farewells and chaos

My lovely wife Sigrun left today on her annual pilgrimage to the country of her birth, Iceland. 'Tis the season, as already mentioned......to make merry, to lavish gifts upon your nearest and dearest and to travel. Sigrun was booked on our lovely "national" airline (FEH!! ), to fly to Reykjavik via Boston. (why there is no direct connection between Iceland and Canada, two nations twinned by frost and anal retentivness, I do not understand)

We left home in plenty of time, two suitcases the size of elephants on the back seat of our private limo, a.k.a. Toyota Echo. Upon arriving at Schmearson Airport (a.k.a. Pearson) we learned the most dreaded news: Sigrun's flight to Boston had been canceled. "Ours is not to reason why", of course. No one would give us a logical explanation. No one knew why we had not been notified. No one cared. 'Tis the season....for love, peace and undderstanding. Just kidding! There were actually a couple of very helpful Air Canada employees who rebooked my wife on (HORRORS!!! ) a competing airline, whose name I will not mention but whose initials are AA.

Out of the terminal and back into the garage, dragging the elephants behind us. I forgot to mention that the temperature in Toronto today was around minus 20 Celsius, which is about minus three thousand Fahrenheit. We drove to another terminal, lined up yet again and Sigrun was able to get a seat on a flight to Boston. However, even this second choice airline was delayed by a couple of hours and so many precarious moments and anxious phone calls followed (I drove home, you see, in the insanely naive hope that her plane would leave on time).

As of this writing, I have not heard from my wife in two hours which I take to be a good sign - it is now about 10:15 P.M. and she is either flying over Newfoundland or ensconsed at Logan Airport Hilton (a good hotel, btw, as I can attest from my own previous canceled Air Canada flights).
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in non-airport mode
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When did air travel become this unpleasant? I recall a trip as a young lad of 18 (that would have been in 1835) when air travel was all about pretty hostesses, smoking Winston cigarettes in wide seats, eating relatively poison-free food and imbibing free beer. Oh, Osama, what have you wrought???

P.S.

Just got a call from the Logan Airport Hilton. She had not made the connection. WTF is going on...I'm going to lobby the Icelandic government for a direct flight between our two frozen nations. Better access to my daughters and better access for my in-law's to their Xmas gifts