Safe in Sanata Fe
Well we made it out of Houston, luckily we flew
out of Hobby Airport on Southwest. It was total
pandemonium as around 15000 people were there
and apparently the TSA were staffed for 25
people.
I thought I was being clever, just bringing carryon
luggage, we'd dash in and grab an eticket from one
of the machines that are partially hidden from
novice travellers. We eased our way through the
massive checkin line, got to a machine and had our
tickets faster than you can say 'knife'. I had a smirk
of victory as we kept walking around the curve to
the security check-in, and the smirk turned to a frown
when I saw the massive security line. We made
our way to what we thought was the end of the line,
but it was more like we stood in one place for a minute
waited for a line to move and merged. (ok, we cut)
It took 2 1/2 hours to clear security, but we moved
most of that in the last hour when Southwest flew
a planeload of agents from dallas, they arrived and
manned the non-security positions at the checkpoint
which allowed more metal detectors to be manned.
Southwest is one of the smartest and best-run
companies around. The TSA is what you get when you
have another 100,000 federal employees, a bunch of
people killing time until retirement , "oh a storm is
coming? I'll take annual leave today, I've built up 120
days."
Anyway, enough bile for today. We made our plane with
minutes to spare since they held it 40 minutes. We made
our connection with seconds to spare, and now we're
taking our ease at my sisters in Santa Fe. (to me one of
the prettiest places in the world.)
West houston should come out ok from this storm, just
light damage and maybe street flooding if the projected
rain happens and the storm hits in port arthur. My
wife was right when she insisted on flying out (and found
a dogsitter), if we had driven to louisiana we'd be doubly
screwed, hit by the storm and we just heard from a friend
that there is no gas to be had for love or money.
out of Hobby Airport on Southwest. It was total
pandemonium as around 15000 people were there
and apparently the TSA were staffed for 25
people.
I thought I was being clever, just bringing carryon
luggage, we'd dash in and grab an eticket from one
of the machines that are partially hidden from
novice travellers. We eased our way through the
massive checkin line, got to a machine and had our
tickets faster than you can say 'knife'. I had a smirk
of victory as we kept walking around the curve to
the security check-in, and the smirk turned to a frown
when I saw the massive security line. We made
our way to what we thought was the end of the line,
but it was more like we stood in one place for a minute
waited for a line to move and merged. (ok, we cut)
It took 2 1/2 hours to clear security, but we moved
most of that in the last hour when Southwest flew
a planeload of agents from dallas, they arrived and
manned the non-security positions at the checkpoint
which allowed more metal detectors to be manned.
Southwest is one of the smartest and best-run
companies around. The TSA is what you get when you
have another 100,000 federal employees, a bunch of
people killing time until retirement , "oh a storm is
coming? I'll take annual leave today, I've built up 120
days."
Anyway, enough bile for today. We made our plane with
minutes to spare since they held it 40 minutes. We made
our connection with seconds to spare, and now we're
taking our ease at my sisters in Santa Fe. (to me one of
the prettiest places in the world.)
West houston should come out ok from this storm, just
light damage and maybe street flooding if the projected
rain happens and the storm hits in port arthur. My
wife was right when she insisted on flying out (and found
a dogsitter), if we had driven to louisiana we'd be doubly
screwed, hit by the storm and we just heard from a friend
that there is no gas to be had for love or money.
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