Save your pity over my being stuck at an airport for four hours... because Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Know. I so rarely just toss a link up on my blog... that's what Twitter and Facebook are for... but I read an article titled "25 Things I'd Like My Sons to Know" and was inspired to do just that. Much of it applies not just to sons, but to people everywhere...
Photo from Tom Matlack's wonderful article.
If you want to have a little more hope for the future, follow that link. And to prove that Tom Matlack's genius isn't a fluke, here's another: "Raising Boys (A Dad’s Advice for Moms)."
• Sleepless. Any attempt to get some sleep last night was futile seeing as how there was a party going on down the hall until 2:30am. As background noise, I probably could have ignored it is not for a screaming cackle by some drunken hag who could just not shut the fuck up. Absolutely everything was funny to her, and I had to listen to her continuous screeching laugh for hours. This alone would have made my final night in Chicago unbearable, but when I got up two hours later there was no hot water at the Hyatt. I don't know what it is about me, but I seem to attract hot water failures.
• Aero. But there was good news from my travels today... when I got to the airport, I was totally psyched to see that, ZOMG!, I would be flying on the Mickey Plane!!
And just when I thought things couldn't get much better? UPGRADED TO FIRST CLASS! As a Delta elite flyer, this rarely happens on Alaska Airlines, so it was a complete surprise. As always, the best part of flying First Class is the warm nuts...
• Livery. This trip was lucky for planes, because my flight to Seattle on Thursday was on the Horizon/Alaska Air Huskies Plane...
Alaska Air has so many cool liveries on their fleet, but the one I'm most dying to fly is their "Salmon-Thirty-Salmon"...
Has to be one of the coolest planes ever made. One of these days I need to see how I can track it down for a ride.
• 'Cago. As Chicago is one of my favorite cities on earth, it sucks pretty hard to go there and not be able to spend any time exploring the place. And since I've been there dozens of times, seeking out the frivolous non-touristy stuff is where the fun is at for me. And the only frivolous thing I made time for was visiting the new LEGO store at Water Tower Place...
Kinda a disappointment. I mean, sure, they carry a large line of wonderful LEGO products, but it's kind of a boring layout compared to the old one. Oh well. It does have the benefit of being located next door to that obscenely popular American Girl store that makes those creepy little dolls I want to burn with fire.
• Coverage. Every time I get to Chicago, I can't help but marvel at the shitty data coverage AT&T has there. Seriously, it's so bad as to be unusable. If you manage to get anything from the internet at all it takes fucking forever, but most times the connection just times out...
How in the hell can the third largest city in the United States have such embarrassingly bad cellular service? At least I can make a phone call here. In Las Vegas (one of the largest tourist attractions in the country) not only is the data shit, but every call I make gets dropped. Every. Damn. Call. I have no idea why AT&T doesn't get off their stupid asses and fix this shit, because it's frickin' embarrassing. If I didn't have to travel outside the US, I'd switch to Verizon. I dunno. Maybe Verizon's international iPhone coverage is something I should look into.
• Limits. And lastly, from the "It's About Damn Time" file, Texas is raising the speed limit on a 41-mile stretch of highway between Austin and San Antonio to 85 MPH. Yes, I know that this is a real cause for concern when it comes to safety. Yes, I realize that there will still be idiots who drive 45 and hold up traffic. Yes, I understand that there are few roadways straight and flat enough to handle 85. And, yes, I get that there will still be people that will only use this as an excuse to go 95. But, dammit, I just don't care. Upping speed limits is something I approve of...
Photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell from AP Photo/Statesman.com
Mostly because I think it's fucking insane that you can get pulled over and ticketed for going 10 miles above the speed limit when there are murders running around free. Yes, dangerous drivers should be stopped and fined. No argument there. But is ticketing someone going 65 in a 55 really the best use of police resources if the driver is handling the speed safely? I'd argue the moron driving 40 in a 55 is the bigger danger. In any event, There are stretches of highway in Eastern Washington that could really benefit from an 85 MPH speed limit, I'm just sayin'.
And... my flight starts boarding in 15 minutes, so I guess I should wrap this up. Good thing too, I'm just about out of bullets...
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Well, Texas put in a fast lane for their death row, figured it wouldn’t be long till they souped up the highways.
(Stay away from my water heater!)
I was at SEA catching a flight back to MSP around the same time you were waiting. If I had looked at the updates maybe we could have had a quick visit over a beverage.
That 25 things list was very cool. Especially useful for me right now. Only four weeks till the due date.
Best bullet sunday ever! I love those planes and will read Tom’s article in a minute. Re: the speed limit increase, I took a ’94 BMW 325i to around 120 in north TX on my way to OK City in 1999. I believe the speed limit was 85 up there, or maybe 80. Regardless, I saw no cars whatsoever during my rebellious attempt at the sound barrier when I was in my low 20s.
As an aside, I have driven a more reasonable 80ish ever since that trip in 1999 until a few weeks ago, when I took my ’01 BMW 530i up to 125 on I-16 near Savannah. The speed limit there was 70. Bad things would’ve happened if I’d gotten caught. Clearly, I need to drive across TX again.
They’ve been upping our Texas speed limits on all the highways over the last year or so. The only real downside I’ve noticed is that it doesn’t seem to decrease the likelihood that some idiot will attempt to walk across the highway. At night. People don’t seem to comprehend that your ability to estimate how quickly oncoming vehicles will arrive diminishes greatly the faster they are traveling.
Of course, they’re probably mostly drunk, though I haven’t seen evidence of that.
There’s also the issue of deer, though I don’t recall hearing of any wandering on the tollways. Those are more of an issue on our 60-65 mph feeder roads.
I noticed the coverage in Chicago was spotty, particularly with the GPS. It never seemed to be able to locate where I was.
Both those articles are pretty good reads. You somehow always find really cool stuff.
Now I want to fly on those Disneyland and Salmon-Thirty-Salmon airplanes.
There are stretches of I-15 in Utah where they have been “testing” 80 mph. Cops and UHPs are trying to give tickets for going 5 over.