Pittsburgh Adventures (written in the Pittsburgh AirPort, from December 5th)

So as I write this, the flight crew for my flight back to San Diego is circling the Pittsburgh Airport. So we’re delayed as my ready-to-go plane awaits a pilot.

Yesterday was harrowing. The snow came down in buckets starting at about 12 noon Eastern time in Roanoke. My flight out was scheduled for 6:30pm. The drive to the airport, normally a 20-25 minute affair, took an hour and a half. Why? Snow. Snow. More snow. I drove my Mom’s CRV, four-wheel drive, and we still did some slipping and sliding. We took off for the airport very early, about 5 hours before my departure time. My flight out was delayed also, owing to the snow. The upshot of all of this was that I left Roanoke much later than my scheduled departure time, missed my connecting flight to San Diego. In Pittsburgh I stayed at the Holiday Inn. The way it works now is that the airlines no longer pay for your place to stay if you are stranded due to weather (“Act of God” in insurance company parlance), but they will get you a cheaper rate. In the hotel the broadband worked fine (2.95 on my bill this morning) but the outbound calling on the telephone simply didn’t work. I could take calls though. I was able to call my folks, Erin (my new roommate, she moved in whilst I was away), and my girlfriend Leah. Leah was quite disappointed to hear that I would not be in last night. I was too, as a matter of fact. Now, weather-wise, Pittsburgh was cold (25°F) last night, but not snowy. When I got up this morning at 6:15 and looked out my window, what did I see? Snow. Snow. More snow.

I joked last night with Leah that she should go ahead and talk to this God guy – I was interested in recouping my $55 for the room. After all, my layover was due to “act of God,” and since USAirways wasn’t paying, perhaps I could idemnify this God fellow. Unfortunately since I don’t particularly believe in God (agnosticism, doncha know (see this and this), I thought I could perhaps get my girlfriend to intervene.

Yes, to some of you I’m aware this is a bit sacrilegious sounding. I assure you I mean no harm.

In any case, one of the better moves I made yesterday was asking my Mom to pick me up some Tiger’s Milk Bars (peanut butter flavor please). She got me these Powerbars (my reaction at the time was disappointment), and I ended up having them as dinner. And as a nice surprise, they were not as odious as my previous experiences with Powerbars have been. In fact, they were pretty good. Thanks Mom!

Leah was to pick me up last night, but she can’t do a daytime (work and all) pickup, so I’m having another friend, Liz pick me up. I’m eternally grateful for this favor. I’m trying to be in maximum frugality mode these days, and a taxicab would be efficient, but 20 dollars better spent elsewhere.

While I’m in typing mode, I’ll note that my clamshell iBook only retains about an hour and a half of charge. This is a 266Mhz model, running Mac OS X.2. I think I used to get about 4 hours on this thing. I wonder why it gets less now? Is it the OSX? Or do I need a new battery? I never really put this machine through its’ paces when it was running OS 9 — it mostly stayed plugged i in the living room, a machine to check email, do minor work, check news and movie times via 802.11b. But now, I use it much more.