Kids these days

Yesterday’s flight from Boston to Minneapolis was utterly full. When that happens, overhead bin space is precious and you can see some ugly behavior.

I was in the aisle seat (three across), row 10 and because I fly all the time and have status with Delta, I boarded in Zone 1. Without status, I’d have been boarding in Zone 3 or 4. Zone 1 But boarding in Zone 1 meant I had plenty of overhead space.

As the plane filled I realized people were tripping over a bag sitting in the aisle by the man in front of me who was standing. He was older than I am, maybe even in his 70s and he looked really uncertain as though he were trying to do something. But people kept coming down the aisle and getting hung up over that suitcase.

So I asked him if he needed help putting it into the bin—it looked like there was room across the aisle for it. Imagine my surprise when the man in the window seat ahead of me spoke up and said it was his bag.

Uh what? He said there wasn’t room for it and both the woman next to me and I both said hey you need to put your bag up. No, no he didn’t, it was the flight attendants’ responsibility.

The old guy in front of me did find a spot for it and the young guy (he wasn’t even 30) didn’t even thank him.

To top it off, when we deplaned in Minneapolis, it was clear the old guy was disabled—he walked with a severe limp. I can only imagine that his shoulders were in the same condition as his legs.

As for the young guy, may he always sit in the middle row between two people of very generous size who squeeze the snot out of his self-entitled body. What a jerk.

Bah humbug to Valentine's Day

Kent is in Barcelona at a convention. He left Saturday afternoon. I am in Boston until tomorrow morning when I fly (again) to Hilo, HI. So bah humbug to Valentine's Day.

Sadness

Remember the neighbor's pipe that froze in our ceiling, ruptured and then dumped water all over our floors? I just now took this picture in the living room (rupture was in our bedroom ceiling) and you can see what's happening to the wood floors throughout the entire apartment.

The camera is crooked because the floor is that warped, and yes, you do see a board that's popped completely out.

Wally just had to be in the picture.

One more Jamaica picture

This picture was taken from the tiny plane on the way back to Montego Bay.


Now I return you to your typical dreary February weather.

Jamaica part 2

Last year we took a few pictures. This year we took even fewer; in fact, most of our pictures were taken on the tiny, propeller plane because the view from 2,000 feet was amazing.

But Kent did get this picture which I really like. You can see how pretty Bloody Bay is, and you can see how pale Kent is. He’s very good about using sunblock because he doesn’t tan, he only burns. He's so pale (how pale is he?) that even one of the massage therapists noticed—she asked us why he didn’t have tan lines. I guess red heads aren’t exactly common in Jamaica.

Jamaica

Last year we took the resort’s shuttle from Montego Bay to Couples Negril, which is about a 90 minute drive. We were both terrified the entire time because Jamaicans drive like insane people, no joke. I’ve been in traffic in New York City, Boston, London, Rome, and Beijing and Jamaica tops the list for driving insanity.

So this year we forked over the money to take a tiny little plane instead. The ride was 15 minutes long and in spite of my fears (hey it was a TINY propeller plane), very smooth and easy. Plus the view was amazing. We decided that was the best money we spent during our vacation.

Normally we aren’t the kind of people who sit around and do nothing while traveling but that’s what we mostly did last year and it’s entirely what we did this year. I read almost seven books (didn’t finish the last one because of a mishap involving my Kindle which is a polite way of saying someone lost it—no not me). But otherwise, we flopped around on beach chairs under palm trees, drank fruity drinks off and on and escaped the daily afternoon rain showers by hanging out on our patio which had a great view of the ocean.

I’ll write more later. I’m sitting in the Delta Sky Club getting ready to head to my gate to catch a flight. I’m going to Shreveport, LA and I’ve never been to Louisiana before.

Oh the drama

I’m back, I’ll write about the week later but first here’s the latest in our ongoing condo drama-rama.

You might want to refer to my diagram from last week just to keep things straight.

Boston has had a lot of snow this winter—we’re already at 70.1 inches for this season and February just started. The problem with all that snow is that none has melted and even more to the point, there’s no place to put it all.

The condo parking places (which have serious drama already surrounding them and I’m not going into it here because it’s tiresome and would take far too long) are in the alley. The alley is not a public alley which means the city doesn’t plow it. So we all dig our cars out and put our snow . . . somewhere.

The latest drama occurred last Wednesday when the male Nasty was observed shoveling snow from the stairs/sidewalk of 1 Claremont over onto the 3 Clairmont side. Yes, very childish and when he was caught I guess he didn’t really do anything. Flash forward and the neighbor in #6 (I’ll call them the Normals because that’s what they are—normal neighbors you’d wave at, help out if they needed it but not close friends because they’re just neighbors) shoveled a couple of shovel-fulls into the Nasties’ tenant’s parking place. Here’s a hilarious excerpt from Mr. Normal’s email to Mr. Nasty:

It’s the 3rd snowiest year on record after all. I DID see you shoveling your walk over in front of building 3, and mentioned it - but that is because you had a simple option of placing it in the street (probably as easy as moving it in front of building 3). I was in the process of digging Brooke’s car out...and it was partially stuck over in Cindy's spot. Not as simple.

I think this is getting a little carried away. If you would like for me to apologize to Cindy for digging my wife’s car out (edited to add his wife is eight months pregnant)...when it was stuck, I will. She is a very nice girl, and I am sure she will understand. If you are just wanting to play tit-for tat because I asked you not to move snow from in front of building 1, to in front of building 3 ...then hey, YOU WIN!

Who has time for this?

I will go to the back alley shortly, and move exactly three shovel fulls of snow from Cindy's spot, in to the alley.

Thank you for your ever present, all knowing and all watching eye.

See the fun we get to have in our condo association?