[Rhodes22-list] ss report: Waiting for Detelin

[elle]

Some of us have ordeals; you & Rose have ADVENTURES!

elle

--- stan <stan at rhodes22.com> wrote:

> (for when the List gets too quiet)   
> 
> 
>  "Dido" is no longer with us.  He has moved on (with
> our blessings) to a better job with "Regulator" on
> the other side of town.   Rose and I had gone to the
> airport to pick him up.  He was coming in from
> Dulles on the last leg of his usual flight pattern
> from Bulgaria.  The flight was scheduled to arrive
> at 6:02 and I played it safe by arriving at ORF at 5
> pm.  (Rose had finally found out that ORF is code
> for Norfolk International.   What a beautiful
> Airport.   I would have named it JKI (Joyce Kilmer
> International).   The architectural firm had been
> handed an unspoiled waterfront section of town with
> the instructions to save every possible tree.   And
> so they did.   The entrance road, winding around
> water ways and under tall leafy limbs, makes its way
> to a beautiful terminal, in turn connected by a long
> covered moving sidewalk to parking and baggage
> buildings tucked in this gem of an airport, whose
> warts I was soon to discover.
> 
>     The first thing I noticed when the moving
> sidewalk ejected me into the arrival and departure
> chapel's upper terminal floor was the yellow notice
> advising that United 7239 was going to be one half
> hour early.   I had never heard of a flight being
> early.   Well not a one hour flight being a half
> hour early !   Even I, who had the US Navy Air Corp
> on my resume, knew something was wrong in Denmark,
> or at least in Bulgaria.   All of the terminal
> schedule displays were in agreement:  United flight
> 7239 arriving from Dulles was going to be a half
> hour early.   Good thing we came early.   With my
> computer disturbed by the math, I kept checking and
> rechecking the displays until, low and behold, the
> yellow sign disappeared and the flight was now
> listed as being on time.
> 
>     Rose and I settled into the first two seats this
> side of the security border so no arrivees could
> pass us undetected.   Flight after flight unloaded. 
>  No Dido.   Having lost trust in the schedule
> displays I continued checking for changes.   When a
> flight arrived the sign would say, "Landed".   No
> such sign for my now overdue flight.   In fact all
> of a sudden my flight completely disappeared from
> all screens.   Surely, with all these bright faced,
> tagged, uniformed airport personnel randomly flying
> around inside the terminal I would quickly find out
> Dido's fate and the fate of United's 7239, off the
> screen
> somewhere between Washington and Norfolk. 
> 
>     The easiest person to ask was the attendant at
> the security gate.   He said he works for a
> different company and has no idea.   I noticed a
> sign that said this way to "Information", a few
> football fields to the east.  The lone attendant,
> whose uniformed chest was loaded with military
> medals, said that he worked for another company and
> according to his computer, that flight had landed on
> time.   He was not interested in understanding why
> the schedule displays had missed this; they worked
> for a different  company.   I had a bright idea.   I
> would take the external elevator for its full one
> floor run to the United ticket counter underneath
> me.  It was a two second trip but I concluded the
> view made the cost of this glass walled theme park
> ride worth every penny that it must have cost.
> 
>     At United's ticket counter neither of the two
> parallel lines of potential flyers was moving so I
> bullied my way to one of the three attendants.   He
> said he worked for a different company and left. 
> The second attendant admitted working for United and
> said that that flight had not landed, that the non
> moving lines were waiting to take that flight back
> to wherever it had come from and that there was much
> snow in Chicago where that flight from Dulles
> originated and that that plane has just now made it
> into the Chicago air and that it would be very late
> tonight before it landed in Norfolk since it still
> had to make it to Dulles.  At least she didn't work
> for a different company.   She worked for United - I
> would go with her.   And I would be a good citizen
> and go back and bring the Information bunker up to
> speed.   But another look at his computer confirmed
> again, at least for the Information attendant, that
> 7239 had landed.   He explained that the company he
> works for has t
>  o go with the company the computer works for no
> matter what the company the ticket lady works for
> says.  
> 
>     I asked him to call the pilot's lounge and see
> if they knew anything and he said he can not do
> that.  The tower?  He said he can't do that. 
> Chicago?  He said he does not have that number.  He
> said I should go back to United and ask them to
> verify their story.   So back I made it to the
> United ticket line.  They seemed to be busy giving
> refunds but I went to the front of the line and the
> helpful lady went back to the computer - the flight
> was somewhere in the air and she had no fixed time
> of arrival yet and that I should go home and come
> back later.  Home was hours away in NC so I decided
> to make one final visit to Information who stuck to
> his story that the flight had landed.  I asked if
> there was some sort of court of appeals I could take
> my case to - he said no such higher authority.   In
> a fit of humorous creativity I asked if there was a
> lower authority I could go to, like "baggage".   To
> my surprise the Information attendant was impressed,
> so off I hiked to the tiny
>   United baggage office which turned out to be
> conveniently located at the farthest end of the
> complex.  By now most of the airport was closed down
> and all the commercial booths were under tarps but
> the United baggage office light was on and the
> office door was open and there was a nice lady
> behind the counter shuffling luggage.
> 
>      I told her my story of getting different
> endings for flight 7239.   She looked at me with
> amusement and said she worked for a different
> company and could tell me without any ifs or buts
> that that flight had long since landed and that she
> personally had taken its unclaimed bags off the
> carousel.  And further more that she could tell me
> that Detelin had not been on that plane.   I
> exploded, "What, you know who is on each flight?"
> and she said, "of course".   My god, I had stumbled
> onto the Central Intelligence Agency of the entire
> airport operation cleverly headquartered in baggage.
>   I would go back to the United counter and tell
> them the flight they were looking for had actually
> landed long ago and that is why they could not find
> it.   By now I had found that by taking the walking
> sidewalk in the wrong direction I could run and get
> to the other end much slower which was great for my
> exercise program.   On the escalator part of my
> trips I would go up the down stairway.   
>  My exercising exercise got me late to United
> ticketing territory.  It was closed and its two non
> moving lines had moved.   Somehow this darkened,
> quiet, peaceful part of the airport inspired an
> inspirational thought.   I would ask the CIA bag
> lady for the passenger names on the next flight from
> Dulles that was due in at 11:30.  Brilliant.
> 
>     A flight had come in from somewhere and the bag
> lady was doing her thing.  She did not seem pleased
> to see me.   By now I was well known by most of the
> airport's night crew.  The Information guy waved to
> me as I flew by his booth.   I said to the bag lady,
> "tell me if Detelin is on the 11:30 flight".   I
> think this is when my bearded face finally came into
> full focus and reminded her of the oath.  "It is
> against the law for me to give out passengers'
> names."
> 
>     Now I am not dumb.   I have seen "All the King's
> Men" two times.   I know how Bernstein and Woodward
> handle these kinds of situations.
> 
>     "I don't want you to tell me the names of any of
> the passengers" I said, " I just want you to tell me
> if I should wait for the 11:30 ".
>        
>     The bag lady, relieved by my professionalism,
> whispered, "wait for the 11:30".
>       
> 
>     What does one do at an airport for six and one
> half hours, other than use the gym.
> 
>     Rose and I noticed a lot of loving.  As each
> flight unloaded, as soon as its passengers crossed
> the security line, someone on the insecure side
> grabbed them and kissed them - sometimes for
> indecently long times.   What the hell, I would grab
> the solo traveling ladies and hug and kiss them. 
> then say, "Oops, I am sorry.  I thought you were
> someone else".   (With Rose sitting there, this was
> my fantasy so let me add that each time I broke off
> with the hugging and kissing and got to the part
> where I said, Oh, I thought you were someone else,
> there were expressions of disappointment.)  
> 
>     It looked like it was going to take a day to
> pick up Dido but 11:30 came just in time.   The
> flight was on time.  Dido was the first one to cross
> the security line and I found myself saying, "What
> are you doing here so early.  We did not expect you
> for another two days.   Rose, on the other hand,
> quietly got off her now well warmed seat and hugged
> and kissed Dido - for an indecently long time and he
> opened his bag and gave her a beautiful Bulgarian
> wool blanket.   And what does the one who did all
> the hard investigative exercising and fantasizing
> get?
> 
>     Well maybe the short lived satisfaction that
> goes with   "mission accomplished"....
>     
>     
> I'll sign this one with a Spitzer since the end
> sounds like one - or maybe Carter.
> __________________________________________________
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> 


We can't change the angle of the wind....but we can adjust our sails.

 1992 Rhodes 22   Recyc '06  "WaterMusic"   (Lady in Red)


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