How 253 affects me (and other things)

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard about the Nigerian who tried to light an explosive during the descent of Delta Flight 253 into Detroit. I can't comprehend what drives a person to commit an act of mass destruction such as that. What I do know is this-- the actions of that one individual will seriously impact my life and many of those around me.

I like to spend as little time at the airport as possible. In the ideal world, I arrive at the airport and check my bag 45 minutes prior to departure, head right to security and then to the gate and get on the plane. I hate having to wait. I carry on lots of electronic gizmos. My laptop, cell phone, iPod, Kindle plus extra batteries, charges, headphones, etc to support them. The keyboard on my laptop suffered damage in June so the Y, H, M and 6 keys don't work. I was holding off replacing my laptop until the new ones came out (late January 2010) by traveling a full size USB keyboard with me. I ordered a replacement keyboard and will be installing this week when I get to Dallas. I don't want to have to spend any more time explaining things than I have to.

From what I heard form colleagues today -- security lines are longer than ever now, passengers had to be individually patted down, Passengers had to explain and turn on every electronic device they had with them. People who arrived a full 2 hours before their flights missed them today. I now fly out at 6:45am on Wednesday on a ticket that was purchased 2 hours ago. I'm trying to figure out what time I need to get to the airport now in order to make that flight. Typically I would have left my apartment at 5:15 and had plenty of time to spare. I'll let you know how that goes.

As for those I know in the airline industry -- I can't fathom what they're going through now. More and more pressure is being placed on flight crews to fill the holes that are left by TSA.

As for TSA -- Like security anywhere, it is just window dressing. It deters MOST sane people. If someone is really dead set to cause harm and willing to give their own life for it, the will succeed. Even though this person did not detonate their device, it has changed all of our lives forever. He won, much like the infamous 'shoe bomber' did.

Blast from the past...

If at anytime you doubt a vote for Obama, just watch this....

Dreams

A couple of weeks ago I had a weird dream. It was odd that I remembered it all. Typically I don't remember dreams, and this one was particularly vivid. In the dream, I was walking to the train station as I would be doing that day and saw someone drowning in the river. In my dream, I ran to the fence line, found a life saving ring and through it out towards the guy. I then put my bag down, took off my jacket, shoes and socks (weird, I know) and jumped in. I swam towards the victim, pushing the life saver to him, and then pulled him to the shore. By that time paramedics had arrived and as far as I know the guy survived.

That morning, I go about my day, and I walk past that area. What was weird was that it was exactly the same as it was in my dream. The Fireboat wasn't there (it usually is), the same boats were in the same position as they were in the dream. It was a little awkward but I went on thinking nothing of it.

Later on in the day, I get a text from one of the ex's I'm still friends with. She and I exchange messages often, so again, nothing unusual. She wasn't feeling well and thought she had the flu. Throughout the day, she continued to tell me through texts how bad she was feeling, etc. Through texts I was trying to get more information from her to try and help out. She figured it was food poisoning or the flu, but couldn't keep anything down, including water. She was throwing up every 30 minutes, almost as if on a schedule.

I was done working, and called her to see how she was doing. In talking to her, she sounded weird. Not weird as in sick, but just not there, as if something major was wrong. I started to go to her place to see if I could help. On my way, I started to use my Blackberry to do some research. An important piece I've left out so far is that she is a type 1 diabetic. She has been for 19 years and is well controlled. She switched to using an insulin pod over the summer and it has given her great freedoms. Searching diabetes and vomiting I found out about DKA- Diabetic Ketoacidosis.

DKA is caused when the body has little or no insulin to use. The blood glucose level keeps rising to dangerous levels. The body ends up building up acid in the blood as it is buring fat for energy now. I'm being over simplistic here, but DKA results in a dangerous cycle- the person isn't breaking down sugars, so they're feeling tired. The body tries to break down fats to sugars for energy, causing the glucose level to continue to rise, and then vomiting ensues, trying to keep numbers ok. Because of the vomiting a person becomes severely dehydrated. The person is feeling very lethargic, they have difficulties with thinking. This prevents the person from testing themselves. If a person were to test themselves, they'd realize that there was something wrong.

As I'm on my way over, I ask her to check her blood sugar. She's in the high 300's. In doing this quick research, I learned that when I diabetic person starts vomiting when their blood sugar is high, they should seek medical attention immediately. That started around 10am. It's now 8:30pm. We're 10 1/2 hours past that point. As I get there, I tell her all of this and tell her I'm taking her to the hospital. She looked awful, her eyes were almost recessed. She says lets wait for 30 minutes and I told her no, we're going now.

When we got to the ER, she was taken almost right away as this was recognized to be a serious medical situation. Long story short- the needle from her pod had back out of her skin and hadn't been delivering insulin for approximately 20 hours. Her blood sugar had been in the high 300's for over 20 hours. (Normal is 80-120). She was roughly 8 liters dehydrated. Her kidneys were with in hours of shutting down. She was only a few hours from going into a diabetic coma. She was so out of it, she didn't realize how bad she had gotten. She ended up in the hospital for 2 days and was released with a clean bill of health.

I don't know if there was any correlation between the dream and taking her to the hospital, but the doctor said she was in a life threatening condition when I brought her in. It was a very weird coincidence for sure.

Day 1 - Northern CA

After the disappointment of not having J coming on the trip (it was just 2 friends going on a trip together, but who knows where it might have lead), I drove up to the hotel, which was just a wee bit further than I thought it was. OK, it was a lot futher. It was close to 300 miles from SFO. It was a beautiful ride up Hwy 101, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and the road went on forever.


Finally around 10:15pm PT, nearly 22 hours after I left my apartment, I arrive at the hotel. This hotel was more like a trailer park. They had cabins, and I got a deliverance vibe as I pulled up. I found the place on the internet, and needless to say it didn't look nearly the same in person as it did on the website. Exhausted, I crawl into my cabin/trailer and go to sleep.

When I awoke, I went of exploring the town, and find that it's a small fishing community nestled in with the Redwoods.

I walked down to the water and found a beautiful little beach.
After an hour or so of walking around, I headed back to the trail, and off to the redwoods.

J Pulls a "Kevin" plus a bad start to Vacation

I guess that it was a long time coming. I finally got burned by someone doing what I do so many times. C always used to say when something didn't happen because of a lack of planning or an assumption of time off that it was a "Kevin". J and I had planned a getaway. It was planned for the time between the end of the MLB Regular Season and the start of the Championship series. Because of the one game playoff, she ended up having to work. She planned to the come out a day later. Not so bad. The planned trip was to fly to SFO, drive up to Redwood National Forest, stay at a lodge on the water for a few days, tour around the redwoods, drive down to Napa, hang out in wine country for a few days, then head to SFO and fly home.

Now to the bad. I fly predominantly on one airline for work. I take advantage of this when I go on vacation and use the miles that I earn to fly for free. That airline changed the type of aircraft 2 days before the flight, and I ended up bumped off that flight and accommodated on a partner airline of theirs, albeit with a connection. Not too bad, I'm still flying in First Class for free. I knew it couldn't be that easy.

I went to check in online and couldn't. This has happened before, so I'm not worried. I go to the ticket counter the morning of the flight and find that I'm not in First Class, but in 23C to Atlanta and 44B to SFO. I'm able to get to change my seat to 44C, so not nearly as bad. The next shock comes that I have to pay to check bags. When I fly my carrier of choice, I don't have to pay for the first 2 bags, up to 70lbs each. Now I'm paying $50 to check bags on what was supposed to be a free first class ticket. I question the Delta agent, but it's not her fault and there's nothing that she can do. She's just following the rules. I'll save that for when I get back.

I fly out to ATL and sleep through most of the flight. On our decent, I wake up and realize that I have Dish Network for free on this flight and think things are looking up. I deplane and head for my connection (40 minutes to change terminals at ATL) and didn't have time to pick up something to eat.

I get on the plane, and see once again, Dish Network in front of me. This Delta thing isn't so bad. Then come the announcements. There will be a meal, available for purchase. Then, since I'm in the last row of the aircraft, by the time they get to me, they don't have what I want. They ran out. I purchase my $3 mini pringles can and consider myself lucky for getting anything (and a free drink). The Flight Attendants come through again, and start at the front of the Cabin again, and once again, the person in row 43 bought the last of what I would have wanted. To myself I think maybe they should have started in the back of the cabin this time so we got first pick instead of running out AGAIN before getting to the last row.

I deplane in SFO, and hear that J thought that she was off from work, but didn't take vacation and now had to work during the week. She was very apologetic, and truth be told, I understood. I also now truly understood how so many others felt when I put them in the same situation. It just wasn't after they spent 10 hours flying.

A little to the left, a little to the right...

Let me preface this by saying I am truly an Independent. I typically identify as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I know what you're saying- Basically I want everything but don't want to pay for it.

Last Friday, I was driving out of town and searching the radio for a local traffic report. I ended up stuck on the Jay Severin radio show and was appalled at what I was hearing. I couldn't believe the hate this supposed patriot was spewing. He was taking facts and bits and pieces of news stories to make them support his points. He didn't bother to mention the rest of the story. He was blaming Democrats because some schoolteacher somewhere had their students sing a song about Obama. This is the only place that I heard about this, but I'm sure it's true. What he didn't say was that it was possible that it was ONE schoolteacher that did this. It's entirely possible that the teacher was actually a Republican who was trying to elicit this response from the right side.

I'm not giving the left wing extremists a break either. I think that they can be just as bad. They also spin facts into what ever suits their side.

My brother-in-law (a staunch right-winger) sent an email forward of Lou Dobbs criticizing an illegal immigrant amnesty bill last week. I was watching this video and realized something wasn't quite right with it. First, I hadn't heard anything about a new amnesty bill. Second, there was no mention of healthcare or Obama. Third, the graphics on the screen wasn't the current look CNN was using. The clincher for me was reading the ticker at the bottom of the screen and seeing that the national average for gas hit a new all time high for the 11th day in a row at $3.21. The video was actually from August of 2007, about the previous administrations proposed bill. My Brother in Law, like so many other Americans took what he was sent, and immediately sent it out as gospel, vilifying Obama and the Democrats saying can you believe they put all of this in their bill...

Please people, do your own research. Don't just accept what you hear or read is fact. Once again, we're all contributing to the dumbing down of America.

Breaking my coke habit.

Starting tonight, I'm facing my toughest challenge head on. I'm quiting coke cold turkey. I've done this for a month or so before, but this time it's for real.

It is with great sadness that I must announce that I will be severely limiting my intake of Coca-Cola. It has served me well over the years, keeping me awake. I do enjoy the taste, but it is no longer playing nice with my body. I am afraid that if I continue to consume massive amounts of this great beverage, I will bedome a diabetic. I've known this for a long time, but it is finally time for me to do something about it. If you have any stock holdings in the Coca-Cola corporation, you might want to sell first thing in the morning. I'm sure I'll be impacting their bottom line. My coke habit at times reached (2) 2Liter bottles a day.

The one saving grace for Coca-Cola is that I've never participated in the mycokerewards.com promotion. Can you imagine all of those points I'm missing out on?

Yes, I'm OK -- Why do people keep asking?

The inevitable happened. C got engaged recently. I knew that t would happen, and I am really truly happy for her. I wish her and her fiance nothing but the best. What I can't stand is the question that I get when I mention it to people.

Without fail, EVERYONE has asked "Are you OK with it?" The answer has been yes every time. Frankly it's rather annoying to have to answer that question. After the 10th or 15th time, I've wondered what people would say if I responded "No, I'm not OK with it. "

I think that C was pleased at my reaction to the news. She knows that when my friend K got engaged for the first time my response was "Congratulations, but it's not like you're going to marry him." It was one of those things I just felt in my gut that there was something wrong there. A year later, the engagement was off. I never once said "I told you so. "

Honestly, over the years have I wondered what if? Yes. I think that everyone has about a relationship in their life. After wondering though, I realize that everything is good the way it is.

I hope that everything happens the way she wants it to. Unfortunately, a wedding day can be one of the most stressful days of ones life. Everyone has their ideas with what they want your wedding to be like, and often they don't mesh. She's looking for simple. Her mom will want grandiose. After all, it is her only daughter getting married. Knowing what is more than likely coming, I'm advocating an elopement with a celebration back home afterwards. C always joked that she just wanted a pig roast in the backyard.

The last wedding I went to may have been the best out of the 24 I have been to. It was a simple beautiful service on the James River. There were 90-100 people there, and the reception was in the same spot. The bride looked beautiful, and everyone was having a good time.

C will be a beautiful bride. Her fiance is a lucky man. I wish them nothing but the best in the year leading up to the wedding, and the many many years to come.

Old Pictures

I'm going through old pictures now and made some realizations. First, I used to be thin. I look much better when I'm in between thin and where I am now. Second, everyone looks so young in all the pictures of the weddings I went to. I've never been to that point in my life where I know i've found the person I want to marry, but I wonder how all of these "children" could possibly know what they're getting into for the rest of their life.... It's interesting....

CNN and the Inauguration

Two quick items that are on my mind now-

First, CNN was rated third amongst networks for their Inauguration coverage. This means that more people watched CNN than CBS for Obama's swearing in ceremony. How sad for the Tiffany Network.

Second, I'm sitting in the airport watching CNN Headline News and they just had a commercial for a CNN branded Obama inauguration T-Shit. How can a news organization pretend to be objective, yet look to cash in on the celebrity of Obama? More on that later.

Hire this guy as Treasury Secretary.

These comments were made in 2006 and 2007. He was laughed at by his colleagues, but as history shows us, he really, truly understood what was going on.

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If I didn't know better, I would have sworn this was edited after the fact, but it really was not. He predicted everything almost right on the nose.

Bush-bashing was overboard...

I was talking to a conservative friend of mine last night and the topic of the inauguration came up. She is a very intelligent (most of the time) person, and recognizes that Barack Obama is the person who Americans elected and that he is the President of the United States. She then went on to say that she would support him just as much as Democrats supported Bush in the past eight years.

She commented that you probably won't see any "There's a village in Chicago that's looking for their Idiot" or any 1/21/2013 stickers on republican cars, saying that they are too classy for such a thing. I got to thinking about it and it wasn't a majority of Democrats that were doing that. I'd go as far as saying that it wasn't happening in the last 8 years. It was more in the last 2-3 years when some of the lies and coverups really came out. I definitely am not sad to see President Bush go, but he did win a majority of the electoral college twice, meaning he deserves the respect of the office.

I would hope that she, and the republicans at least start out by giving the current president the same level of respect that I always gave President Bush- I may not have voted for him, but he's my President. I started to write that I hope that they give him the same support that everyone gave President Bush after September 11th. I then rethought that. No one should have absolute power. I hope that the all parties listen carefully to what is said, and be a concientious objecter and have their points heard.

That is the way that a democracy is supposed to work -- that both sides have a chance to have their voices heard. I hope that President Obama and the democrats do not look for revenge, but rather do what they think, after listening to everything is the best for the country as a whole, and not what was the most politically friendly decision.

In the unlikely event of a water landing...

I can guarantee you that at 3:20 on 1/15/2009 the people no one on flight 1549 actually thought that there was a chance of a water landing. As a veteran of a 150+ flights a year for the past 10 years, I can honestly say the only time I have ever thought a water landing was possible was when flying overseas. That flight has actually changed me-- although in a very small manner. When I fly, I've always taken my shoes off when in the air. It's more comfortable for me. I have always been very mindful of leaving my shoes on until we're in the air, and then remove them. By in the air, I mean wheels up, but pretty much still over the airport property. Now I'll make sure that I leave them on until we reach 10,000 feet.

I join in everyone else in lauding the flight crew, ferry crews and first responders for doing their jobs. I would hope that would cause people to treat flight attendants with more respect showing that they are not there to serve drinks, but for safety. Unfortunately, on my first flight since then, nothing could be further from the truth. Peoples rudeness just amazes me. Now it's not everyone, and not even most people, but just one person is all that it takes.

You may have heard recent news stories that this same aircraft, flying the same route with the same flight number had engine issues just 2 days before. I have to imagine that this aircraft was thoroughly inspected and did fly for two more days before this happened. I can't imagine that anyone employed by an airline would let that go.

I have always appreciated everyone who work at the airlines that make my travel as uneventful as possible. In fact, when departing an aircraft, I always say thank you to the Flight Attendants or other crew members standing at the door to the aircraft, and I really do mean that. It's not just them that I'm thankful for -- Everyone from the flight crews who I see and have direct dealings with to the maintenance workers who I never see, but greatly rely on. This incident only goes to reinforce that appreciation.

To the crew of flight 1549, and everyone involved in air travel, thank you for doing your jobs as well as you do.