First Class back to Albany

As I said, The last time I heard from Delta, my seat assignment was 1C and 1A. I made it past security and was soon gazing on the horde of CRJ's that constitutes Delta's hub operation: Did United break your guitar, Son? Never worry, the gift shop will sell you a new one:
A plane from the "real" Delta: a MD-88:
and a CRJ 900 from Pinnacle:

Plus the usual Fedex traffic:
And yes, I did have 1C:
After much pampering, (as in real glass, would like another refill? Let me take your coat, and have some more candy),
 we arrived in MSP with much snow: No Recital today: More snoopy: and I did have seat 1a: We took off about a half hour late. I was going to take a picture of the full meal that they served me, but I dropped my camera. Thankfully, I filched this from another trip report on Airliners.net:

Pretty much identical to mine. We got to Albany about 11, and it was shortly before midnight before I left the economy parking (had to shovel out the car). Not bad. Granted I would have liked to made it home on my original day, but this was a nice way to make up for it.

Once in 137 years

The trip was normal until Christmas evening. It started to snow, which was the first time it had snowed in Memphis on Christmas ever since records had been kept. It was still going Wednesday morning:

Mother had bought a top at the TJMaxx at summer center without trying it on, so we exchanged it:
And then shortly before lunch, Delta gave me a robocall: The flight from Atlanta to Albany had been cancelled, and they had rebooked me through Detroit leaving two hours later. Not much to worry about, so we went down and had lunch:

and then I got another Robocall: The flight from Detroit to Albany had been cancelled as well, and I was now booked to go back tomorrow via MSP. In seats 1C and 1a, as in First Class. A nice little present. The only hitch was the rental car company made me go back to the airport to extend the rental since I had booked it through hotwire. When I got back I took a little walk through Overton Park:

This is the entrace to the Levitt Shell. It does like a guitar from this angle:

Chirstmas trip to Memphis

I woke up on Saturday with a sore throat verging on Laryngitis and a 6:20 flight. I had the flu a couple of day last week, and almost canceled the flight. I made through the airport screen line in about an hour and got on The Embraer 175, but not before getting my carry on gate checked (Normally not a problem with a 175, but I figured OK, I'll get it back at the gate. For the drink service, I Ordered a hot tea. it took a while, as the cart didn't have hot water, and it had to come from first class:
Of course, my seatmate was a Chatty Cathy. just what I needed. The View was pretty much like this all the way:
coming over Lake Michigan:
Coming in over Minneapolis: And then when I got off at MSP, my Bag was no where to be found! we were at the 'D' gates , and they had no provision for gate check bags. would I like to check it all the through? I polite declined and headed for the baggage claim office outside security, and then spent another hour and half in a security line. I was going to roam around, but knew I needed to find my plane to Memphis. I did find this fellow: and got some more tea from Caribou: before finding my A319 to Memphis: A Big Boy giving Santa a helping hand: Quincy, IL: Missouri River: Yep, that looks like Memphis: and then things got interesting. Like when the rental car place gave me the keys to a Hyundai Genesis (a $40,000 car) instead of a Chrysler 200. But that's another story:

So, Tom Jefferson picked up his AR-15....

Well, it's 33 degrees out, so it'sa a little too cold to do much biking. I was thinking about the shooting yesterday in Newtown and the 2nd amendment. You know, the one that says we have to arm the loonies. And if read this here blog long, you know that I've done some fiction set in the time period that the US Consitition was written. So I got to wondering, how did they deal with these folks? Well, for starters, most folks were home schooled, and formal schools were likely to smaller affairs. Of course they were no movie theathers or shopping malls. And a gun was probably more available. So why weren't they news? Well, If you asked Tom Jefferson to get you a gun, he probably would have come back with something like this:

Rather than this:

You may have noticed a slight differnce there. It's little bit harder to tote around a 7 foot long Kentucky rifle. And them you get into the logistics of reloading a muzzleloader (which all firearms were at the time), the shootees would have an advantage. But we can't tap our ruby slippers and go back in time, so what do we do? Some would say ban all guns, and to heck with the second amendment. I really don't see that happening. And these folks have gotten ahold of thier arsenals after passing background checks, so that didn't work out. Considerig that all the shooters appear to be suffereing from Mental Issues, may be need to take a different apporoach, and have them sumbit paperwork saying that they are of sound mind. That, I think would set a high enough barrier to hopefuly limit thier access. Ok, enough preaching today

Mallwalking

Well, the weather hasn't cooperarted here the past tow, so instead of rding my bike, i Drove my car: Over to crossgates mall: and did a lap or two for an hour:

Driving to the Catherdral

You go downhill: Through Downtown Rensselaer: across the bridge: underneath the Plaza: The Freeway ends:

From 2012-11-18

and you're in an alley:

From 2012-11-18

go past the state educatoin building:

From 2012-11-18

and you're there:

From 2012-11-18

Scrape, Scrape

It was 20 degrees when I woke up yesterday, so I decided to drive to Crossgates mall and walk: There's more than one way to get your cardio: and you never know what you'll see on the road: