The Garden of the Blind

Last week, I went back to the Keystone State (just south of the Molson Province) for some meetings. This trip marked my first time (out of 5 trips so far) to this place where I didn't visit the shop floor where all the work is done. Instead, I hung out at the Officers' Club drinking lots of water and snacking on the food that was brought in.

I declined to go on the tours of the shops that were offered. I figured that I've gone this long without a formal tour of their facility, so there's no point going now.

One of the highlights from the trip came after my plane landed back at SLC. We had taxied almost to the gate, but had to stop while some stuff was moved out of our way. After the captain had told us this, a woman got up and started heading towards the exit. It took some persuading from the flight attendants to convince her to return to her seat (especially since the woman was not a native English speaker), but she did sit down and the plane moved a few more feet to the gate. Once we were given permission to stand, the woman started pushing her way through the crowd to get off the plane, saying that she had to catch another flight. No one thought much of this until a man just in front of me realized that she was taking the same flight he would be taking. We had arrived early and it was leaving in 40 minutes from a gate that was a 5 minute walk from where we landed, if you take your time. I'm guessing that she doesn't fly often, but I'll also guess that she caught her flight (unless the air marshals decided to ask her a few questions first).

I suppose that I can relate to her. I've missed flights with a short layover, and only caught some others after running frantically between gates. I've never missed a flight in a small (compared to Atlanta) airport when I had 40 minutes to catch it.

Anyway, it's good to be home.