Finally Home

Ugh, what a travel day from hell. Although I had no trouble checking in and passing through security, I barely made my plane in Denver. It was starting to board when I arrived at the gate. Gotta get to the airport plenty early these days. We boarded the plane and sat in our seats at the gate for over an hour due to a "maintenance issue" with one of the engines. That never sounds good. Also there was something wrong with the electrics on this plane because the flourescent cabin lights kept blinking on and on off rapidly and randomly. It was like a strobe effect inside the plane -- and I wasn't even stoned!

At last we pulled away from the gate, only to be stopped on the tarmac because of weather delays in San Francisco (our destination). That was another half hour or more of sitting on the aircraft in the middle of the runway. Naturally the plane was full of families traveling with small children after the holiday and I was stuck right in the middle of them. I actually traded seats twice to allow parents to sit with their kids, spouses, etc.

By the way, I'm totally OVER parents and their precious children at this point in my life. I'm not sure who is most annoying, the kids or their inept parents. You can keep 'em as far as I'm concerned. "Look, but don't touch" is my new philosophy.

The flight attendants kindly put in a movie to help pass the time. It was "Cinerella Man" by Ron Howard. Although highly censored for airplane viewing, the movie was quite entertaining and compelling. Very good filmmaking and performances from the stars Russell Crowe, Renee Zellwegger, and Paul Giamatti. And hell, it had to compete with dozens of screaming children and it won. Thumbs up!

The plane left Denver about 5:30 pm (almost two hours late) and we arrived in San Fran about 7:15 Pacific time. I was certain that I had missed my connecting flight to Burbank since the scheduled departure time was 6:30. "Luckily" that flight had also been delayed due to weather and traffic flow and was scheduled to depart at 9:45 that evening! Yes, two more hours of waiting in the airport.

After chowing down on a Whopper combo from the airport Burger King (I was starving after 8 hours without food), I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading. And after a gate change and some more waiting, my flight to Burbank finally took off sometime close to 10:30pm. My friend Benny drug himself out of bed to pick me up in Burbank at 11:30. At times like this, one certainly knows who one's friends are.

I finally made it home, sweet home after 12:30am. The cat was somewhat indifferent to my return until she caught me in an unguarded moment and reached up and scratched the hell out of my right hand with both her front paws. "Welcome home, asshole!" I don't know what she had to complain about. There was plenty of food and water, and she had the whole place to herself for a week. Jeez!

After cleaning up a bit, settling in and winding down, I made it to bed around 3. Today it's cool and rainy in Los Angeles. Two big Pacific winter storms are bearing down on us and promising inches of rain by the start of the new year.

On the bright side, I'm listening now to Brian Wilson's SMILE (got it for Christmas)and it is dreamy and wonderful. I need to vacuum and empty the cat box (not necessarily in that order), buy groceries, write "thank you" cards, and prepare for my meeting with the tour boss on Friday. Oh yes, I also desperately need to practice for the concert on Saturday night. But what I really want to do is play with my Christmas toys!

Bring on 2006!