5443 or Flight!
Jan. 20th, 2019 05:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogSunday morning, 5-something a.m.
Not a good night for sleeping. I've been inside since about 1 p.m. yesterday (Eleanor didn't leave the house all day), as the snow slowly but steadily piled up. Our most reliable snow gauge is how much lands atop the lamppost on the driveway; this was the Not Much as of around 4 yesterday afternoon:
It's probably twice that now, but nothing's been plowed, and the bigger problem is the cold. As bitter as predicted a week ago, and at single-digit-F temps, NaCl tends to NoGo.
So it seemed likely, and was widely reported, that virtually all air travel would be canceled- as was every departing flight last night shown on the airport status site. When I got up round midnight to check, they'd only posted the earliest of Not Departures, and the first Delta flight of the day showed as canceled. Wasn't looking like I'd even have a chance to get out....
until I did.
At 3 a.m., there was Flight 5443, one of only four the whole morning showing as still scheduled to depart. All but one of them, Deltas. Checking again at 4 (you think I can sleep with this?) and finally at 5 when I'd need to be up anyway? Still on- as it was as of a few minutes ago-
I then made the executive decision: No.
Even if I got there on time and the plane got out, I'd still have bad weather in NYC and no guarantee of a return flight. So I'm eating the flight cost (unless they wind up last-minute canceling anyway), but will save on parking, ground transportation and the inevitable Udda Thingza. The friend who took Eleanor's ticket is speaking for the other one as well. I hope they enjoy it. Someday, I will....
----
ETA. A bit more detail, now I've gotten some much-needed sleep, done the necessary shoveling, and taken Pepper out for a romp with her BFF:
The hype for this OMGSNOWPOACLYPSE! began sometime Monday. By Friday, the literal warning signs were up, the cancellations of weekend events began pouring in, and the Guv made his obligatory I'm In Control Here appearance at a Thruway garage in Cheektowaga, promising to keep semis off the 90 for the safety of us all.
By mid-Saturday, it was beginning to look like a bunch of piffle. Yes, there was snow. We get that. On the Jimmy Griffin Scale, it barely merited an OV Split. But the weather reporters continued to preach: Trust us, it's gonna get worse. And yeah, it did- to maybe a Genny Cream Ale or two. This was our measuring stick at 9:30 this morning after it was all done:
MAYBE half a foot. But it worked sufficiently to ground every flight here as of late Saturday afternoon and gave every expectation that it would continue to call everything off this morning.
When crutches came into our life two weeks ago, I made alternate plans for Eleanor's ticket- a friend I know through the baseball blogger world, who'd been on my backup list the LAST time I bailed on this show, spoke for the one. Being unsure, I told her that if she could cover my cost for the second as well, she could have both if I didn't make it, or just the one if I did. Deal was done. So I headed to an early sleep with the probability I'd be turning the 5 a.m. alarm off whenever they pulled the plug.
At midnightish (pee break), the first few departures got posted on the flight status page, and all of them, including Delta's first out of the day to NY, were cancelled. Then came 3: a much longer list, all but four showing cancellations. One Jet Blue to JFK, the other three Deltas, including mine. Try getting back to sleep with those needles and pins. I knew I'd have to make a call no later than 5, because going would mean, well, GOING: gathering my stuff, getting out of the driveway and to the airport by 6:15 at the latest for the 7 departure, and then waiting out the whethers of the weather.
I looked at two adorable animals sleeping either side of me, and the only speakable words were fuck it. I texted my backer-upper and committed to the bail; it then only remained to see if any of those four flights would make it out despite the week of OMGs.
Mine certainly did (although the website does mention a delay, so I might still get some kind of accommodation). So did the earlier ones. Far as the news goes, none of them crashed or got diverted to Dubuque. Moments after I made the call, our driveway was plowed. By 9ish, when I was up after finally getting some sleep, I took the picture above of the piffly accumulation, brought in our Sunday paper which was delivered right on time, and saw the usual amount of cars going by for that time of a weekend morning.
By all looks this was a moderately bad but majorly overhyped winter storm. But there was still always the question of whether they'd completely miss something preventing me from getting from airport to theatre, or back to it and home late tonight. I did not want to spend the whole afternoon exhausted from the getting and worried about the returning. It's an amazing show and I am determined to not only see it but enjoy it.
Not a good night for sleeping. I've been inside since about 1 p.m. yesterday (Eleanor didn't leave the house all day), as the snow slowly but steadily piled up. Our most reliable snow gauge is how much lands atop the lamppost on the driveway; this was the Not Much as of around 4 yesterday afternoon:
It's probably twice that now, but nothing's been plowed, and the bigger problem is the cold. As bitter as predicted a week ago, and at single-digit-F temps, NaCl tends to NoGo.
So it seemed likely, and was widely reported, that virtually all air travel would be canceled- as was every departing flight last night shown on the airport status site. When I got up round midnight to check, they'd only posted the earliest of Not Departures, and the first Delta flight of the day showed as canceled. Wasn't looking like I'd even have a chance to get out....
until I did.
At 3 a.m., there was Flight 5443, one of only four the whole morning showing as still scheduled to depart. All but one of them, Deltas. Checking again at 4 (you think I can sleep with this?) and finally at 5 when I'd need to be up anyway? Still on- as it was as of a few minutes ago-
I then made the executive decision: No.
Even if I got there on time and the plane got out, I'd still have bad weather in NYC and no guarantee of a return flight. So I'm eating the flight cost (unless they wind up last-minute canceling anyway), but will save on parking, ground transportation and the inevitable Udda Thingza. The friend who took Eleanor's ticket is speaking for the other one as well. I hope they enjoy it. Someday, I will....
----
ETA. A bit more detail, now I've gotten some much-needed sleep, done the necessary shoveling, and taken Pepper out for a romp with her BFF:
The hype for this OMGSNOWPOACLYPSE! began sometime Monday. By Friday, the literal warning signs were up, the cancellations of weekend events began pouring in, and the Guv made his obligatory I'm In Control Here appearance at a Thruway garage in Cheektowaga, promising to keep semis off the 90 for the safety of us all.
By mid-Saturday, it was beginning to look like a bunch of piffle. Yes, there was snow. We get that. On the Jimmy Griffin Scale, it barely merited an OV Split. But the weather reporters continued to preach: Trust us, it's gonna get worse. And yeah, it did- to maybe a Genny Cream Ale or two. This was our measuring stick at 9:30 this morning after it was all done:
MAYBE half a foot. But it worked sufficiently to ground every flight here as of late Saturday afternoon and gave every expectation that it would continue to call everything off this morning.
When crutches came into our life two weeks ago, I made alternate plans for Eleanor's ticket- a friend I know through the baseball blogger world, who'd been on my backup list the LAST time I bailed on this show, spoke for the one. Being unsure, I told her that if she could cover my cost for the second as well, she could have both if I didn't make it, or just the one if I did. Deal was done. So I headed to an early sleep with the probability I'd be turning the 5 a.m. alarm off whenever they pulled the plug.
At midnightish (pee break), the first few departures got posted on the flight status page, and all of them, including Delta's first out of the day to NY, were cancelled. Then came 3: a much longer list, all but four showing cancellations. One Jet Blue to JFK, the other three Deltas, including mine. Try getting back to sleep with those needles and pins. I knew I'd have to make a call no later than 5, because going would mean, well, GOING: gathering my stuff, getting out of the driveway and to the airport by 6:15 at the latest for the 7 departure, and then waiting out the whethers of the weather.
I looked at two adorable animals sleeping either side of me, and the only speakable words were fuck it. I texted my backer-upper and committed to the bail; it then only remained to see if any of those four flights would make it out despite the week of OMGs.
Mine certainly did (although the website does mention a delay, so I might still get some kind of accommodation). So did the earlier ones. Far as the news goes, none of them crashed or got diverted to Dubuque. Moments after I made the call, our driveway was plowed. By 9ish, when I was up after finally getting some sleep, I took the picture above of the piffly accumulation, brought in our Sunday paper which was delivered right on time, and saw the usual amount of cars going by for that time of a weekend morning.
By all looks this was a moderately bad but majorly overhyped winter storm. But there was still always the question of whether they'd completely miss something preventing me from getting from airport to theatre, or back to it and home late tonight. I did not want to spend the whole afternoon exhausted from the getting and worried about the returning. It's an amazing show and I am determined to not only see it but enjoy it.
No pity party here. That show's not leaving Broadway any time soon , and Toronto's Broadway-bringer will have it in town there next year. I'm on the preferred list for ticket batch releases, and this time will shoot for something in the summer, although with my luck there is still the risk of locusts, boils or frogs. (If we can confine them to Yankee Stadium, I'm perfectly fine with that;)
Speaking of curses, we still have two Harry Potter movies cued. My friends are gonna have a great time. And the Patriots might lose, so then I'll leave Marcia Brady to do all the complaining;)