I had a Kamikaze trip to the great Northeast on Wednesday.
A quick trip to the casino in Uncasville CT and back to Jax in what should have been a bit over 24 hours, but instead dragged on interminably.
United still sucks, still can't get a plane off the ground on time, still has the worst customer service, and is just horrible overall. But I digress...
So I spent an overabundance of time waiting - waiting for people to arrive, for meetings to start, waiting to get info I needed, waiting for planes to arrive, waiting for planes to board, waiting for planes to take off, waiting... waiting... waiting.
I always have a stack of reading materials on my iPad and my phone (in case the iPad battery goes flat) and didn't feel like getting back into the Aubrey-Maturin British naval series again, and had breezed through most of the collected John D. MacDonald 'Travis McGee' books in the relatively recent past...
I needed couple fast-but-fun literary diversions so I dug into the "reads" folder on the iPad and read two pieces while wearing my United Airlines-provided shackles of durance vile...
First-
A favorite from my sordid youth- Bester's The Stars My Destination which I had downloaded and read a couple years ago, went down smooth...
Great 1950's pulp sci-fi. Go. Read.
Bonus points: Read the serialized version in Galaxy magazine.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
On the DC to JAX flight I devoured an H. Beam Piper & John McGuire short story - Lone Star Planet I pulled off Project Gutenberg, another '50 vintage scifi story.
Political intrigue, Texas, alien invasion, and SuperCow.
What's not to like?
I'm saving the other HPB quick read Four Day Planet for then next time United has me bent over the back a couch... This one includes a plucky kid reporter, corrupt unions, shipwrecks & monster hunting. A great way to occupy one's mind, since thoughts of homicide come unbidden as you wait through airport delays...
When I don't have a good read at hand, the thoughts that this particular Gate Agent would make an excellent centerpiece at a funeral just swirl through my gray matter with an awful vividness...
Hmmm...
Must be time for my Prozac.
TBG - ΜΟROΝ RΑVE
A quick trip to the casino in Uncasville CT and back to Jax in what should have been a bit over 24 hours, but instead dragged on interminably.
United still sucks, still can't get a plane off the ground on time, still has the worst customer service, and is just horrible overall. But I digress...
So I spent an overabundance of time waiting - waiting for people to arrive, for meetings to start, waiting to get info I needed, waiting for planes to arrive, waiting for planes to board, waiting for planes to take off, waiting... waiting... waiting.
I always have a stack of reading materials on my iPad and my phone (in case the iPad battery goes flat) and didn't feel like getting back into the Aubrey-Maturin British naval series again, and had breezed through most of the collected John D. MacDonald 'Travis McGee' books in the relatively recent past...
I needed couple fast-but-fun literary diversions so I dug into the "reads" folder on the iPad and read two pieces while wearing my United Airlines-provided shackles of durance vile...
First-
A favorite from my sordid youth- Bester's The Stars My Destination which I had downloaded and read a couple years ago, went down smooth...
Great 1950's pulp sci-fi. Go. Read.
Bonus points: Read the serialized version in Galaxy magazine.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
On the DC to JAX flight I devoured an H. Beam Piper & John McGuire short story - Lone Star Planet I pulled off Project Gutenberg, another '50 vintage scifi story.
Political intrigue, Texas, alien invasion, and SuperCow.
What's not to like?
I'm saving the other HPB quick read Four Day Planet for then next time United has me bent over the back a couch... This one includes a plucky kid reporter, corrupt unions, shipwrecks & monster hunting. A great way to occupy one's mind, since thoughts of homicide come unbidden as you wait through airport delays...
When I don't have a good read at hand, the thoughts that this particular Gate Agent would make an excellent centerpiece at a funeral just swirl through my gray matter with an awful vividness...
Hmmm...
Must be time for my Prozac.
TBG - ΜΟROΝ RΑVE
(Maturin! Damn you autocorrect!)
It's my turn next month... Four trips... sigh
ReplyDeleteDurance vile.... very descriptive of the experience. Even when they get you boarded, it's still a case of "abandon all hope ye who enter here..."
ReplyDeleteYou are, de facto, a prisoner. Even in the first class lounge.
I haven't read that book in at least 30 years. I wonder if I even still have it in my book czse.
ReplyDeleteI haven't flown on United in years, so I don't know what it's like. I had a surprisingly good cross country trip on Delta last month. The red eye back on Jet Blue was OK, but the plane was ice cold inside. Faulty heat system or something. Flying overnight is bad enough, it's worse when it's cold.