12-25-08

Santa Newtles and the Crooked Acres Gang wish you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of holidays.

(Or the happiest of Thursdays. Whichever.)

Debbie texted me from Dulles last night when her flight landed. Her flight from Portland left an hour late, but luckily they had a two-hour layover in DC.

Luckily, except that after pushing back from the gate, their plane sat on the tarmac in Portland for an hour, waiting for de-icing before they could actually leave.

Debbie texted me at 4:48 telling me that they had ten minutes to get to their gate. I checked the flight online five minutes later to see that it had left at 4:50.

“I don’t think they -” I started to say to Fred, and then the phone rang.

They missed their connecting flight, there were 300 people in line at the customer service desk, and they spent a couple of hours standing in line, then trying to find a flight that would come anywhere near here. I was more than willing to drive to Nashville or Birmingham to get them, but the last Nashville and Birmingham flights had already left.

Debbie started talking about flying into Knoxville and renting a car to drive the rest of the way (a four or five-hour drive), but in the end there were no flights out of Dulles that they could get out on, and they gave up and went to a hotel for the evening.

Now they’re back at the airport. Their flight’s due to leave in about half an hour, and so far there are no problems.

Keep your fingers crossed that they get here safe and sound! I expect everything will go just fine, and we’ll be sitting down to dinner mid-afternoon, as planned.

Previously
2007: Merry Christmas!
2006: No entry.
2005: Merry Christmas!
2004: No entry.
2003: Happy holidays!
2002: Wishing a warm, merry Christmas to you and yours, from us and ours.
2001: Happy holidays!
2000: No entry.
1999: No entry.