Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Nice day with my dad

Yesterday I took advantage of my benefits and flew to have lunch with my dad.  I’m known for being on time and being able to remember things. This has not been my week.


Monday I lost my Zune for good. I left it in an airport lounge. It has my name and phone number on it. No calls. Nice.


Tuesday morning I thought the flight left at 8:45AM. I made my way out the door at 7:40AM thinking I had plenty of time. On the way I looked up the departing gate using my phone…that’s when I saw the flight left at 8:25AM. Doh!


I made it to the gate with 10 minutes to spare. No biggie.


My dad is still kind of old school….no cell phone. I called him and said I would meet him downstairs at baggage claim. When I arrived…no dad. Hmm. I walked around a bit looking for his car . While walking outside I heard a car honk…I turned around to see a Silver Hyundai Sonata…..Dad? Yep. Wow.


Growing up my dad always had a full size extended car truck. Let me rephrase that, a full size AMERICAN made extended car truck. Here he was in a Hyundai Sonata? He previously had a Mercury Sable….which while not a truck, is still “American” made.


He drove me up to a BBQ place for lunch. I ate way to much….but it was good.


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We then went to Wal-mart as he needed a new printer for his computer. His current printer is 5+  years old and barely functional. I picked out a very nice Canon printer/scanner a crazy cheap $35! Of course ink refills will cost $45 for color and black. Nice.


I installed the printer and then realized how old his computer is. I built it for him a good 4 years ago. It’s old. As far as performance it’s not bad. It’s a 1.8 GHz Celeron, 40 Gig HD but only 512 MB of RAM. That’s part of the issue. I’m building him a new computer as we speak.


After installing the printer I install a DVD/VHS combo unit. He bought it months ago. The unit can play DVDs, play VHS tapes, record TV to DVD and copy VHS tapes to DVD. Pretty neat. I connected it up and then we went back to Wal-Mart to buy blank DVDs. To both of our surprise copying a VHS tape to DVD is literally a one button affair! Nice.


About an hour later it was time for me to head back to the airport. About 20 minutes away I realized I forgot my car keys at his house. Back we went. Because of this I would miss the next flight.


When I got to the airport the flight I wanted to catch was still at the gate. Delayed. I still missed it by minutes. No big deal as it was full and I would have been on the jump seat in the cockpit. As it turned out the flight left the gate then  came back for more fuel. The next flight arrived. I ended up getting a row to myself and arrived in home just 8 minutes after the “earlier” flight. Nice.


I’ve only had one other job with really good “perks”. My first job out of college was working for Time Warner Cable. I worked in the high speed internet department. One benefit was free cable, all channels, free high speed internet and 1/2 price pay per view. That was pretty good. Flying for free/almost free is much better.

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