By request. Let me know if you want this lj-cut; I figured it was small enough that wasn’t necessary.

plumtreeblossom and I are at an Arby's outside of Richmond that we put a fair amount of effort into finding. This is a big deal.

Inspired by the lovely plumtreeblossom, I just planted some wildflowers ordered from American Meadows. I ordered their northeastern wildflower mix and some blue flax.

This means that there are at present, in this world, living things that depend on me for their care.

God have mercy on their little souls.

Sumer is icumen in.
Lhude sing mosquito!

Well, plumtreeblossom and I made it home, despite two delays and a quite serious sprint with our carry-on bags to a different terminal in Philadelphia to discover that our connecting flight had left and we had to go back to the original terminal to get on the next flight.

Our checked luggage has not made it home, and had not made it to Logan several hours after we landed. (plumtreeblossom needed to go to an event at theatreatfirst, so she grabbed a cab while I tried to find our luggage.) It may yet show up, but I am *ahem* displeased.

Suffice it to say that I will endeavour to avoid US Airways in future if possible.

In the past, I’ve mostly flown American, and they’ve had good coördination between ground and air about connections, and they’ve handled the case where a plane with a large number of people making a specific connection was delayed very well. Also, in the one case where I couldn’t find my luggage (which wasn’t their fault — another passenger with similar baggage had walked off with it), they gave me a meal voucher so I could get some food while I was waiting for them to try to track it down.

There are some good things I can say about how US Airways handled our troubles on the way home: A flight attendant whom we asked for connection information reseated us in aisle seats near the front of the aircraft so we could get off very quickly (which didn’t actually let us make our original connecting flight, but was probably instrumental in our managing to get on the flight we did make, so we were an hour and a half late rather than two or three hours late), and the person in baggage services we filed our tracking request with was very sympathetic and polite. Oh, and another person working in the baggage area gave us useful advice.

Anyway, our time in Vegas was great! It was excellent to see sionnagh and for her to meet plumtreeblossom, we had a couple really excellent and shockingly inexpensive meals among many very good and quite reasonably priced meals (reminder to self: eat at the Caravan Café at Sahara again next time), we had lots and lots of fun, and subtracting the money we spent on the casino floor from the money we won on the casino floor, plumtreeblossom and I both came out a bit ahead, which means the casino paid us $15 or so to sit and entertain ourselves for a couple hours and drink free strawberry daiquiris. (We spent most of that couple hours at video poker machines that advertised a better than 100% return; I think they’re loss-leader machines. But they brought us free drinks there all the same.)

We also got to see the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton and a really impressive aerial silks performer at Circus Circus as well as nifty aerial work as part of the Bite show at the Stratosphere. And we rode the monorail to the other end of the Strip and saw the impressive exterior of the MGM Grand and sat and had a very pleasant time on the patio of a bar in New York, New York and, um, I’m sure there’s lots of other stuff I’m forgetting. Like the toothbrush story; I’m definitely forgetting that.

Oh, and I won singing stuffed chickens for plumtreeblossom and sionnagh and myself at Skee-ball at Circus Circus. (That’s another reason I hope our luggage is found.) sionnagh’s is named Tandoori, plumtreeblossom’s is named Pot Pie, and mine is named Cordon Bleu.

Pictures may follow in a few days. (Fortunately, I pulled the memory card from the camera on the theory I might look at pictures on the plane. Unfortunately, the camera itself is in my checked luggage.)

All in all, it was a fabulous trip and we had a wonderful time!

[EDIT: We saw the smoke from this forest fire in New Jersey from the air. It was impressive.]

So, I was interested to notice recently that flags are again flying at full-staff. (Evidently, this happened at the end of January 25, but I didn’t notice until today.) I had been starting to wonder whether Ford’s period of mourning would last longer than his presidency.

plumtreeblossom made us a yummy chicken pie last night, and I got to take the T in to work with her in the morning. I like “school night” dates. Of course, this means I was awake at an hour of the morning I had thought was mythological — elves, fairies, 7:00am, I thought they were all stories told to frighten children.

So, this morning it was pretty nice. As I was getting ready to leave the house, I realized I’d left my coat in the car last night, and vaguely considered not taking it and either wearing just my sweater, or my sweater and a light jacket. I was running late enough, though, that I went ahead and took not only the coat, but the entire car, leaving it parked on the top floor of the parking garage at the Quincy Center T station.

Then I had a reasonably productive day at work, followed by a brief check-in at Diesel (including a nice chat with dietrich), followed by a pleasant if admittedly slightly chilly walk to Something Something to pick something up, followed by a quick dinner in Davis (by myself, unless you count Terry), since I’d been ravenous before I left work, followed by a pleasant T ride to Quincy, followed by—

Um.

Isn’t my key supposed to go in the lock on the car further than this?

Yes, I’m quite sure it’s supposed to go in further than this. I believe it’s supposed to turn, too. And the door is supposed to open, and welcome me into the car AND OUT OF THIS INSANE FUCKING FREEZING WINDY COLD! I’m completely certain that’s what’s supposed to happen.

That’s not what’s happening.

If the lock on the other side weren’t already broken¹, I could try that door.

So, I can walk home and hope that when the sun comes out tomorrow morning the lock warms up enough for me to get in. [If I had taken the time to check the weather forecast I would have been less optimistic.] Oh! Or I could walk home, and walk to the automotive supply store in the morning and get some of that de-icer you can spray in your locks when they freeze, and see if that works! Yes, that’s a good idea. Too bad there’s no place open now, because I’ll be agitated until I get this resolved. Like, for instance, maybe a convenience store would have it.

Well, there’s actually a convenience store in the T station, and they didn’t have what I was looking for (de-icer for locks), but they did have de-icer for windows, and I figured if it melted ice it was worth a try. Said try, of course, involved wiggling my key in and out of the lock while spraying this stuff at the slot. (I needed the key both to hold the slot open and to help convey the de-icer into the lock, since this stuff didn’t come with the little tube that gets it into the lock. I suspect that’s the major distinction between this product and the kind sold for locks.) And I did this for a long time, in the freezing wind, with the de-icer stuff splashing onto my hands and being blown into my face, occasionally taking breaks to put my hands in my pockets to thaw. And I was just about ready to give up, when the key finally slipped all the way into the lock! Joy! Delight! Success! Er, Progress! The key did not turn, but at least something was happening, which confirmed me in my stubborn determination not to hurry home to a warm bed, but to keep standing there on the windy roof alternately muttering entreaties and threats to the lock under my breath. Actually, I didn’t mutter entreaties and threats to the lock under my breath, but it sounds very dramatic, so I certainly would have if I’d thought of it at the time. Anyway, it might have worked.

So I worked on the lock for another ten minutes or so, with a couple breaks to shelter from the wind in a stairwell, and finally it turned! Joy! Delight! Progress! Success!

Needless to say, the Diesel engine needed some coaxing to start, but that I’m familiar with, and now I’m home and warm and my car is sitting in the driveway. Unlocked. I have no intention of locking it again until the spring, since clearly no good comes of locking my car.

Oh, did I mention that the person who broke into my car a couple weeks ago took a glove? I think it might be time to get a new pair.

But for now, my hands are nice and warm, and my bed will be nice and warm, too.

---

¹ This has nothing to do with the burglary; the passenger-side lock hasn’t worked since docorion got the car before me, I believe. Certainly not since I’ve had it.

dietrich posted this parody of libertarianism, based on “I am the very model of a modern major general”. Allow me to quote the first verse:

I am the very model of a modern Libertarian:
I teem with glowing notions for proposals millenarian,
I've nothing but contempt for ideologies collectivist
(My own ideas of social good tend more toward the Objectivist).
You see, I've just discovered, by my intellectual bravery,
That civic obligations are all tantamount to slavery;
And thus that ancient pastime, viz., complaining of taxation,
Assumes the glorious aspect of a war for liberation!

But go read the whole thing! It appears to have originally come from here.

Sums up my political biases against libertarianism perfectly.

So I can find all 750 hammers I’ve bought over the last decade, but I can’t find any of the wood planes.

OK, so it’s my own fault for still not being unpacked ten months after moving in here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t grump about it.

It’s off to the Big Orange Republican Box to buy my fifth or sixth plane... [EDIT: Actually, I decided not to fund the Party of Nixon and took the extra half-hour to go to the Lowes.]