Another Monday, Another Meltdown

In my mind's eye, at least, Portland is "just up the road", a place that when the stars align I can fly to faster than I can drive to Santa Rosa. But not this Monday when my door-to-door travels took twice as long as last week's return from the Atlantic Coast.

It was clear that it was Monday when after reading about the latest Wall Street meltdown and checking the status of one of my own modest investments, that I arrived at the United counter, swiped my card to be told that my flight was canceled and that the next available direct flight would get me there at 10 a.m....on Tuesday! After seeing options routing me through LA, Las Vegas and St. Louis (seriously) in order to arrive the same day, I finally sighed and accepted the option of routing through Eugene. After five hours of recharging various portable devices while sitting on the floor of the chaotic SFO United terminal, having two additional hours at Eugene's spotless little airport had a calming, Zen-like impact. They were even playing Native American chants on the sound system.

Sadly, my meet up with Rich Bachelor and Aunty Christ won't happen this trip, which we're all bummed about since our packed schedules won't match up. But I did have a nice phone conversation with Rich this evening.

Wish me luck for the remaining three days of the trip.