I was cruising in our Airbus 321 this morning to Dallas when I wanted to check our flight map and the following screen came up. Note the figure against distance traveled. Throughout the flight, the system kept updating the distance, but always gave it till the second decimal digit in miles!!

Think for a second. That makes no sense right? A second decimal place in miles would mean about 50 feet. The plane itself is three times as long. At 31,000 feet height at a speed of 500 mph, it takes us less than a tenth of a second to cover a second decimal in miles.

It is an irony that my flights get delayed by hours but I am given my flight progress in less than a tenth of second accuracy!!

I was sitting at a local Starbucks getting some work done. When I went to pick up my drink, something struck me in what I saw.

Do you see it?

There are two queues ostensibly for mobile pick up. They are separated by the starting letter of the customer’s name. So far so good.

Here is the problem – one has A-F and the other G-Z. That does not sound like a balanced queue load – unless Americans are overwhelming these days naming themselves in an alphabetically skewed fashion.

“Jason!”, I called out to the friendly gentleman who always helps me with my tea.
“Yes, Roy”.
“Come here. I have a question”.
Nobody was there in the store at that time. Jason came over and surveyed what I pointed at…

“Do you see the problem?”
“What problem?”
“Why do we have 6 letters in one queue and 20 in the other?”

Jason was truly flummoxed! He counted from A to F, looked at me, looked at the cards again and shook his head – “I have no idea. I just printed out the corporate templates!”.

Ah! The corporate templates! Bane of all our intelligence!!

Anyways, we had a great laugh together and I got a free cup of tea!!

Chicago’s Midway Airport

I think I have flown into Midway only once.

Our flight today took off northwards from O’hare Airport, banked to the right and straightened out over Midway Airport. At that point, I realized something. It is a perfectly square airport with the main runways forming clean diagonals!

I do not think I have ever seen an airport with as much geometrical symmetry!

… the airlines come up with a curve ball for me. Yet another first time for me!!!

Sitting at the Delta Skyclub, as I wrapped up my office emails – I looked up at the display board to see if there was any delay in my flight. And sure enough – the top entry showed “Canceled”. The destination? Atlanta! The time of departure? 5:04!!

That is my flight 🙂

8 million miles later, I have figured out how to take these things in my stride. What I was curious about though is why I did not get a notification from Delta. Usually, they let me know how they have rebooked me. Checked on my phone and it said my flight was on time!!

Thoroughly confused, I went closer to the display board to check. And you can see what I am confused with even now…

2 different flights – same airlines – same destination – same time – one canceled and one on time! Luckily my number matched the one on time.

I looked up Delta’s website on the canceled flight number to see if it was delayed. I could not find any such flight today or tomorrow!!

I have no idea what happened here…

Delta flight 1332…

4:30: Original time of flight
5:10: 1st delay
5:31: 2nd delay
6:36: 3rd delay
7:32: 4th delay
7:44: 5th delay
8:05: 6th delay
8:18: 7th delay
8:30: 8th delay
9:00: 9th delay

I am still in Atlanta airport!!!

What is the big point of telling “End of Road Construction” only to be followed by a sign “Road Construction Ahead”?

It was surreal walking into a near empty office. It was like one of those neutron bomb scenarios you see in the movies. All the things were where they were – just the people were no more!!

Walked into my empty cubicle exactly 52 weeks – a whole year – later!! Set the laptop down on the station and immediately the printer came to life with the soft purring of cleaning the cartridges. It was good to realize that somethings had not changed forever yet.

Checked on the staff at the hotel bar next door – had even a drink with two colleagues there – like the good old times. It was difficult to recognize the staff with their masks on but they had no doubt that the nosy guest was back again moment I started chatting them up!!

Their menu has changed but Tracey and Deval ordered what we used to have long back when just to relive the old days.

Was encouraged to feel some semblance of normalcy starting to creep in.

Was painful to see all the grand 2020 plans we had laid that I had printed out to organize them neatly on the boards around me!

Ah! The best laid plans of mice and men… as the old bard had observed once…

Last year, my travels came to a screeching halt when I canceled my Mar 16 flight to Chicago the previous day. Pandemic took over the world and I did not get on to a flight for almost eleven months.

Exactly a year later – on Mar 15th – I am back to my work travel. Car in the same spot at the airport on a Monday morning, finished my banana and threw the peel in the same trash can before getting into the airport, same routine of picking up a paper boarding pass, Clear Pre check thru …

Felt almost like the good old Monday mornings with a few differences… the call to India on the drive to the airport was to my brother and then sister instead of my mom, the airport was fairly empty (but not like what I saw in Feb) and of course, everybody was wearing masks.

By the way, in that whole one year, I completely forgot to fix the wheel of my suitcase that got broken in one of the last trips last year!!!

Good to be back in the air for work again!!