Bay Area Chronicles, Part 1
Sorry about the late opening today, folks. Yes, I know. Many of you arrive early and have your coffee here at The Diner. However, in honor of my vacation, we'll be open more for the lunch/after work/late dinner crowd. Hope that doesn't disappoint too many of you, but I don't see myself getting up at 3:30AM to turn the coffee on. Just stick around for brunch, or linner, okay?
Anyway...thoughts on day 1 of my vacation:
No matter how cool it is that one of your favorite restaurants is located in the terminal your plane is scheduled to depart from, the food at that airport locale isn't as good as when you're at the restaurant. That, and you had to pay for the sweet potato chips that are complimentary when you dine in the restaurant. Overall, though, the food was better than the average airport fare. So, it's kind of a "win."
I cannot focus on planes. If I try to read something, my mind isn't fully there. If I try to listen to an audiobook, my mind wanders (although, I haven't really gotten into that anyway. My mind always wanders during audiobooks...oddly, though, I'm laser-focused on sermons. Hmmm.). If I try to sleep, at best, I doze. I pretty much give up and listen to music or read through the SkyMall catalogue--which always has cool stuff that I'm not very likely to buy--or the American Airlines magazine, which has enough fluff to keep me reading but not enough that if I miss anything I feel like I should go back and re-read.
When you land the plane, and it stops on the tarmac, and the pilot comes on and says we've arrived early but we won't be going directly to the gate as there was a bomb threat at the terminal...well...you have visions of one of those 8-hour deals where you'll be on the national news and later on there'll be discussions about the passengers bill of rights. We apparently arrived as they'd finished the search because about 10 minutes later they pulled up to the gate. There was plenty of activity with luggage guys moving and pilots deplaning and you could see folks moving in the terminal. About 10 minutes after that, they let us off.
Some parents of children on planes need to do their job. This one lady even had the flight attendant remove her child from his seat and made him switch with one of the grandparents. He was smashing his Pringles chips on his tray while mom slept. He tore his paper into little strips and dropped them on the floor. He was just being a kid and wasn't loud or anything, but when the attendant asked the mom to help keep him from being messy she just went back to sleep. Later, there was a lot of seat switching, making the business traveler next to me terribly uncomfortable. When I got off the plane the mom was kind of rude to me, telling me to hurry up in a sharp tone. I smiled, and thought she should've left a large tip for the flight attendant, like you do when your kid goofed up in a restaurant. I'm on vacation. This lady isn't bothering me.
Holding Margaux is magical. I came with high expectations. She didn't disappoint...and raised the bar.
The higher-order barnstoming lifestyle may need to be redefined. They talked about the stuff they wanted to do while we were here, and going to a movie topped the list. Upon further consideration, that has since been trumped by the possibility of a nap.
Watching the Cowboys game in high definition was cool. It was the first time I'd watched an entire event in high-def, and there really is a difference. And, manalive, what an exciting game!
Watching the Yankees bow out of the playoffs in high-def was even better.
When I got up this morning, I should've put on a sweatshirt and jeans to walk to get the daily miracle that is a newspaper. I didn't...and reveled in the 50 degree weather. High today in the 60's. Life is good.
Front page headlines like this, this, and this Metro section headline let you know that you're reading a different daily miracle that is a newspaper than the one you read about 355 days per year. The last headline made me laugh because it implied that not only is there one tree-sitter, there's enough tree-sitters that need a leader...and, how is it news that any mayor would be considered too conservative by one who would sit in trees?
Well, glad to have The Diner back open...even if it is for brunch/after work/linner...
Sorry about the late opening today, folks. Yes, I know. Many of you arrive early and have your coffee here at The Diner. However, in honor of my vacation, we'll be open more for the lunch/after work/late dinner crowd. Hope that doesn't disappoint too many of you, but I don't see myself getting up at 3:30AM to turn the coffee on. Just stick around for brunch, or linner, okay?
Anyway...thoughts on day 1 of my vacation:
No matter how cool it is that one of your favorite restaurants is located in the terminal your plane is scheduled to depart from, the food at that airport locale isn't as good as when you're at the restaurant. That, and you had to pay for the sweet potato chips that are complimentary when you dine in the restaurant. Overall, though, the food was better than the average airport fare. So, it's kind of a "win."
I cannot focus on planes. If I try to read something, my mind isn't fully there. If I try to listen to an audiobook, my mind wanders (although, I haven't really gotten into that anyway. My mind always wanders during audiobooks...oddly, though, I'm laser-focused on sermons. Hmmm.). If I try to sleep, at best, I doze. I pretty much give up and listen to music or read through the SkyMall catalogue--which always has cool stuff that I'm not very likely to buy--or the American Airlines magazine, which has enough fluff to keep me reading but not enough that if I miss anything I feel like I should go back and re-read.
When you land the plane, and it stops on the tarmac, and the pilot comes on and says we've arrived early but we won't be going directly to the gate as there was a bomb threat at the terminal...well...you have visions of one of those 8-hour deals where you'll be on the national news and later on there'll be discussions about the passengers bill of rights. We apparently arrived as they'd finished the search because about 10 minutes later they pulled up to the gate. There was plenty of activity with luggage guys moving and pilots deplaning and you could see folks moving in the terminal. About 10 minutes after that, they let us off.
Some parents of children on planes need to do their job. This one lady even had the flight attendant remove her child from his seat and made him switch with one of the grandparents. He was smashing his Pringles chips on his tray while mom slept. He tore his paper into little strips and dropped them on the floor. He was just being a kid and wasn't loud or anything, but when the attendant asked the mom to help keep him from being messy she just went back to sleep. Later, there was a lot of seat switching, making the business traveler next to me terribly uncomfortable. When I got off the plane the mom was kind of rude to me, telling me to hurry up in a sharp tone. I smiled, and thought she should've left a large tip for the flight attendant, like you do when your kid goofed up in a restaurant. I'm on vacation. This lady isn't bothering me.
Holding Margaux is magical. I came with high expectations. She didn't disappoint...and raised the bar.
The higher-order barnstoming lifestyle may need to be redefined. They talked about the stuff they wanted to do while we were here, and going to a movie topped the list. Upon further consideration, that has since been trumped by the possibility of a nap.
Watching the Cowboys game in high definition was cool. It was the first time I'd watched an entire event in high-def, and there really is a difference. And, manalive, what an exciting game!
Watching the Yankees bow out of the playoffs in high-def was even better.
When I got up this morning, I should've put on a sweatshirt and jeans to walk to get the daily miracle that is a newspaper. I didn't...and reveled in the 50 degree weather. High today in the 60's. Life is good.
Front page headlines like this, this, and this Metro section headline let you know that you're reading a different daily miracle that is a newspaper than the one you read about 355 days per year. The last headline made me laugh because it implied that not only is there one tree-sitter, there's enough tree-sitters that need a leader...and, how is it news that any mayor would be considered too conservative by one who would sit in trees?
Well, glad to have The Diner back open...even if it is for brunch/after work/linner...
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