10.17.04
New England Trip: Day 1
Saturday, October 16, 2004 4:08 PM
Detroit Michigan
On a trip from Portland to New York five years ago I spent some four hours of airport hell at the Detroit airport. The terminal was so run down, so dirty, so noisy, so smelly.. in general so inhospitable that I instructed my travel agent to never book me on a flight that changed planes in Detroit. I booked this flight not realizing my stopping point, and as we started to arrive the flight attendant announced those of us continuing to Providence RI would have to disembark and change planes. To my great relief I found that Northwest airlines has a brand new terminal built all just for it’s own little self which is quite nice and clean. There is a tram that runs above the main terminal floor hurrying passengers to their gates which makes a bit of noise but provides a nice futuristic feel to the building.
I have a mild cold which flared at the beginning of the week and aside from some coughing sneezing fits at work has proved to be little more than a minor nuisance. On the descent into Detroit though my inability to clear my ears turned to some rather uncomfortable results as the pressure in my right ear mounted to a painful crescendo. Fortunately once on the ground the ear popped removing the menacing promise of ear damage. I bought some Sudafed at the airport which I hope will alleviate some of the congestion before the next leg of my trip.
I am happy to report that the calculation I hade on my laptop’s battery life during my trip to Miami (see The Lion’s Den: En route to Florida) seems to have been incorrect. The battery took my laptop through a bit of work on the finder plus two TV episodes on a DVD totaling about 90 minutes of up time and showed a half an hour worth of power left which leaves me hopeful for watching a full feature film through on a single charge. I still do wish I had acquired that spare battery I had been browsing on eBay after my last trip. Alas, so be it.
With season 6 of Buffy and season 3 of Angel completed I have turned to James Cameron’s Dark Angelas my next show to see through on DVD. I miss the character development of Whedon’s shows but am enjoying the rich set of cultural and geographical references in Dark Angel. I do wish Jessica Alba and specially Michael Weatherly could (or maybe were given the opportunity to) show a bit more range for their character, but I am none the less enjoying the show quite a bit.. plus 44 minute blocks and arching story lines are just about perfect for entertainment on the move.
4:34 PM
It is as if many cruise liners had all just landed and dumped their contents in a moments notice. What had been a rather sedate and quiet concourse is suddenly a thriving hive of busy little travelers all buzzing to their little jobs. I wonder: If I stay another half an hour will I see the wave reside? I have an urge to install a stop motion camera and see the daily activity of the terminal sped up to 10 minutes.
7:31 PM
Providence Rhode Island
The plane landed twenty minutes ago and thus far there is no indication of our bags coming to any of the carousels. The pressure problem with my left ear was repeated on the landing but thankfully my ear has once again popped now that I am at sea level (I assume I am at sea level but don’t really know if Providence is at any elevation).
1:30 AM
Ah Saturday turned out to be a most wonderful night. Had a great deal of fun talking with Enrika and her roommate Vicki who has a lot of good insight and book recommendations from her doctorate studies in philosophy. We walked up along the Brown University campus and to an Indian restaurant called Kabob and Curry that was simply delicious. Good environment, good music a gorgeous Indian waitress and food that was so tasty it was hard to stop eating.