Random Thoughts VII 'Merica (RTTVII)

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The security line is such a mess with dealing with laptops, shoes, belts and emptying your pockets that it is so easy to misplace something like your ID being that you have to have it out when they check your boarding pass. One time they pulled me over for the dreaded random pat down and I can see my wallet sitting their in one of those containers just ripe for the stealing. I get back and see a set of keys with an RSA token just sitting there. I hand it to the TSA agent and started looking for the woman in front of me in line. Fortunately she stood out because she was wearing a fairly distinctive hat (and she was cute)
I found her and she said no they weren't hers and she had noticed them as well. I feel bad for whomever lost those. Could you imagine flying home and you get to the parking garage and realize your lost your keys?


But really....if you prepare knowing what you're going thru, and it's easy to know what to expect, it's not that big of a deal. Inevitably, I put everything that will cause an issue in my carryon. My belt is off, my phone is in the carryon and shut off, any other electronic gizmos and keys are also in my carryon, my shoes are untied and easy to slip on/off. Essentially, when I get to the security desk, I go thru with my boarding pass and ID in my pocket and nothing else. I fly thru, and inevitably mrs00 has forgot about her 3 tubes of liquid lipstick and her bottle of water, and all the other **** in her purse, and she has her phone in her pocket, and she gets held up.
 
I just strip down to my underwear and shove my clothes through the machine, solves many problems now. Do it early enough and you get front of the line, nobody wants to be around that.
 
But really....if you prepare knowing what you're going thru, and it's easy to know what to expect, it's not that big of a deal. Inevitably, I put everything that will cause an issue in my carryon. My belt is off, my phone is in the carryon and shut off, any other electronic gizmos and keys are also in my carryon, my shoes are untied and easy to slip on/off. Essentially, when I get to the security desk, I go thru with my boarding pass and ID in my pocket and nothing else. I fly thru, and inevitably mrs00 has forgot about her 3 tubes of liquid lipstick and her bottle of water, and all the other **** in her purse, and she has her phone in her pocket, and she gets held up.
I do the same thing. Before I even get in line I take everything and put it in my laptop bag except my boarding pass and ID. I even untie my shoes so I am prepared. It's just that the vast majority of people get to the line and have no clue despite the numerous announcements and signs telling them what they need to do.
They need 3 lines
Pre check
Experienced flyers
Idiots
 
I think 1 and 2 are pretty good reasons if that is the best they could do. But if I was asked to be in two different weddings I would be in the one that had asked me first. If someone doesn't understand that the reason you can't be in their wedding is because you already committed to someone else at the same time, they weren't a very good friend to begin with.
You make a good point. However, I'm not sure which wedding he was asked to be in first. He did end up spending most of the night at our reception. Seeing me dance on the head table was probably worth the price of admission.
 
Used them once. Would never use them again.

I know too much about them that I generally refuse to fly them.

I actually didn't find Allegiant that cheap, either. The ticket itself is, but when you have to pay additional for every single bag, including carryons, pay extra for docking fees, pay extra for the air, pay extra for a bathroom pass, etc., that **** adds up real fast.

Yup. The flip side of that especially with the bags is that it is just built into the cost of the ticket with other airlines. As it currently stands We may be able to fly direct from CID to SFB (Or whatever the hell Sanfords identifier is) for around $500 with picking seats and a carry on and checked bag. Compare that to the airlines which are currently around $1,200-$1,500. Makes it hard not to choose them at this point. Southwest's schedule will go out that far in June so we will start checking them then.

This...we did allegiant a few times to AZ for the in-laws. It was okay when it was just the two of us, and we actually specifically went with them when the kids were infants just for the non-stop service from CR to AZ...pretty much no one else does that, you jump to a hub (ORD/MSP) then out. But, we had to pay for assigned seats and all that noise, so now that the kids are older and more capable of handling a day of air travel, we've found that if you're taking bags...by shopping around, we can get pretty close to Allegiant prices with traditional airlines and not have to screw around with not having assigned seats, etc.

This is partially why we are leaning towards Allegiant.
 
Just dont get the wand. Some of those wand dudes are crazy. Before 2001, I dropped my wife and her family off in DM. I went to the gate with them, when you could do that. I set off the detectors twice, I forgot I had my factory work clothes on, steel toes required. They pull me aside and the guy drills me in the groin with the wand. After doubling over a bit I remembered the steel toes and he checked and let me through. Don't want that again.

There was an oversensitive wand in use at GHW Bush in Houston about 15 years ago...the bloody thing beeped at the underwire in my bra.
 
I just strip down to my underwear and shove my clothes through the machine, solves many problems now. Do it early enough and you get front of the line, nobody wants to be around that.

There was an oversensitive wand in use at GHW Bush in Houston about 15 years ago...the bloody thing beeped at the underwire in my bra.


Apparently underwear ain't even good enough, BC....better go all out next time.

(advanced apologies to anyone who travels with BC from here on).
 
We've never flown Allegient but have flown Spirit a couple of times. It's a little screwy comparing prices, especially with the lower weight limit on the luggage, but we haven't had a serious issue with them. The employees at the check-in counter are very nice and they say they have the "youngest" fleet of planes. I've looked at flying Allegient out of the St. Cloud airport a couple of times (not much farther than MSP for us and free parking) but the limited schedule of flights makes it really tough when you don't have much flexibility in your vacation schedule.
 
Heading into the last week of single parenting. It has gone fast because 1/4 of the kids keeps me running 99% of the time. These three weeks will not be my best meals wise but we have eaten *something* every night. One night was dry cereal in the van and a brownie when we got home at 8:20 right before bedtime . . .
I'm guessing this was one of your kids' favorite meals.
 
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I do the same thing. Before I even get in line I take everything and put it in my laptop bag except my boarding pass and ID. I even untie my shoes so I am prepared. It's just that the vast majority of people get to the line and have no clue despite the numerous announcements and signs telling them what they need to do.
They need 3 lines
Pre check
Experienced flyers
Idiots

Normally, I have the time in line between them checking my ID and me putting my stuff on the conveyor to get my act together. Somehow I managed to score pre-check on both my flights. No big deal at DSM because there's almost never much of a line there. But at Phoenix, I walked past over 200 people queued up and glaring at me...and before I even set my stuff on the conveyor (they didn't even give me a box to put my purse & laptop in) they were waving me through the portal. I kind of slapped everything on the conveyor, and I'm thinking I probably laid my license and boarding pass on top of my carry-on instead of putting it back in my purse. Anyhoo, on the far side I grabbed my boarding pass, purse & carry on and headed for the gate.

Side note: pre-check is LOVELY!!!! (if you can get over everyone else glaring at you...)
 
Don't mind me, I'm just here studying complex functions, the Cauchy-Riemann Equation, complex logarithms, solving complex integrals around contours, series (Taylor, Maclaurin, Laurent), residue theorem, poles, singularities, linear fractional transformations, and modeling electrostatic potential using mapping, among other things.

All will be covered on my test Wednesday evening... :twitcy::sad:
This is how much of this that I understood.
yup-thats-a-stripper-pole.jpg

That kind of studying doesn't seem so difficult.
 
Apparently underwear ain't even good enough, BC....better go all out next time.

(advanced apologies to anyone who travels with BC from here on).


I will go halfway next time and wear thong underwear.

I grew up in the "can't be self conscious about being naked" time frame. In school we had community showers. Stand there buck naked with everybody else. One school just had the two big poles with about 6 shower heads coming out. Everyone kept there hands up, or you might turn and accidently end up with your neighbors junk. Didn't bother us being totally naked. Now it sounds like kids shower with bathing suits on, at least that's what we are told that the girls at the school do. Had parents of girls say their kids come home with wet swimsuits every night. Haven't asked me son, it seems a little odd to ask.
 
After his birthday this year I guess my Dad no longer has to remove shoes when flying. I guess they don't think people over a certain age will use their shoes as a place to hide explosives? I know my mom can't go through the scanner because she has a pacemaker, not sure if my dad can with 2 titanium hips.
 
The ten-year-old recently read a book at school that involved lying and the class had some fun with it. This is how she applied the lessons from the book discussion.
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I will go halfway next time and wear thong underwear.

I grew up in the "can't be self conscious about being naked" time frame. In school we had community showers. Stand there buck naked with everybody else. One school just had the two big poles with about 6 shower heads coming out. Everyone kept there hands up, or you might turn and accidently end up with your neighbors junk. Didn't bother us being totally naked. Now it sounds like kids shower with bathing suits on, at least that's what we are told that the girls at the school do. Had parents of girls say their kids come home with wet swimsuits every night. Haven't asked me son, it seems a little odd to ask.

Me too. Showers were required after PE...and that was a struggle in Jr high when all the girls were developing at different rates. Body-shaming (and envy) meant that girls' bodies were discussed outside of the locker room, and in mixed company. It could be very humiliating. And now every girl has a camera in her phone...yikes!
 
After his birthday this year I guess my Dad no longer has to remove shoes when flying. I guess they don't think people over a certain age will use their shoes as a place to hide explosives? I know my mom can't go through the scanner because she has a pacemaker, not sure if my dad can with 2 titanium hips.

It didn't trip on the plate in my foot - yay!!!
 
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