Right back where I started

Cold birds
"What happened?"

Unfortunately, I'm not in Las Vegas having avocado toast with dad this morning. But at least I'm not still camped out on a plastic chair at SeaTac.

It was snowing hard yesterday morning and we left the house extra early for my 8 am flight.  The freeway was covered in snow and ice, but traffic was light. Schools were closed; anyone who had any sense just stayed home.

A bit of a white knuckle drive, but we got to the airport OK. I checked my bag, zipped through security, saw that my flight was still on time.  So far good. Little did I know, I'd just stepped on the conveyor belt of airport misery (with lots of other company.)

After four hours and four gate changes, we finally had a de-iced plane at noon. Ready to go. At least it looked that way. The woo-hoo cheer went up! We're going to Las Vegas!

First class rushed on and the rest of us were waiting in line.  Not so fast, folks. The board suddenly changed, and that plane was going to Minneapolis instead. Our flight was abruptly cancelled.  Still, we were some of the lucky ones, because many people sat trapped in planes for hours before being allowed to get off.

By mid-day the terminal was a sea of humanity, and the Customer Service lines stretched down the concourses. Getting another flight looked hopeless, so I found my suitcase in baggage claim and my personal Uber driver (John) picked me up.  How good it felt to be home, and I felt sorry for the people I met who had no choice but to wait it out.  Many vacations and plans spoiled yesterday.

Last week we were gloating about our mild winter and early spring. Talk about weather karma. This morning it's colder in Seattle than Chicago. 19 degrees to be exact, and it looks like temperatures won't get much above freezing for the next week.