I think I got about 3 or 4 blogs worth of material while I was in Hawaii. Which is about what I would have written if I had been home (still trying to keep pace for my yearly goal) so now I just have to figure out when I will make up the missed blogs, maybe double blog days? Or a blog a day for a stretch? Or realize I have a lot of year left so no worries? Hmmm....
Anyway...starting with the last Hawaii blog and working my way back.
Right after we boarded the plane on Friday there was an announcement, or two really...they had stopped boarding due to a "boarding emergency" and someone had left a coat in the pre-board area. We weren't sure if the coat was the emergency, you know how they are about things being left behind, but it didn't seem like that was it. Anyway, we were on the plane and sitting while most everyone else was waiting to get on the plane. Except for the woman who left her coat; she was with us. Worked her way back and got her coat. Then back to her seat. Talking the whole time. Chatty one...
So as we are sitting the pilot comes on and says that there has been an electrical issue and the in-flight entertainment needs rebooted. To do this they have to power down the whole plane and bring it back up. I guess it runs on Windows...
So they power down the plane. Planes get really quiet when nothing is running. No fans, nothing. It didn't get super dark because it was 3 in the afternoon, but dimmer for sure. It's kind of eerie. And it reminds you of just how noisy a plane is. Then everything powers back up. The pilot comes back on and says that didn't work so no in-flight entertainment system. Good thing I have a book and don't watch.
Boarding starts again (we have to think the emergency was the powering down part, no one boarding seemed to know of anything else) and we are looking at a late start, but at least we are going. Pilot comes on again, says the jet stream is very strong so even with the late start we are going to get in early. Yay.
We've been in the air for a few hours and Brent looks over at me with a panicked expression. "What?" "Did you not hear that?" "Nope." So a few rows behind us (remember chatty coat lady?) he had just heard her saying to her flying companion, "Well if it's viral nothing will do any good, and it can't be something you ate because we all ate the same thing." Oh no! Ick sick on the plane! So then the next thing I hear is her telling her sick friend, "Walk all the way to the front of the plane and all the way back, see if that helps."
Umm....what? You are sick and we are all sharing the same canned air but just in case that's not quite enough please walk through the entire plane to spread the love...
So down the aisle comes sick dude. I point him out to Brent who makes the disappointed face, "Great, he's walked past me three times already and touches my seat and brushes my arm each time." So now I am hoping he had bad poi at his luau (is there good poi?) and we haven't just been contaminated with ick sick.
Now, I am sympathetic to flying sick, had a memorable miserable flight home from Louisville one time where my PNW digestive system didn't process the southern fry the fried things and fry them again meal we had the night before. And I've had a few flights home from Vegas where I was a little rough, but both of those I knew what (or who) had caused them. Mystery illness? Nope. I told Brent, "just try to not use the restroom" because sick dude had used both of them on our side of the plane. No non-contaminated option for us. Of course on a 5 hour flight that's pretty much impossible for most non-camel people, so just extra soap clean up of the hands and don't touch anything directly you don't have to.
Now the sympathetic part of me was also feeling badly for him. That strong jet stream? Well it meant strong turbulence. The really bumpy kind. The please stay in your seats and flight attendants take your seats kind. Ugh. Poor guy. I mean poor guy right now but I reserve the right to curse you and your offspring if I end up with the ick sick.
But now we are 3 days out and no problems so I just hope he is fine and all recovered. And who knows maybe it was just a clever way to get rid of the extra vacation pounds?
So the flight home wasn't great, but honestly, it's a flight home from Hawaii so even if everything had been working well, the flight had been smooth as butter and there hadn't been ick sick guy wandering the aisle like a contamination machine it still wouldn't have been great.
Aloha and Mahalo....
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