Stuck inside of Mobile ...

Or actually Detroit. My older son has a deep-seated hatred of the Detroit airport, probably because we were stuck here for 2 days in a blizzard in 1999, BEFORE it was remodeled. And even now that it is a physically nicer place, there does seem to be a tendency to get stuck here.

I was supposed to be flying direct from Madison to Washington DC, arriving at about 4:00 p.m. EST. Northwest (or as we affectionately call them here in the Midwest Northworst) cancelled that flight, and said I would go through Detroit, but still be in DC by 7:00. As soon as I landed in Detroit - at Gate 68, leaving out of Gate 5, which is also about how it always goes around here, too - I checked the monitors, and I already wasn't leaving here until 6:25, so not much chance of being in DC by 7:00.

On the upside (or "on a happier note" as John just said to me on the phone where we were commiserating about all the various slights the world is handing out to us at the moment- his happier is "I met a girl"; mine is food) I actually had something decent to eat here in the Detroit airport, possibly for the first time (not counting the bagels for breakfast we had here when returning from my mom's memorial in Feb of 2005, but we had spent the night in the Hyatt in the Pittsburgh airport, so we needed food). I went into the Internet cafe, bought 24 hours of connectivity for $7.95, a glass of red drinkable plonk, some quite good hummus with OK, a little on the thin & tough side, pita, and REAL tomatoes on the side, and a few jalpenos, too - an unusual but eatable touch.

And, oh yeah, speaking of Zimmy, and slights - I pre-ordered his new album on a special offer with iTunes, to get a coupon code to order advance tickets for his fall tour. When I did the pre-order, Madison WI was on the list of cities that Dylan will play, and the show just got announced in the local paper - Dylan and Foo Fighters, on Halloween. BUT the preseale deal is with Ticketmaster, and in the meanwhile the hockey arena where they will play decided to do all its ticket sales though the UofWi athletic ticket office - which we were all happy about, since it meant less dealing with Ticketmaster. But it means by coupon code ain't worth jack, or bob, or anything.