was out of a Stephen King novel.

A little south of Springfield, IL, I noticed some cloudiness ahead. No big deal until I got close and saw it was a bank of solid fog - I really thought the little car might bounce right off of it. Once inside, you could see maybe 50 yards ahead of the car in the waining daylight. When the sun went down, you could see maybe 30 yards and I had this strange sensation of going downhill. It is hard to say why, but it really felt like you were travelling downhill through a tunnel of fog. This went on for an hour or so until it got worse.

I noticed some faint flashing off to the left and thought it must be a radio tower or something. Except it kept going and got much brighter. Lightining. Then the rain and hail came. So, now I can see pretty much nothing in the combination of dense fog, lighting, hail and rain. My cell phone battery has died, so if I vanish off the road into a ditch, they will discover me a week later. I have no real idea where I'm going and I'm still sticking to the seat. I thought the earth was going to open up and swallow me at this point.

Somehow, I make it to Peoria without a firey wreck and start recognizing some street names. I know University street so I take that exit and start looking for landmarks. I get lucky and remember the location of a McDonald's and a Starbucks (I love America!) and find the hotel after only three passes and make it to my room by 8 PM CT.

The trouble on the return trip pales in comparison, so I'm not even going to mention it. I really hope I've worked out all of my bad travel karma for the year.

Not Nostradamus

I'm not Nostradamus. Although I picked the Giants to win the Superbowl (and I have the Tradesports transactions to prove it), I thought they were doomed when they kicked a figgie in the first drive instead of going for the touchdown. My friends watching the game with me gave me a hard time about that call, but I really do believe most NFL teams are way too conservative when it comes to kicking inside the opponents 20 yard line. I should crunch the numbers to find out.

The game was very exciting to watch and wasn't over until the very last minute. Excellent game. However, even though Eli Manning played very well, he didn't deserve the MVP. The defensive line of the Giants deserved that honor because they were the ones who kept the Pats offense in check. Why do the quarterbacks always get the MVP?

The Hog Says 6 More Weeks

Here are some FAQs about Groundhog day from Groundhog.org:

• Yes! Punxsutawney Phil is the only true weather forecasting groundhog. The others are just impostors.
  
• How often is Phil's prediction correct? 100% of the time, of course!
  
• How many "Phils" have there been over the years? There has only been one Punxsutawney Phil. He has been making predictions for over 120 years!
  
• Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking the "elixir of life," a secret recipe. Phil takes one sip every summer at the Groundhog Picnic and it magically gives him seven more years of life.
  
• On February 2, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler's Knob - in front of thousands of followers from all over the world - to predict the weather for the rest of winter.
  According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.
  
• No! Phil's forecasts are not made in advance by the Inner Circle. After Phil emerges from his burrow on February 2, he speaks to the Groundhog Club president in "Groundhogese"(a language only understood by the current president of the Inner Circle). His proclamation is then translated for the world.
  
• The celebration of Groundhog Day began with Pennsylvania's earliest settlers. They brought with them the legend of Candlemas Day, which states, "For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May..."
  
• Punxsutawney held its first Groundhog Day in the 1800s. The first official trek to Gobbler's Knob was made on February 2, 1887.
  
• So the story goes, Punxsutawney Phil was named after King Phillip. Prior to being called Phil, he was called Br'er Groundhog.

All of that sounds a bit more belivable than Scientology. Happy Groundhog Day!

Rode to Nowhere

My wife convinced me to try an indoor cycling class today at lunch. This was the first time I've ever done any kind of organized excercise class except Yoga. I've never felt the need to take a class. I don't have a problem with motivation. I just imagine what mile 23 of my upcoming marathon is going to feel like if I don't train hard and that keeps me going.

But, it was fun and having an instructor and group of people there keeps the pace up. I'd do it again. We will have to see how much it impacts my 12 miler tomorrow. It is supposed to be in the mid 50s, so it will be outside (no bowling!)

(N)ice storm

Not my favorite kind of day outside today - middle 30s and raining. I'm pretty sure it is no ones kind of favorite day. Except maybe the kids that get out of school. Ours weren't so lucky - only a two hour delay in the city today.