Kickin' Off the Final Week

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?

Kickin' Off the Final Week

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?