Well we made it out and back and only had to drive in LA 4 times. Though I must say after driving everywhere else it was actually pleasant to drive in LA (unless it was the rushour). The trucks stayed in the two slowest lanes (that's a law isn't it?) and the traffic was very orderly about faster traffic to the right. I didn't see any left lane vigilante's. I also noticed that people actually paid attention to your turn signals. Unlike Alaska, Hawaii and Virgina where they are consider a challenge rather than a signal of intent.
But Mother Nature says I don't think so!. So I woke up this morning thanking god it was my last day of work for two weeks. I was looking forward to missing breakup, getting some sun and a shot or two of tequila in Mexico. Then Mother Nature decided to piss on my parade.
As many of you know we have been having on again, off again issues with a volcano (Mt Redoubt) about a hundred miles south of us. For the most part it's been a non issue. when it did spurt the the wind was blowing the other way and we didn't hear about it unless it was in the news.
Then today dawns. The one day in almost a year I have flown anywhere the fscking volcano decides to erupt with the wind blowing toward anchorage. So flights canceled. trip delayed by one day. Not that big a deal especially since we could change our tickets for no cost due to the volcano. We had booked a cruise to Mexico but aren't leaving until Monday so that is OK.
Here's the rub. We had very carefully orchestrated meeting our 16 year old niece at the airport so she could go with us. It's her spring break. Our tickets were with Alaska Airlines who was very helpful and understanding. Her's were on United and Delta. What do you think they said, go ahead guess. I will even wait a minute and let you think about it so you can do a little research on google and get an informed opinion.
ok? Ready? Yup you guessed it. Since her flights were not directly effected by the volcano and even though she is a minor flying unaccompanied to the largest city on the west coast and our flights were delayed by a day. They wanted us to pay to alter her tickets. Greedy, uncaring, unwavering corporate bastards. God forbid they give up a few hundred dollars of profit for a good customer experience and possibly gain a little customer loyalty in the process. Instead they chose the greedy corporate route and tried to squeeze ever last drop of blood out of a turnip that had already been wrung out.
This is why in my opinion bailouts won't work. Every company that does stuff like this really ought to go the way of the dinosaur and be given a chance to do what they are so intent on doing anyway and fail. Good Riddance. Maybe, just Maybe what rises from the ashes of these asshats is a company that actually understands that a little patience and understanding goes a long way toward gaining a good reputation with the customer base and might actually cause costumers to have a little loyalty.
For those of us who haven't been in Alaska very long February and March are busy months in Anchorage.
First we have the Iditarod, "The Last Great Race", which for the uninitiated is the largest sled dog race in the US. It has a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage, and then 24hours later the real start occurs in Wasilla. Odd thing is though, Anchorage has usually lost most of the snow on the roads by then (either due to the diligence of our snow removal crews or weather). So in order to provide snow for the dogs and sleds to run on it gets trucked in!
Then we have the Fur Rondy (or Rondezvous) Which has it's origins in the trapping trade that got people to Alaska in the first place. It started out as a meeting to get all the trappers in the outlying areas in one place so they could barter and trade furs as a means to make a living and to be able to stock up on low winter supplies. Now it's more like a winter fair, with music, and games, and outhouse races (yes I said outhouse races).
Anyway the purpose of this post is let you know about these events so you can plan for them if you wish to experience what Anchorage has to offer in the winter.
Tilt-shift miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model. By distorting the focus of the photo, the artist simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered with macro lenses making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is. Many miniature faked photographs are taken from a high angle to further simulate the effect of looking down on a miniature. Thanks Wikipedia
Hey Guys, just wanted to post some pictures of the Christmas decorations and the new furniture in the kitchen. Give us a shout and let us know what you think. The shot that I linked was from the Moon set this morning. It was so bright you could read by it and it's supposed to be brighter this evening... If it is I will try and get some more pictures and post them.
