Journal

November 27th, 2003

Thanksgiving Holiday... or is it?

     I decided over my 4 day weekend off from work to fly to Colorado, DIA to see my family and children, seeing as I wasn't going to be able to do it over Christmas, where I only had 2 days off. So...From work on the 26th (which is

actually the 27th I work the late shift) my roommate drove me from Morristown, NJ (where I work) to La Guardia Airport in NY...I had fallen asleep on the ride... from what I understand it was hell getting over the George Washington Bridge... an hour and a half delay...

     So we finally arrive at the airport... my flight leaves at 6am... it's a quarter past 5 at this point... we left Morristown at half past 1 in the morning. Stopped for breakfast at a diner on US-46, I don't recall the name or the town, I apologize for leaving that bit of detail out..... Anyway...it took him 3 1/4 hours to get from the diner to the airport... lovely... eh? Well...I get to the airport... go through, get my ticket... check my baggage without a hitch... no weird things other then having to put my laptop on top of my computer case before they send it through...

     So I'm waiting for my flight... we all board... everything is normal... right? Hmmmm maybe not... LOL... (Did I mention I don't like to fly? Well I don't... I hate it actually)... well... we're all boarded and strapped in... so we start taxing out to the runway.... *sigh....and all of a sudden... we're turning onto the runway... and the lights go out... everything gets really quiet... all the passengers stop talking... I'm looking around... then we hear something that sounds like a car trying to turn over... on a low battery with no gas... LOL... twice... then... nothing...So we're starting to talk amongst ourselves... wondering what in the world is going on... Did I mention this was United Airlines? Anyway... we see a flight attendant come down the isle with a flashlight...there was no light on the plane... nothing... no power....and she's telling us to walk quietly to our respective exits... directing us toward them.... I'm thinking... wait a minute... WTF happened? Another few seconds and we would have been air born.... sheesh...so we get to exit the plane in those little slide things... our stuff is still on the plane... and a car... bus thingy (van?) pulls up... like the kind that takes you to your rental car.... well we all get on that and we're taken back to the terminal... 45 minutes later... we're told all our baggage... including carry-ons are on another plane... so we board that plane...

     I still to this day don't know what was wrong with the plane... but let me tell you this... it brings to mind how fragile life is... and that you have to live it... not just let it pass you by.... so we fly out of the airport and land at DIA (Denver International)... I take a train... my father and daughter pick me up at the baggage claim, they want to know why I was late... I explain to them what happened and my daughter’s eyes got huge... *smiles... at 9 years old she's nearly as tall as I am and total sweetheart....