Adhering to
jumpdogjump's stricture
- only four...
When my wife and I were on our backpack-and-railpass honeymoon, our train pulled into Milano. I got off to look at the yellow panel on the platform just to be sure of which train to be on for our next leg. I confirmed to myself that our train was itself proceeding to Roma. At which point it began to pull out slowly. Official departure was an hour away. My wife, who didn't know what I knew, watched me from the window with full panic look as I waved and smiled, fully confident - for the first 20 minutes or so ... long enough to break a good sweat. When our train finally did back into its departure track, I said to my wife, "See?" It honestly was the first time in our relationship that I saw her livid to the core at me ...
Second - as much as I travel, DB does not. I gave him a trip to Las Vegas. Wrote and sent him all the particulars. He takes the airport bus the hour into SFO, with all the attendant getting to the depot, parking, standing in the epic line at the airport etc., to find out at the counter that the flight is the next day ... I've never ever made such a mistake with my own travel. Will he ever believe that? He drives for a living, and said that having someone else drive so he could look around was a novel enough experience to make the extra trip to the airport an excursion.
Third - pre-9/11 - I arrived at BOS nice and early - but in a fog - for an 0600 hr. USAir flight to BWI for a meeting I was hosting at an airport hotel. On the verge of nodding off in the waiting area. USAir, without my focusing on it, was boarding two flights through doors that were right next to each other. "Baltimore-Washington International" was called. I saw "...Washington..." scroll across in lights above the door through which I boarded. GA wasn't very attentive. I flopped in my seat and was out like a light - flight was light - missing all the announcements. Next, I felt the change in pitch indicating we were on approach, and as we closed in, thought, "This doesn't look right." ... as the flight attendant welcomed us to ... Washington Dulles. I deplaned and quickly called the venue - pre cell phone era - to tell my group that I'd be late. Rented a car, and drove like mad for BWI ... miraculously little traffic on the beltway ... to arrive in time to take my message from the hotel person at the door to my meeting room. When I think about all the places I could have ended up ...
Fourth - back in the day of the UA Concierge - GF and I misconnected at Stapleton at the end of Labor Day weekend. Found a Concierge who worked for a while to get us on the following flight. We didn't know how hard she worked. Got to the gate. Way over-sold. Taking VDBs. With 1K priority, we took a lucrative offer. Sitting there chuffed after the door closed - showing off the magic I could work - when up walked the Concierge ...
