We had thought that today would be a day at Disney, but when I went to buy tickets last night they were all sold out for today. We had breakfast at our hotel again and this time pointed the car toward Huntington Beach to hopefully see some of my Family. My cousin Jason lives there with his wife Linda and their children. Jason’s Mom and Dad also live in the area. We explored the Main Street area of downtown Huntington Beach for awhile and heard from Jason’s Dad, Alan. We met him for a light lunch and some conversation.

We left Alan to visit Jason’s Mom Jane and John. After a brief visit they took us to Newport harbor where we enjoyed some local shops and took the harbor boat tour. The sheer opulence was staggering. I’m not sure I have ever seen so much wealth concentrated in one geographic area. If I wasn’t to envious I might be disgusted! As the tour guide told us, for many of the owners these are just their vacation homes. Their fifteen million dollar vacation homes. And yachts. Lots and lots of yachts! So many yachts.

After the tour we had an early dinner at The Crab Cooker on Balboa Peninsula. Then on to Jason and Linda’s house where we spent an hour or so getting caught up and enjoying each others’ company. We returned to Jane and John’s to get our car and made our way back to Glendale and the hotel to relax.

Here are some pictures from today’s adventures.

We started today with breakfast at our hotel.  We then drove from Glendale down to Dana Point.  Our first stop was the Dana Point Headlands Conservation Area.  The docent there was very nice and gave us some tips based on what we said we wanted to do.  Our next stop was The Shwack, a restaurant in Dana Point’s Lantern District.  From there it was a short walk to the Bluff Top Trail.  Very reminiscent of Rochester, NY’s Secret Sidewalk, this short trail takes you along the bluff high above the Pacific Ocean.  On one side are the front decks of what must be very expensive real estate.  On the other are magnificent views of the ocean and Dana Point harbor far below.

After taking all that in and lingering in the breeze we drive down the hill to The Ocean Institute on the western end of Dana Point Harbor.  The docent had told us that there is a stairway to the beach behind the Institute and so we went to spend some time on the beach just watching the waves come in as the tide slowly rose.  I’ve never thought the ocean was particularly interesting.  In fact, I find it generally very boring when compared to the likes of Lake Champlain.  But I will admit that I could spend hours just sitting there watching waves come in.  It’s hypnotic and peaceful; and in that respect I understand why people are drawn to it.

From Dana point we made the short drive to San Juan Capistrano and toured the mission there.  I can’t say I gave it the full attention it as a museum deserved, but it was awe-inspiring.  The church in particular gave me pause.  As a lapsed Catholic I do not feel a “call” to my Faith these days.  But the mission’s church, incredibly preserved and still in use today, is a thing of beauty.  My hat came off, my finger touched the holy water and then my forehead, and I just had to sit there for a few minutes and take it all in.  We toured the grounds and spent some time (and a few dollars) in the gift shop and then it was time to head back to Glendale.  Amanda, her Dad Kevin, Kevin’s friend Beata, and I had all been in the same car so far; but Kevin and Beata were scheduled to pick up Amanda’s sister and her husband at the airport this evening, and so we had to return to Glendale so Kevin could get his car.  (In retrospect I guess we should have rented a minivan!) After a bathroom break we drove down to Manhattan beach and had a very nice dinner in a seaside restaurant called The Strand House.  Our table was close to the open-air deck and the propane heaters took the edge off the cool ocean breeze.  The only thing missing was a view of the ocean.  It was right there in plain sight, but invisible in the darkness.

After dinner Amanda and I returned to the hotel.  It’s a good thing I like to drive.  Driving in and around L.A. is an adventure like no other.  I have many comments about the “design” of their highways out here, but I’ll save them, perhaps, for another post some day.  We are having to much fun to let these posts degenerate into a grump-fest! 🙂

Enjoy some pictures from today’s adventures.

We are in L.A.!  Travel yesterday was blissfully uneventful, especially when compared to our trip here last year.  We are in the same hotel in Burbank, and even in the same suite!  It feels like we were just here.

Our main reason for this visit is to help Amanda’s Dad celebrate on Sunday when the Make Up And Hair Stylists Guild honors him with a Lifetime Achievement award.  We also hope to visit my cousins who live in the area. Another day at Disney might be on the schedule if the weather holds (there is an ever-increasing chance of rain for Monday).  We fly home on Tuesday.

Last evening we explored The Americana at Brand, a unique outdoor shopping center about a mile from the hotel.  I don’t know what it’s like during the day, but at night it reminded me of The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas.  We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and just strolled around looking at/in the shops before heading back to the hotel.

Today there is no plan—just some general exploring.  Dinner will be had in Manhattan Beach with Amanda’s Dad before he picks up Amanda’s sister and her husband at the airport.

Yesterday was my 55th birthday.  It was not remarkable as days go.  As a birthday, I think the most significant thing it represents is that my health insurance plan is now “portable.”  Some day when I elect to leave the service of the State of New York, I will be able to keep my health insurance coverage for a very reasonable premium.  While I have no plans, that is a nice thing to have tucked in the back of my brain.

Here’s how my day went:

Woke at 7:00am. Slept reasonably well.

• Shower and dress.
• Feed cats.
• Breakfast: Eggs, toast, sausage, coffee
• Watched a YouTube video

8:00am

• Empty/fill dishwasher
• Organize recyclables
• Get/read mail
• Put plow on truck
• Open birthday cards/present
• Watch TV with Amanda

9:00am

• Key Bank, Plattsburgh – withdraw some cash in anticipation of needing some in the next few days.
• Plattsburgh Spring – I realized not long ago that Dad’s plow did not have “feet” to keep it from digging into ground if it runs off the pavement.  I picked some up along with a power port adapter that “splits” the single port the truck has into 2, along with 2 USB-A ports and a USB-C port. 
• Barber.  I recently learned that the spot where I got my very first haircut from a barber was once again a barber shop!  I decided I’d treat myself, even though there’s not much for anyone to really do with what little is left of my hair.  I walked in to Minglewood Barber Shop and a tiny wave of nostalgia hit me.  I remember Red Badger, my barber.  I could picture my Dad in his chair reaching under the smock and into his pocket to get me a penny for the gumball machine by the door (he always had one!).  I looked around at the artifacts on the counter–the owner was a collector of antique shaving things.  There was an antique couch which seemed a little out of place.  But it sure smelled like a barber shop!  My nostalgia bubble was abruptly burst by the barber asking me if I had an appointment.  I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that.  This was a barber shop–barber shops don’t “do” appointments!  You show up, park your butt in a chair if one is available, and you wait your turn while you listen to the local gossip and/or politics.  There are no “appointments”!  I said I didn’t have an appointment.  He looked at his phone and said he didn’t have anything for the rest of the week.  I said something like, “too bad…” and left.  Call me a grumpy old man and I won’t care, but I won’t be going back.
• Auto Zone – One of the windshield wipers on the truck was starting to scrape.  I replaced it.  Remember when auto parts stores had books where you could look up your make and model and be told which wiper or oil filter you needed?  Those are gone.  You’d better have a smart phone and trust their QR codes and look it up on your phone.  Or ask at the counter.
• Kinney Drugs – Picked up COVID test kits.  Amanda tested positive on Christmas.  I’ve had no symptoms, but want to be sure as we have plans for New Year’s Eve that don’t involve staying home!

11:00am – Home

• Remove plow from truck
• Lunch/TV Show
• COVID test (negative)

Noon

• Basement organizing

1:00pm

• Visit Mom

2:30pm

Home to relax, watch TV with Amanda, and play a few games on my phone.

It was a nice day.  Weather-wise it was completely dreary, which is why I spent the last part of it indoors.  I would much rather have been doing some things outdoors.  Like yard work.  Yes, yard work!  If it hadn’t been raining, it would actually have been a great day to work on ridding our property of more leaves.  Whoever though I’d be saying such a thing in late December?!

See “The Big Move”

Friday we finished packing the trailer.  Amanda got the cats ready and loaded into her car (left running with the air conditioning on).  I told her I needed her help get the trailer hooked up to the truck.  She guided me as I backed up.  I got out of the truck and started lowering the trailer onto the hitch.  Lower…lower…lower…until it bottomed out on the piece of lumber on which it had been resting.  I cranked it back up a few turns and put a the scissor jack from the car under the tongue and then removed the lumber.  I started to lower the trailer again…lower…lower…lower.  I let the hitch get to about 3 inches from the pavement and still could not remove the jack.  If the front tires of the truck were still on the pavement, they were only barely there!  I jacked the trailer back off the hitch, completely discouraged.  I had so thoroughly crammed the front part of the trailer with our stuff that it was too front-heavy.

Defeated, I sent Amanda on her way, took care of a few last-minute things and then drove to the new house with most of our stuff left in the trailer in the driveway in Potsdam.  After all, there was nowhere else to sleep but the couch, and certainly nothing to eat and no clothes to change into.  On the way to the new house I did a lot of thinking.  I was down.  I stopped in Malone and had 3 slices of pizza from Stewart’s for “dinner.”  I drank Mountain Dew for the first time in years.  I listened to Barry Manilow.  Yes, folks, it was bad.  I had initially thought that a bigger truck might be the key and started wondering where I might rent one if I couldn’t borrow one.  Then I thought if I need to rent a truck why not just rent a moving truck and transfer everything from the trailer to the truck and not have the hassle of towing a trailer?  I eventually realized that unless I found someone with a dump truck, the trailer was not safe to pull.  I committed to returning to Potsdam Saturday morning to unload and re-load the trailer. 

I arrived at about 10:30 Saturday morning.  Brady was waiting for me.  Two things made the looming endeavor easier than it otherwise might have been: 1) Most of the stuff in the front of the trailer was in small boxes (Lowe’s sells boxes in Small, Medium, and Large); and 2) the trailer has a front-side door.  Opening that door revealed that we could extract the boxes, which were piled on top of furniture.  And so that’s what we did.  We started by moving as many boxes as would fit into the back of the truck and into Brady’s car.  Then we took the awkwardly-shaped stuff out of the back of the trailer where there was otherwise still a good deal of room and began removing boxes from up front and piling them in the back.  After about an hour and a half of this I determined that the trailer might be more properly balanced.  We hooked it up to the truck and I was right!  In retrospect I think it could have been just a little lighter in the front, as I could tell my steering was affected; but we made it to Keeseville just fine.  (Well, the truck and trailer were fine.  Brady, however, blew a tire just outside of Champlain and we changed it in the rain.  Did I mention it was raining?  Yeah…it was raining.)

We unloaded most of the boxes and committed to doing the rest in the morning.  Sunday (today) was supposed to be a much nicer day.  And it was/is.  Mom, Kelly, and Dean came over and we all made quick work of the furniture and emptied the trailer.

For 7 months we have been coming here, to the new house, to move a few things and to spend time here.  But each weekend ends knowing that we must head home to Potsdam.  But not this time.  As I type this on a Sunday afternoon I am still somewhat in shock and denial about the fact that I am not leaving this time.  This is now Home.  Again.  I am here and I am staying.  I can go down to Camp tonight if I want to.  I can go there tomorrow night too!  I can see my Mom in the middle of the week instead of FaceTime or a phone call.  And I will. 

But Potsdam has also been my Home.  My boys grew up in that house.  That house has seen divorce, loneliness, hope, and much, much happiness.  Many memories have been made there.  But a house is just a house.  Home is where your heart is, and this new house is now our Home.  Moving doesn’t erase the memories.  And we haven’t 100% moved yet anyhow.  The house in Potsdam is still ours and will be until we completely empty it, prepare it for sale, and eventually sell it.  Until then, there will be the occasional weekends spent in Potsdam maintaining the property and finishing up the packing, doing some painting, and taking care of the place. 

But I’ll feel more than a little sad when I pull out of that driveway for what I know will be the last time, knowing that from now on I will only be a visitor to Potsdam.  It is no longer my Home.  But then I’ll smile because I know I’m heading Home.  Again.  This time to stay. 

(As far as I know! 🙂 )

DISNEY!

I went to bed at about 2:00am after my unsuccessful bid to reschedule our flight(s) home.  Sunday was now going to be all day at Disney and then straight to the airport for our 12:50am flight.

We were up at 6:00 and showered and packed up our stuff.  We left at 7:00 and drove to Anaheim where we met up with Kevin.  We got through security and made it to the park entrance at about 7:45 and they were already letting people in.

Disneyland!  I have been to the Magic Kingdom and other parks in Florida several times over the years, but I had never been to Disneyland (or California Adventure) until today.  I was looking forward to seeing the “original” and comparing and contrasting it with Walt Disney World (which will be a separate blog post).  I was not disappointed.  The entire operation runs like clockwork, of course.  But what is most striking is that Disneyland is in the middle of a city, but you have no idea that that’s where you are once you are in the park.  If you’re really paying attention in certain areas you might catch a glimpse of a taller building outside the park.  I heard a siren once, but only because I was near the edge of the park.

Here’s a list of the rides we were able to experience (in order):

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
  • The wait for this was only 15 minutes!
• Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run
  • The wait for this was also only 15 minutes.  Probably because we were there so early.
• Thunder Mountain
  • There was no wait to speak of.
• Pirates of the Caribbean
  • About a 15 minute wait.
• Haunted Mansion
  • 15 minutes
• Splash Mountain (we thought it had been closed (or “cancelled”) and were pleasantly surprised to find it open!)
  • There was practically no line for this, and the one that was there moved quickly.
• Disneyland Express (train)
  • TRAIN!
• It’s A Small World
  • The original, and one of my favorites.  Once inside, it seems basically the same as the Florida version.  But the outside is incredible!
• Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
  • A Disneyland original.  We went on it just because of that.  It doesn’t exist anywhere else.
• Lunch on Main Street, U.S.A.
• Monorail
  • `Monorail!  The original, but a shadow of its cousin(s) in Florida
• Monsters, Inc.
  • The wait for this was 45 minutes, and they seemed to be having trouble as the line moved very slowly.
• Guardians of the Galaxy
  • We waited an hour for this one.  It was in the former Tower of Terror, which I did not realize until we were about to board the carriage.  I had previously avoided that “ride”, but my body handled it much better than I expected it would.  Not sure I’ll ever do it again, though.
• Soarin’
  • 40 minute wait for Amanda and me while Kevin nursed a sore knee.
• Cars Land
  • We just walked around Cars Land but I honestly could have spent most of a day there just sitting on a bench and taking it all in.
• Pixar Pier
  • This was the end of our day and we were tired.  I would very much like to return and explore this area of the park more thoroughly.

We said our goodbyes to Kevin at about 8:30 and made our way to the car and drove to the hour or so to the rental car return at LAX (airport).  We boarded the bus provided by the rental car agency and were on our way to the airport.  We got close, and then just basically sat there for about an hour giving encouragement to our beleaguered driver who was clawing and earning every inch she could as traffic came to a standstill about a mile from the drop off loop.  Drivers in L.A., by and large, seemingly 1) are all beginner drivers, 2) have no idea where they are or where they are going, 3) have little to no respect for other drivers.  The result is frequent gridlock.  As soon as the driver got to the first terminal where she could safely and responsibly open the doors we all got off.  Amanda and I still had plenty of time but did not want to chance it.  We walked all the way to our terminal; this after having walked 11 miles already at the theme parks.  We checked in, made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare and waited for our flight.  We boarded and took off without incident and arrived at JFK earlier than scheduled.  As I write this we are sitting in JFK waiting for our flight which we have been informed has been delayed by about an hour.  With any luck we will be home in Potsdam by 6:00pm or so.

We are exhausted.  I think I said it before: Vacations are great!  But traveling sucks.  Our “vacation” was shrunk from what was supposed to be 5 full days to only 3 due to weather and the fallout from our flight being cancelled.  Yay.

Oh, and did I mention that when we get home we’ll have no hot water?  The boiler died on Thursday while we were on our way to L.A. and apparently nobody stocks parts anymore and so we are at the mercy of Cornerstone Services, who services the boiler we rent from Liberty Utilities.  If we are lucky, the part will arrive tomorrow (Tuesday). Who knows when it will be installed! This will likely be fodder for a separate rant/blog post.  But right now I’m just too damn tired.

I set my alarm to get up in time to shower, get breakfast in the lobby at 7:00, and then head to the Burbank airport to hopefully sort out our return flight.  Amanda was already up and decided to accompany me.  The drive to the airport was only 10 minutes from our hotel and on a Saturday morning there wasn’t much traffic.  We got to the airport only to find no one at the JetBlue counter.  I inquired of another airline attendant and was informed that there usually isn’t someone there until 2 hours before a flight, but that I could call airport operations (yes, using the white courtesy phone) and ask them to page someone in case they might be somewhere else in the building.  I did so, but no one came, so we returned to the hotel.  I made a last stab at JetBlue by trying their online chat.  Still no change, but I was told that we could make a “same day” change to our reservation.  I said “same day” doesn’t do us much good if our flight leaves at 12:55am as we will already be at the airport and behind security by midnight!  “Unless,” I said, “‘same day’ means ‘within 24 hours’.”  She said that is what it means, and so I will set my alarm for 1:00am tonight and try one last time to get our flight changed.  

We headed down to Long Beach to meet up with Kevin and Ethan, Amanda’s step-brother.  We had lunch at Lucille’s followed by some browsing at the nearby Barnes & Noble.  After that we left Kevin and Ethan and continued on to Huntington Beach where we joined my cousin Alan Rowlson for drinks and conversation.  Alan is my first cousin once removed—a member of my parents’ generation.  We left Alan and headed to the home of Jane and John.  Jane is Alan’s ex-wife and mother to Jason, my second cousin.  We enjoyed their company along with Jason and his wife, Linda, and their children, Rex and Lucy.  Jane, a Peru, NY native, made us Michigans!

We then headed back to Glendale—a trip that took far longer than it should because, well, this is L.A.!  I said it the first time I was ever here and it’s still true: If New York is the city that never sleeps, L.A. is the city that never gets where it’s going.  Amanda joined her Dad to go see a movie while I stayed in our hotel room to relax, feeling a little drained.  As I type this it is after 1:00am and I am waiting in the online chat with JetBlue to see if we can get our flight rescheduled.

UPDATE: We’ll, the alternate flight we wanted is now sold out.  The only other option is flying from a different airport (ONT) overnight Monday into Tuesday and enduring an 8-hour layover at JFK.  That and arranging to drop the rental car off at a different location than where we picked it up.

Vacations are great.  Traveling sucks.

Amanda and I planned a short vacation. The principal motivation is to visit her Dad in Los Angeles.  The fact that there’s a midnight showing of “Xanadu” at the Turner Classic Movie Festival this coming weekend may or may not have had something to do with the dates we selected.  We hope to visit some cousins of mine as well.

We booked a non-stop flight from Buffalo.  We did not want to chance missing a connecting flight.  It’s happened to us before and we know it’s no fun.  We booked flights leaving on Wednesday of this week and returning overnight Monday arriving early Tuesday morning.  Tuesday after work we drove to Rochester to stay with Amanda’s Mom and step-Dad.  We spent Wednesday morning with them and left for Buffalo in plenty of time, arriving at the airport 3 hours before our flight.  If something was going to go wrong, it wasn’t going to be because of us! 

Something went wrong.

At first we didn’t know what it was.  Our flight got delayed.  Fine.  It happens.  We didn’t really care.  We weren’t in a hurry.  We could get there whenever.  And there was no connecting flight to miss, right?  The flight got delayed again.  And again.  And again.  Free snacks showed up at the gate counter.  That was nice.  Then I overheard someone use the C-word: “Cancel”.  I had found a site on the internet that not only showed the status of our flight, but it showed where our plane was coming from: Fort Lauderdale, FL.  It hadn’t even left yet which is why we were delayed.  We didn’t know it at the time, but Ft. Lauderdale was getting hammered with rain, and they eventually closed the airport; which cancelled the flight from Florida and thus cancelled ours as well as there was now no plane for us to board and there wasn’t going to be one.

Everyone lined up for accommodations.  We waited in line almost 2 hours while the nice gate attendants processed everyone.  8 sheet pizzas showed up as we waited.  Everyone was disappointed, but no one was really upset.  I was pleasantly surprised by that!  I spent some of the time looking up other flights and scenarios.  When we got to the counter we asked about an early flight out of Syracuse the following morning (today).  After some back and forth and a phone call to the home office they were able to make it work.  We made our way back to our car and drove the 2 hours back to Syracuse checking in to a hotel right outside the airport entrance at 12:30am.  We got up at 5:00am and went straight to the airport, got some breakfast, and made our new flight to JFK in New York.  As I type this we are halfway to Los Angeles, having made our connecting flight with plenty of time to spare.

This was completely out of Jet Blue’s control.  It made me realize the folly of trying to plan air travel.  There are so many variables it’s a logistical miracle that anything gets anywhere on time.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a tendency to (arrogantly?) assume that when I travel I’m the only one doing so and that once I’ve bought my tickets the entire system is brought to bear exclusively to serve me.  If I decide to leave from Buffalo, well, then there will be a plane at Buffalo just ready for me to board, right?  Because why wouldn’t there be?  Even if I were the sort who looked at weather reports and who knows what else when trying to decide which flight to take from where, it never would have occurred to me to wonder where the plane I would be boarding would be coming from.  I mean, they just sort of materialize out of thin air at the gate when I’m ready to board…right??  Nope.  Travel planning is a crap shoot on a good day.  Yesterday we lost.  Today has been better.  We’ll see how it goes next week when it’s time to come home.

Last Thursday I was asked if I could be in Cambridge (Boston) on Tuesday (yesterday) for a demonstration of IBM’s Cyber Range, a facility where mock security incidents are staged.  I booked a flight from the Adirondack Regional Airport, flying to Boston on Monday afternoon and returning the following afternoon.  (I had been told that flying from Massena was also possible, but their flights were sold out.) So I flew Cape Air from Saranac Lake.

I got to Boston without incident.  We flew through clouds the whole way, which was boring—nothing to look at!  I texted the friend with whom I would be staying.  He was house/cat sitting just north of the city and said he would pick me up at the Oak Grove T station.  I texted him, “State Street” when I was on the subway and on my way up to Oak Grove.  Then something in my brain told me to check my text conversation with him in which I had worked out the details of my trip.  I had told him I needed a place to stay on TUESDAY night, not Monday!  Fortunately, he was also able to accommodate me on Monday night and happened to be home and able to meet me.  

On the way to Oak Grove I checked my email.  There was a message from Cape Air informing me that my flight the following day had been cancelled.  Crap.  I had packed extremely light, having showered, shaved, and dressed just before leaving for the trip, I planned to wear everything I had the whole time and only had a change of underwear in my bag.  My friend was there waiting for me.  I got in the car, thanked him profusely, offered to buy him dinner anywhere he wanted, and then said, “and since I know you have no plans for tomorrow…” and proceeded to tell him I’d need a second night, which was fine.  (Whew!)  When we got to his friend’s place I called Cape Air and talked to a very nice agent who re-booked me on their flight early Wednesday morning.  I was pleasantly surprised by the interaction.  The agent was very polite, apologetic, knowledgeable, and empowered to re-book my flight at no charge.  Wonderful!

Tuesday morning my friend dropped me off at Oak Grove and I made my way into the city.  The T station nearest to IBM was about a half mile walk.  That’s no problem for me on a good day, but Tuesday was not a good day.  I slogged down the streets in wind-driven, near-freezing horizontal rain.  It took me an hour to dry out once I reached IBM!

While on my way to the airport I was mentally inventorying the contents of my sling bag/purse.  I have 3 different battery packs for recharging my phone; small, medium, and large.  I had planned to bring the medium one because it can also plug right into the wall in order to recharge.  But I had forgotten it.  (I did remember to pack my multi-port charger, but it has no battery.) My phone’s battery isn’t what it once was and so I decided to check on its energy use to see if there was anything I could turn off that would let me eke out a few more minutes of energy before needing a charge.  Lo and behold I was told that my battery was severely degraded and needed replacement.  Since I now had time on my hands, and since there was an Apple Store in the mall around the corner from IBM, I went to see if they had a battery and could perform the installation right away.  I was stunned when I learned that the answer to both questions was “yes”!  It took a couple of hours, but a mall is not the worst place to spend time when the rain outside has a tendency to go up your nose!

After getting my new battery I made my way to Quincy Market for a New England Clam Chowder Bread Bowl.  And that made the hassle of this trip completely worth it!  SO DELICIOUS!  I have “clam” chowder elsewhere, but nothing compares to what I had yesterday!  I went back to Oak Grove and my friend stopped at a place he likes for dinner and I had clams casino and a beer.

When we got back to his friend’s place I checked my email.  Cape Air had cancelled my morning flight!  Crap.  I let Amanda know and she asked me what I wanted to do.  I checked the Boutique Air site and they still had a flight leaving in the morning for Massena, and they had seats.  So I booked a flight with them.  If they also cancelled, then I would call Cape Air and hopefully get re-re-booked on their afternoon flight the next day.  If Boutique did not cancel, then I would request a refund from Cape Air for my return flight.

Shortly after booking my 8:35am flight, I received a text and an email that it had been delayed to 9:55am.  No problem.  Then I got another text that the flight had been delayed again to 10:05. Seriously? 10 minutes? Hardly worth bothering about, right? But no—I also got a phone call from a real person letting me know that my flight had been delayed!

Fast forward to this morning.  I made my way to the airport and was on my way to the TSA Pre-Check line when I got a text.  Boutique was asking if I was flying with them this morning!  I said yes and then was asked if I had bags to check.  I said no and that I was in line at the security checkpoint.  They said they’d see me soon.  I believe that was a real person on the other end.  When I got to the gate, I received another text that they were at the gate.  Well, I could see the gate and was actually just about to check with someone because the gate in question was labeled “Air Canada”.  But as I looked up I saw a couple of people putting up a temporary “Boutique Air” sign!  I replied to the text, “so am I.  We are still departing at 10:05?”  I was assured this was true.  And then a minute later, “Would you please come to the gate?”  They wanted me to check in!  Wow.  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such attention to detail from customer service.

I made it to Massena.  Boutiques planes are also much nicer than Cape Air’s.  If ever I want/need to go to Boston and get more time to plan, I will be flying Boutique!

My takeaways from this experience:

• I probably ought to pay some attention to weather forecasts when I am traveling.  I normally do not pay much or any attention to them because, well, I don’t care.  But had I done so I might have packed clothes or an umbrella.
• The older I get, the more a creature of habit I am becoming.  My “every day carry” (EDC) bag is a beast.  It’s a backpack, carefully curated and packed, that has “everything” I need or might need on a daily basis.  It goes with me wherever I go.  For this trip I decided to downsize.  It was mostly fine, but I forgot a couple of things I would have liked to have taken (but did just fine without).  But the experience of doing so (downsizing) was interesting.  Not “anxiety” inducing, but I realized just how much of a pattern/routine my life has become and what a disruption this experience was.  I’ve gotten used to relative “sameness” day-to-day, week-to-week; and having this thrust into my routine was more frazzling than I would like to admit to myself.