Rerouted

So just as with my flight to Texas, my return trip has been rerouted. Again my flight into ORD was delayed past my connecting flight time, so it wasn't a hassle to get them to change my flights to route me through DFW, which saves about 2 hours of flight time. I'm going to be on stand-by for an earlier connection in Dallas to try to get home earlier because my current connecting flight requires about a 3 hour lay-over in the lovely DFW airport. Could be home as early as 9p, might be in closer to my original scheduled time of 11p.

Frankly, I don't mind as long as I get the hell home. With the ice storm here in Central Texas the past few days, I would not have been able to get out any earlier, and tomorrow there is likely to be another storm in the area continuing the travel problems. Apparently the Austin airport ran out of de-icer Tuesday night due to a delayed shipment, and they are still trying to clear out the backlog of cancelled flights.

A big thanks to maggiemaepisces for again providing excellent accommodations, company, and a more than adequate selection of DVDs for my viewing pleasure. After dealing with the family bereavement trip, a low-key few days in Austin was a welcome break. It was great to get some time with onyxlynxx, red_tanya, panthyr, and a few others whose LJ names elude me. There were a few more folks I wanted to look up, but they were in various stages of sick/busy. Despite some storm-related closures, I did manage to hit up most of my food-favs including the all-important Trudy's migas and Chuy's tortillas.

While there are many people and things about Austin I miss, after five years it no longer feels at all like home. There are fewer and fewer 512 phone numbers in my phone's address book these days as old friends have moved or we've lost touch. Seattle is home now, and I really want to get back there soon. Besides, jeliza and I haven't managed a date in weeks! :>

Air travel continues to blow

Although my flying time is 2 hours shorter than going through Chicago, I'll be getting home after midnight (30 minutes later than my originally scheduled flights) thanks to assloads of delays in DFW. Jebus. I know I should be grateful if I don't have to spend the night in an airport, that I get to piss away the time with Internet and power on the ground instead of extra hours in a cramped seat, and that I'm not stranded through the weekend by another ice storm, but I really want to be home.

Then again, there's nobody waiting for me at home tonight besides a pissy cat. About the only thing different than my surfing at the airport vs. at home is that I could get some laundry done and put a bunch of stuff into Quicken. Still, I can speak from many years of experience that it's better to be lonely among the comforts of home. Would've been nice to get my house back in order and unpacked, get a full night's sleep, and get to work on time tomorrow. They've been nice about giving me the time for the family emergency, although I won't be able to get a whole lot accomplished for the week in one day.

Maybe I'd be less pissy if I didn't know that I missed an earlier flight by 15 minutes--thanks to crappy gate assignments, slow gate personnel keeping the door shut for an extra ten minutes waiting for them to bother opening the plane, and general suckiness of the whole airline industry--that was on time and would've gotten to SEA by 9pm.

Grr. Bitch. Whine.

At least the damn plane is finally here and disgorging the previous flight's passengers.

Update: Christ, the departure is delayed another 15 minutes. A four hour layover in DFW is bs, but at least they actually starting to board now. I'll be thrilled to have Dallas in our dust. Another five hours before I can hope to be home...