Official Gramps' Memorial Eternal OT Thread

Man I have had a crap time getting back.

Tl;dr version I should have taken the money.

Flight from Portland to Atlanta was at 8 this morning. I planned at being up at 5 to checked and at the gate by 630 or so. Well I woke up more than an hour early and couldnt go back to sleep. So I am just getting everything done early including getting to the airport. I figure I have time for a decent breakfast but Pirtlands airport has no real breakfast options, no Chic Fil A in the whole airport. Savages. You can get coffee and a bagel but I figured I could wait. They change the gate on but I have all the time in the world so no problem.

Boarding starts and they are asking for volunteers to take the next flight at 11. They will give 500 bucks. I knew my gf was picking me up and was on a tight schedule so I didnt feel I could do it. Got on with no food, figured i would be fine. Get my seat, and it's a cute chick beside me so at least i got some eye candy to talk to on the flight.

Flight is just under 5 hours. We are making our final descent when we start climbing again. Thunderstorms in the area, we have to circle. After 30 minutes of that the captain announces the delay continues and Delta is redirecting us to Nashville to refuel. 40 minute flight. We land, start fueling, and as we are getting ready to leave Delta, in their infinite greed, decides to fill the two seats of people who jumped off at Nashville. 30 minute refuel ends up being an hour. 40 minute flight to Atlanta. All this time I only have the cheezits they give out and a couple snacks from passengers sharing their goods. Flight crew wouldnt give out anymore snacks, or sell the meals they had. So I am getting pretty dang peckish.

We finally freaking land in Atlanta almost 3 hours late, remember that flight I could have taken for 500 bucks? I do. Well talking to my gf she couldnt make it work time wise which is fair, so I was on my own but I have Marta so no big deal. I hit up the bathroom before heading to the baggage claim. I am walking out and this little kid comes running into me and pukes on my pants. So I have to clean myself up. I still smell like puke, and now I have to walk thru the world's busiest airport looking like I pissed myself. I am normally not self conscience but that got to me. Didnt have my bag so couldnt change.

Well trying to get my bag, because the flight was delayed and my bag got their way before me I couldnt get it at the carousel like you normally do. I see a big sign for baggage claim service and head that way behind carousel 10. When I get there the sign says BAGGAGE CLAIM SERVICES behind carousel 1. Note the cases I used. The important info was tiny. So I have to walk back across all these carousels to find BCS. I get in there and say because it's been more than 2hrs I need to go to their storage room, back at carousel 8. I get there and no one answers my knock, no one is waiting around. But on the other side of 10 I see some bags behind a screen so I head there. They send me back to the door and tell me to wait, someone will come help. Well by this point a line has formed at this storage room. So I have to wait for someone to show up and help the first people then me.

So that added 20 ish minutes of frustration, and being extremely hungry at this point. I get to the train station and its 10 minutes for the first train. I get on, but it's not mine so I have to transfer. So that adds another 20 minutes to a 30 minute ride. Woo. Then I have to take a bus. Its 25 minutes for my bus to get there. But I finally get home.

I have to get my gate pass out of my bag so i open it up, close the bag, swipe in. Go to pick up my bag and start walking forward and notice my stuff all over the ground. I had zipped up but the teeth didnt bind. It's not just clothes, it's a gift for my mom's birthday, a couple things for my gf, a nice book I had bought myself. I am literally 75ft from home on a 2000+mile trip and stuff is still going wrong. And of course my stuff is strewn on both sides of the gate so i am awkwardly holding it open and grabbing stuff to put back in the broken bag

Oh yeah. I also didnt have any data left on my phone, sharing too many pics, so I had no internet during all this waiting. But I am finally home, 4.5 hours later than it should be.
 
so right now I am: tired from the normal stress of cross country travel. worn out from all the extra stress. really dang hungry, and no time with the gf. happy freaking sunday. so glad I am not working tomorrow
 
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Business travel sucks!!
this was all for fun, celebrating my 30th. rest of the trip was fantastic. but ever since i turned down the 500 its been crap.

oh yeah, also forgot that I met a VFL right before I left on the trip. Andraya Carter, Guard for WBB from 2012 to 2016. she actually lives in the same apartment complex as I do. I saw her wearing a UT WBB shirt, and give her a Go Vols, while wearing a UT hat and stuffing things into my car bedecked in UT stuff. we chatted for a bit and was really cool, she told me she had played but nothing else. I wanted to ask her her thoughts on Warlick, but figured for the first random meeting probably not a good thing to bring up. From talking to her, and not knowing any WBB players I had no idea who she was. looked her up. medically retired after her RSJR year, was a Guard, started more than 20 games. I was dang impressed that I had talked with a real VFL.
 
Man I have had a crap time getting back.

Tl;dr version I should have taken the money.

Flight from Portland to Atlanta was at 8 this morning. I planned at being up at 5 to checked and at the gate by 630 or so. Well I woke up more than an hour early and couldnt go back to sleep. So I am just getting everything done early including getting to the airport. I figure I have time for a decent breakfast but Pirtlands airport has no real breakfast options, no Chic Fil A in the whole airport. Savages. You can get coffee and a bagel but I figured I could wait. They change the gate on but I have all the time in the world so no problem.

Boarding starts and they are asking for volunteers to take the next flight at 11. They will give 500 bucks. I knew my gf was picking me up and was on a tight schedule so I didnt feel I could do it. Got on with no food, figured i would be fine. Get my seat, and it's a cute chick beside me so at least i got some eye candy to talk to on the flight.

Flight is just under 5 hours. We are making our final descent when we start climbing again. Thunderstorms in the area, we have to circle. After 30 minutes of that the captain announces the delay continues and Delta is redirecting us to Nashville to refuel. 40 minute flight. We land, start fueling, and as we are getting ready to leave Delta, in their infinite greed, decides to fill the two seats of people who jumped off at Nashville. 30 minute refuel ends up being an hour. 40 minute flight to Atlanta. All this time I only have the cheezits they give out and a couple snacks from passengers sharing their goods. Flight crew wouldnt give out anymore snacks, or sell the meals they had. So I am getting pretty dang peckish.

We finally freaking land in Atlanta almost 3 hours late, remember that flight I could have taken for 500 bucks? I do. Well talking to my gf she couldnt make it work time wise which is fair, so I was on my own but I have Marta so no big deal. I hit up the bathroom before heading to the baggage claim. I am walking out and this little kid comes running into me and pukes on my pants. So I have to clean myself up. I still smell like puke, and now I have to walk thru the world's busiest airport looking like I pissed myself. I am normally not self conscience but that got to me. Didnt have my bag so couldnt change.

Well trying to get my bag, because the flight was delayed and my bag got their way before me I couldnt get it at the carousel like you normally do. I see a big sign for baggage claim service and head that way behind carousel 10. When I get there the sign says BAGGAGE CLAIM SERVICES behind carousel 1. Note the cases I used. The important info was tiny. So I have to walk back across all these carousels to find BCS. I get in there and say because it's been more than 2hrs I need to go to their storage room, back at carousel 8. I get there and no one answers my knock, no one is waiting around. But on the other side of 10 I see some bags behind a screen so I head there. They send me back to the door and tell me to wait, someone will come help. Well by this point a line has formed at this storage room. So I have to wait for someone to show up and help the first people then me.

So that added 20 ish minutes of frustration, and being extremely hungry at this point. I get to the train station and its 10 minutes for the first train. I get on, but it's not mine so I have to transfer. So that adds another 20 minutes to a 30 minute ride. Woo. Then I have to take a bus. Its 25 minutes for my bus to get there. But I finally get home.

I have to get my gate pass out of my bag so i open it up, close the bag, swipe in. Go to pick up my bag and start walking forward and notice my stuff all over the ground. I had zipped up but the teeth didnt bind. It's not just clothes, it's a gift for my mom's birthday, a couple things for my gf, a nice book I had bought myself. I am literally 75ft from home on a 2000+mile trip and stuff is still going wrong. And of course my stuff is strewn on both sides of the gate so i am awkwardly holding it open and grabbing stuff to put back in the broken bag

Oh yeah. I also didnt have any data left on my phone, sharing too many pics, so I had no internet during all this waiting. But I am finally home, 4.5 hours later than it should be.
I loved reading this. You trailing clothes and gifts 75 feet from your door...hysterical icing on your crap cake.

Oh, btw, if they had a cfa, it woulda been closed homie. It's Sunday.
 
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oh yeah, even though Atlanta is only currently 6 degrees warmer than Portland, the 40% difference in humidity (no exaggeration) made it feel twice as hot.
 
oh yeah, even though Atlanta is only currently 6 degrees warmer than Portland, the 40% difference in humidity (no exaggeration) made it feel twice as hot.
Atlanta is a monument to man's arrogance. It's too hot and too humid for that many people to live there.
I drove through there Friday to pick up a car. Hate traffic.
 
Atlanta is a monument to man's arrogance. It's too hot and too humid for that many people to live there.
I drove through there Friday to pick up a car. Hate traffic.
never thought I would say this, but I have now experienced worse. far worse.

Portland was a fluster cluck. up, down, sideways. literally every interstate/major highway was 5mph tops. didn't matter if it was 8/9/10/lunch/early evening/late evening. there was too much traffic for a city that size.

I made a terrible choice picking a spot on the island as I did. only way to get there was from the interstate. didn't matter which direction I came from it was bad. From the city, from the east, from Washington even, it was all bad. they have four interstates, 5, 84, 205, 405. they were all backed up in every direction. didn't matter if it was early morning and you were leaving the city while the majority of traffic should have been in bound traffic. going into the city as everyone else left? traffic. too many bridges, including draw bridges. we even saw one raise up without a boat passing underneath. just during the middle of the day, up it went. stopped up traffic right good.

and then you add in dangerous residential road lay outs and it was stressful just getting around. Not every intersection had stop/yield signs or lights. 4 way intersections, no signage. even worse was sometimes it would be the E/W road that had signage, the next one had no signage what so ever, and the third intersection it was the N/S road that had signs. no rhyme or reason. I know I ran at least 2 stop signs because they suddenly switched directions on me. to further complicate things some streets were one way, but wouldn't be marked at each intersection, so you had no idea if you could turn that way, or where traffic was coming from. and even better was most of their residential roads had street parking on both sides leaving you 1.5 lanes to travel, which is fine until you meet an oncoming car and it becomes a game of chicken.
 
never thought I would say this, but I have now experienced worse. far worse.

Portland was a fluster cluck. up, down, sideways. literally every interstate/major highway was 5mph tops. didn't matter if it was 8/9/10/lunch/early evening/late evening. there was too much traffic for a city that size.

I made a terrible choice picking a spot on the island as I did. only way to get there was from the interstate. didn't matter which direction I came from it was bad. From the city, from the east, from Washington even, it was all bad. they have four interstates, 5, 84, 205, 405. they were all backed up in every direction. didn't matter if it was early morning and you were leaving the city while the majority of traffic should have been in bound traffic. going into the city as everyone else left? traffic. too many bridges, including draw bridges. we even saw one raise up without a boat passing underneath. just during the middle of the day, up it went. stopped up traffic right good.

and then you add in dangerous residential road lay outs and it was stressful just getting around. Not every intersection had stop/yield signs or lights. 4 way intersections, no signage. even worse was sometimes it would be the E/W road that had signage, the next one had no signage what so ever, and the third intersection it was the N/S road that had signs. no rhyme or reason. I know I ran at least 2 stop signs because they suddenly switched directions on me. to further complicate things some streets were one way, but wouldn't be marked at each intersection, so you had no idea if you could turn that way, or where traffic was coming from. and even better was most of their residential roads had street parking on both sides leaving you 1.5 lanes to travel, which is fine until you meet an oncoming car and it becomes a game of chicken.

raw
 
never thought I would say this, but I have now experienced worse. far worse.

Portland was a fluster cluck. up, down, sideways. literally every interstate/major highway was 5mph tops. didn't matter if it was 8/9/10/lunch/early evening/late evening. there was too much traffic for a city that size.

I made a terrible choice picking a spot on the island as I did. only way to get there was from the interstate. didn't matter which direction I came from it was bad. From the city, from the east, from Washington even, it was all bad. they have four interstates, 5, 84, 205, 405. they were all backed up in every direction. didn't matter if it was early morning and you were leaving the city while the majority of traffic should have been in bound traffic. going into the city as everyone else left? traffic. too many bridges, including draw bridges. we even saw one raise up without a boat passing underneath. just during the middle of the day, up it went. stopped up traffic right good.

and then you add in dangerous residential road lay outs and it was stressful just getting around. Not every intersection had stop/yield signs or lights. 4 way intersections, no signage. even worse was sometimes it would be the E/W road that had signage, the next one had no signage what so ever, and the third intersection it was the N/S road that had signs. no rhyme or reason. I know I ran at least 2 stop signs because they suddenly switched directions on me. to further complicate things some streets were one way, but wouldn't be marked at each intersection, so you had no idea if you could turn that way, or where traffic was coming from. and even better was most of their residential roads had street parking on both sides leaving you 1.5 lanes to travel, which is fine until you meet an oncoming car and it becomes a game of chicken.
Louder channeling his inner GV.............................complain, complain.
 
never thought I would say this, but I have now experienced worse. far worse.

Portland was a fluster cluck. up, down, sideways. literally every interstate/major highway was 5mph tops. didn't matter if it was 8/9/10/lunch/early evening/late evening. there was too much traffic for a city that size.

I made a terrible choice picking a spot on the island as I did. only way to get there was from the interstate. didn't matter which direction I came from it was bad. From the city, from the east, from Washington even, it was all bad. they have four interstates, 5, 84, 205, 405. they were all backed up in every direction. didn't matter if it was early morning and you were leaving the city while the majority of traffic should have been in bound traffic. going into the city as everyone else left? traffic. too many bridges, including draw bridges. we even saw one raise up without a boat passing underneath. just during the middle of the day, up it went. stopped up traffic right good.

and then you add in dangerous residential road lay outs and it was stressful just getting around. Not every intersection had stop/yield signs or lights. 4 way intersections, no signage. even worse was sometimes it would be the E/W road that had signage, the next one had no signage what so ever, and the third intersection it was the N/S road that had signs. no rhyme or reason. I know I ran at least 2 stop signs because they suddenly switched directions on me. to further complicate things some streets were one way, but wouldn't be marked at each intersection, so you had no idea if you could turn that way, or where traffic was coming from. and even better was most of their residential roads had street parking on both sides leaving you 1.5 lanes to travel, which is fine until you meet an oncoming car and it becomes a game of chicken.

If I ever decide to go there......THANKS for the heads-up.
 
this was all for fun, celebrating my 30th. rest of the trip was fantastic. but ever since i turned down the 500 its been crap.

oh yeah, also forgot that I met a VFL right before I left on the trip. Andraya Carter, Guard for WBB from 2012 to 2016. she actually lives in the same apartment complex as I do. I saw her wearing a UT WBB shirt, and give her a Go Vols, while wearing a UT hat and stuffing things into my car bedecked in UT stuff. we chatted for a bit and was really cool, she told me she had played but nothing else. I wanted to ask her her thoughts on Warlick, but figured for the first random meeting probably not a good thing to bring up. From talking to her, and not knowing any WBB players I had no idea who she was. looked her up. medically retired after her RSJR year, was a Guard, started more than 20 games. I was dang impressed that I had talked with a real VFL.

During the women's college basketball season Andraya Carter sometimes appears on the SEC Network calling some basketball games for UT. At other times, she may be in the studio talking about games at the sports desk.
 
If you like your 1967 Ford Mustang Body Style >>> You can have one that's made electric & for only $380,000.
Travels up to 200 miles on a charge. It'll take 72 Grad forever getting to Florida and back home to NC.
1967 Ford Mustang rebooted with electric power, supercar price.
Seems a little pricey. My first electric vehicle is going to be a forklift. Looking at a new Toyota for about 1/10th of that. Getting tired of having to air out my main building (it is also my office) every time I run the forklift in there. Which is almost every day.
 
Seems a little pricey. My first electric vehicle is going to be a forklift. Looking at a new Toyota for about 1/10th of that. Getting tired of having to air out my main building (it is also my office) every time I run the forklift in there. Which is almost every day.

I didn't even think about what the insurance would cost on a car like that. My guess is you're still running a forklift w/propane gas. I remember the days having to go fill up every morning b4 work started. We had electric forklifts in the plant I work. Of course, we'd have to plug them up after each 8-10 hr work day.
 
I didn't even think about what the insurance would cost on a car like that. My guess is you're still running a forklift w/propane gas. I remember the days having to go fill up every morning b4 work started. We had electric forklifts in the plant I work. Of course, we'd have to plug them up after each 8-10 hr work day.
Yes I actually have two propane units, both Toyota’s I bought used 8-9 years ago. The one in the building I spend most of my time in, I put non-marking tires on, and it never leaves that bldg. But going electric will be nice.
 

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