A Rough Reentry to the Frozen North

AKA, when things don't go according to plan.

Thursday Version
My return flight on Thursday was an hour delayed, in the end, which was not ideal, but these days, not all that surprising either. Certainly I wouldn't have complained much about it, if they hadn't then completely messed up the "get the luggage off the plane and into the terminal" part.

Again, I was not surprised when they told us on the plane that it would go to carousel 7, and got there to find it was listed on carousel 8. No big deal. But carousel 8 disgorged luggage for another flight, then another, without giving out ours (at least I wasn't alone in my discontent; there were several dozen of us, waiting).

An airline employee happened to be passing, and someone asked her if she knew what was going on. She didn't even know there was a problem, but said she would look into it, and went away. We waited ... there was an announcement that they were waiting for an update and would let us know what was going on in three minutes ... another flight's luggage came off ... and since it had been about 10 minutes since that three minutes, I decided to go look for someone to ask again, as it was something like an hour after landing, my ride was waiting outside, and I was getting seriously annoyed.

As I got close to the office, a few employees were coming out, papers in hand, and I and some other passengers got to them to be told that there was some sort of problem with the carousel*, they didn't know how long it might be, and they were willing to take our info down and have the bags delivered to us.
*Clearly not what is commonly called the carousel, the thing that brings the bags into the terminal, since that was very obviously working; I don't know where the problem actually was, and I don't think they did either.

Oh, did I mention that my winter coat was in my suitcase? And that it was about 10 degrees, and falling, outside?

I got in line to fill in the form, grumbling and trying to get a signal to grouse on Facebook. But before I got very close to being helped, a man came along pulling a suitcase, and it turned out the woman in front of me was with him, and oh guess what, our bags were on the carousel. Surprise!

I hurried down to the carousel, got my bag, got my coat out, and was able to finally call my ride with good news.

My sympathies, meanwhile, to the couple who missed the last water ferry to Hull in all the nonsense. I hope they got home before midnight.

Which is when I got in bed, as it happened. I was home by, what, 10:30? But too wound up to go right to sleep. End result: woke up still tired, slightly disoriented, and with sore muscles, especially in the arms.

Friday Version
I had been heartened, when I got home, to see that my car was not covered in a foot of snow, as I had feared it might be. I knew that what was on it, was most likely frozen solid, and would not be easy to get off, but I had lunch plans with a friend who was in from out of town and leaving later in the day, so I was motivated. I went out this morning, and was able to open the door easily enough, but the car wouldn't start.

I put in the call to AAA, chipped the snow and ice off the hood so the tow truck person would be able to get in for a jump start, and when he arrived an hour later (not bad in this weather, honestly), he started it right up. He advised that I might need to replace the battery, and that at least I should let it run for a good hour to charge it, so I left it running while I got the rest of the ice off. About half an hour later*, I managed to get out of the parking space, started to drive away, and oh no that doesn't sound right at all. Pull over.
*Why, yes, my arms now hurt quite a bit! And my back!

Flat tire. Very, very flat.

So, another call in to AAA, waited and the truck actually arrived in good time, but when told that I don't have a spare (the car didn't come with one), he said the tire was too flat to try to inflate, since there was probably damage to it, and when he checked in with the office, they told him to run and do some other calls, then come back for mine.

So, lunch plans sadly canceled, I walked around the corner and back to the house to eat something before my hunger became dangerous, then called the service people to let them know the car would be coming in. She said that they're booked up this afternoon, and probably won't have time to look at it until tomorrow morning, but she would do what she could. Which is not ideal, but is totally understandable, and very good to know before riding up there in the tow truck!

So, about an hour later, the tow truck came back (having gone to five other calls in between, he said) and got the car, and I walked home again, with frozen eyeballs* from the few minutes of standing there while he sorted things out (damn, it is cold). My plans are all discombobulated, but I am warm and safe inside, I have food to eat (if nothing perishable, but hopefully I can get groceries tomorrow, and I won't starve before then), and since I have AAA plus, I didn't have to pay anything for this morning's calls.
*And, as it turned out, major hat-head, but the warm hat was well worth the dork look.

Let's not think about what the new tire and battery are going to cost, okay? La la la, I can't hear you.