There's no place like home...

Unfortunately the heel-clicking thing only works in the movies. For us it worked out to 12 1/2 hours door to door, including 6 1/2 hours airborne, a 2 1/2+ hour flight delay, one bus ride, two trips through security theater and a taxi ride back to the car.

The flight from Hawaii was really an exercise in sleep deprivation and included several hours of pot-holed skies. Leaving the aircraft, I asked the captain and he confirmed we had crossed the jet stream. "We had 100kts out of the North". Since we were more or less North East bound, that means it was mostly a headwind. He went on to explain "the atmosphere is transitioning to the winter pattern." That probably would have meant more if I were more familiar with pacific weather patterns which I'm not. I thanked him for taking a moment and joined the family escaping the Aluminium tube.

Checking in at LAX, the connecting gate agent didn't think we had a chance to make the next connecting flight about 45 minutes away and even if we make the flight it's likely the bags won't. Instead she proposed the flight 2 1/2 hours later. We said we understood the risk but would take the bet. We had 45 minutes to make it upstairs to the gate. We dropped the checked bags at security theater screening then went to find our own security theater line. It zigzagged through the lobby then out the door and several hundred feet down the street. We barely made the connecting flight (they closed the door behind us).

Somewhere in the process we walked away from a travel case full of DVDs. I personally lost "12 O'Clock High", "Guns of Navarone", "Blade Runner", "Dune", "Titan AE" and a couple others. It's probably either left on the Schmerican flight or at LAX security theater. Either way, I'm, not optimistic we'll see them again. (Time to upgrade to blu-ray?)

I made it to work for a few minutes as planned. But not for long. I grabbed what I needed and told the boss "I can do this from home. See ya tomorrow". "To sleep, perchance to dream" - this time in my own bed!

ga'nite.