The Nightmare Flight Home

I guess you could call todays post a rant and a whine. I am having a hard time adjusting to being home. I wanna go back to the warm tropical climate full of bright colors. Winter here is cold and colorless, unless you consider white, grey, and black colors. The fact that it took almost an hour to dig my car out of the snow to go get the boys didn't help. And then, later, I stepped in a hidden hole (snow does that) on my way to getting into Sweet Hubby's pick up truck, twisted my ankle, and fell into a snowbank. (We didn't know I could curse like that.) This morning I'm bruised, with a swollen ankle, and I'm really pissed at Camp K-9 kennels.

I have two beautiful Italian Greyhounds who are used to being coddled. They require being covered in blankets two thirds of the day, and they are very clean dogs. I rarely have to bathe them. When I picked the boys up they stunk something awful! Tommy had dried yellow urine spots all over his now-grey fur. (I actually cried when I saw how dirty they were.)I could hardly stand to be in the car with them they smelled so bad.

I was handed two doggy beds that had been 'chewed' apart. They weren't chewed. They were clawed. Reason? Their blankets were taken away from them, so the boys clawed the bottom of their beds trying to cover themselves up. Why were the blankets taken away? "Because they kept peeing on them." Why, I ask, would my dogs pee on their own blankets? Then I was told about how they were continually marking everything even to peeing in their own food dishes! I'm HORRIFIED! My boys have NEVER done something like that. Not even when staying at a kennel. What did they do to my boys to stress them out that much?

I was handed a garbage bag with their blankets-soaked in pee and so dirty I was not quite sure they'd come clean. What the.....??? I am pissed!

My conclusion. My boys were put in a cage and pretty much left there. They definitely weren't kept in clean cages. My dogs are fastidious. You don't get that dirty in a clean cage. I even wonder if they let them outside enough to go potty. That's probably why the constant peeing in the cage. They were not taken care of in the manner they usually are in a kennel, that's for sure. I've never picked them up in that condition before. Never! I'm never using that kennel again!

Now, about the nightmare flight home. On Saturday morning, we got up extra early and hoofed it over to Disneyland. We had tickets that got us in at 8am. We spent the morning riding rides and having fun. It was great because it was raining lightly, so the crowds were scared away. We didn't have to wait to ride anything. It was so much fun! We rode just about every ride in the park before noon, but I figure I walked at least 25 miles that morning.

After lunch we headed to LAX airport. Our Southwest airline flight was scheduled to depart at 5:30pm. We got to the airport at 3:00, two and a half hours before our flight. We came upon chaos! We don't know what was causing it, but the lines to check in luggage at the Southwest counters went all the way out the door and clear down the street at least a quarter mile! I'm not exaggerating. It was insane! Sis in law Sue tried to find out what was going on, but no one seemed to know, or even care. One Southwest clerk told her they were rescheduling peoples flights, but had no explanation why, and if we ended up missing our plane because of the line, they'd just reschedule us. Sue gave her some choice words. She didn't accept them. Sigh...

We had our boarding passes already, so we chose to use the curbside baggage check-in under the circumstances. It was the 'short' line, but still, we stood in that line for 2 hours and 35 minutes! Our bags finally got checked 5 minutes after our flight was scheduled to leave.

We ran to security, where we were delayed because my daughter forgot to take her bottle of sunblock lotion out of her bag. (My God, you'd think she'd tried to assassinate the president!). Finally got through security and ran to the gate-which, of course, was the one furthest away, literally all the way to the end of the terminal (possibly in Florida-sigh). Got there, and hurray! Our plane had been delayed 20 minutes. We made it on!

From that point on, everything went fairly smoothly, except for the agonizing pain in my feet and legs. I suffered all the way home. Too much walking I think. Oh, and we were delayed an hour in Oakland while they tried to talk someone, anyone, into giving up their seat for 200 bucks and a ticket voucher (forget it!). I resented being held hostage over that.

The plane from Oakland to Spokane was fully booked. In fact, there was an airline employee sitting behind me who was forced to sit in the cockpit so they could give his seat to someone else. And then there was the young couple two rows up from me who had PAID for a seat for their baby and were forced to keep the baby in their laps so someone else could have the seat. Boy, that mama was ticked off! (I would be too!) But the flight attendant would not back down.

Finally, we landed in Spokane and went to pick up our bags. HA! The bags didn't make it. None of them. We filed the lost luggage claim, but were told by the snotty lady because our bags were checked in late they would not guarantee us ever seeing them again. That's when Sweet Hubby lost it. He laid into the snotty lady royally. Sweet Hubby rarely loses his temper. I can count on one hand the number of times he's done so in the 25 years we've been married. You have to really push him hard to accomplish it. The snotty lady found the button. (It was not our fault they were checked in late. We stood in line for 2.5 hours!) By the time he got done with her, she'd changed her attitude and became much more helpful not just for us, but everyone else in line the rest of the night. Yay Hubby!

Anyway, there were two more Southwest flights coming in from LAX before midnight (which was less than an hour away) so we decided to wait and see if our bags showed up. They didn't, so the now-not-snotty lady said they'd bring them out to our house after they were found. The bags showed up around 5pm Sunday evening, reeking of someone else's perfume, but safe and sound and delivered by a very nice gentleman.

I remember the days when flying was a pleasant experience, and the service was really good.

When I opened the prodigal suitcases, I was not happy at what I found. I bought a large clay platter in Mexico which I very carefully wrapped and packed so it would not get broken. It was chipped. Security had taken it out and not packed it back in the bag the way it was. They just tossed it in on top of the clothes. If they had, it wouldn't have been chipped. A second bag clearly had been completely dumped out. Sweet Hubby bought a beautiful set of hand carved dominoes stored in a little log. They had been dumped out and were rattling around the case. Fortunately, none were missing. Someone else's perfume was spilled on the bags too cos they reek of it. I understand the need to search bags, but how about a little respect for others property while you're at it?

In the good news department. We went and picked up Sweet Hubby's Christmas present that I got him (I had Best Buy hold it until our return). He is now the very very very proud owner of a large flat screen plasma television. I've never bought him such an expensive gift before, but he SO deserves it! He is such a wonderful husband and father he deserves the best the world has to offer. He's pretty happy right now.

Well, I want to go to bead group this morning so I better get hoppin'. Awww...darn! More snow is falling. We are getting buried here!

Have a great day.