Kickin' Off the Final Week

[mrdreamjeans]

We began our next to last travel day in Huntsville, Alabama. The bus left the hotel there at 11:30am Central Time. We arrived at our hotel in Kitchener, Ontario at 2:00am Eastern Time. Due to high winds in Newark, our Continental Flight was delayed over two hours which would have made us miss our connecting flight to Toronto. After 90 minutes of standing around, our entire group was re-booked on to Northwest Airlines, flying from Birmingham, Alabama, to Detroit to Toronto.

The flight to Toronto was delayed for an hour and then we circled for another hour once we arrived in the area. Toronto had inclement weather and all landings were sequenced on to one runway which had been cleared of snow. At one point the pilot announced that he felt confident that we would be landing in about 20 minutes ...then the kicker ...I know we will be landing in about 20 minutes because we have 25 minutes of fuel left. What? TMI? :) Two of our women, Milissa and Natalie, celebrated the beginnings of their shared birth day while we were on the runway in Toronto.

The flights were bookended by two 90-minute bus rides from Huntsville to Birmingham and Toronto to Kitchener. Bottom line - We arrived safely, and with one more pay check to go, I'll take the 4.5 hours of travel overtime ... 3 hours of it at double rate. We're in a charming hotel in downtown Kitchener and open here tonight for four performances. I'm looking out of the window at several inches of snow on the ground. Finally, a bit of winter wonder.

One thing did happen yesterday that distressed me. Somehow, somewhere, my screen on my relatively new G4 iBook (I bought it in Costa Mesa in October) got damaged. I opened it on the plane ride from Birmingham to Detroit to show my friend Joel a picture. It looks like someone took an exacto knife and scraped a cloud-like shape in the liquid crystal screen, bleeding from it is black residue, sort of like someone shaking an Etch-a-sketch drawing which begins to loose its shape. The laptop continues to function (obviously) and I know I can get the screen replaced, but suddenly my computer doesn't feel new. (Silly, but you know what I mean.) I have no idea how the compression damage occurred. My laptop was with me at all times in a padded case and was only out of my sight for seconds while going through the security screening.

Since we only had time yesterday to grab fast food at the airports, I think it's time to get dressed and have a real meal. Then maybe I'll just go play in the snow. Snow angels, anyone?

Comments

[bearchitect.livejournal.com]

Neil, this is starting to feel like the last week at college, graduation in the horizon and the great, vast, open future in front of one... exciting and scary at the same time. Best of luck in the final strecht and even more so in finding the "next" gig after Seattle.
Bummer about your 'puter screen, could it be the air pressure in the plane's cabin that caused it? I've had the crystal of my (supposedly underwater diving-proof) watch pop out of its socket because of it (?)...

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Fernando! As always when a tour closes, I'm split. I go back and forth between being sad it will be over on Sunday and chafing at the bit to get home. Which ever one of my personalities takes precedence *grin* ... I dislike not bring employed. As someone who is self-employed, you know the pressures of lining up the work and the flow and ebb of that process. I am going to work hard to enjoy "Wonderful Town". I want to live more in the moment and not have the experience pass me by just because I'm worrying about what's next.

I have no idea what happened to my computer screen, but it made me sick to my stomach. My laptop is less than 5 months old.

Hugs! Thanks for hanging in with me!