My last full day in Charles Town and I’ve pretty much accomplished everything I needed to do here. The biggie was getting our taxes done and filed. Fortunately TurboTax has become much easier to use and once you get all the paperwork in order, all that is left is to enter the data. It took about eight hours from start to finish over a three-week period and I just pushed the button to eFile everything.
To celebrate, I cleaned the kitchen and sunroom since it was raining too hard to go for a long walk; I figured this would be a good way to work up a sweat. The best part was being able to use the Swiffer once again. Haven’t really used it since Bahrain but it still works well and makes both our wood and tile floors sparkle. I washed all the area rugs and everything looks swell. Colin and Meagan left today for Florida but when they come back, they’ll return to a spick and span kitchen.
I’ll do a Skype walk thru with Cindy to make sure I’ve gotten everything that she needs in Moscow packed and ready to haul back. I’m taking the scenic route back to Moscow, via Houston. Believe it or not, it was cheaper to go from here to Houston on Continental connecting to Singapore Airlines to Moscow than it would have been to take the non-stop from Dulles to Moscow. If the connection works well it should be a pleasant flight.
I had some very long flights from Singapore to Seoul to San Francisco to Charlotte to Dulles, all in one very, very long day. The two Singapore Air flights were full, every seat taken. I was seated next to a three hundred pound Indian man who never soiled his cutlery since he ate everything with his hands. Every time I would move my arm on the shared armrest, he would take the space. He consumed six beers on the six-hour flight and then proceeded to expel the carbonation via foul gas. It was a delightful flight. I had forgotten that this flight is called the Bombay Bomber since it is the cheapest way for Indians to get to the USA. There were many, many families that simply let their male children run wild. There must have been at least ten or twelve pregnant women who, judging from their size, were going to the USA to have anchor babies. Once we got to Seoul I made a beeline to the Singapore desk and had my seat changed. The next leg to SFO was long and sleep eluded me. There is no easy way, even on Singapore Airlines, to sit in coach that long in any comfort.
The flight to Charlotte was in a little Airbus 319, which was also filled. Unlike SQ, USAir and the rest of the US carriers charge for checking luggage and don’t offer any food on the flights. This means that everyone carries everything on board, slowing down the boarding process and forcing flight attendants to gate check luggage, which they now do for free. I think even the dumb ones have figured out how to beat the system. Since no food is served, in addition to all the luggage they carry on, they also have to carry on enough food with them to feed a family of four. In no time the cabin stinks of fried food, pizza and chili. It seems that everyone has a device that plays movies so as soon as they can turn them on, they close all the shades on the windows to watch their movie, despite flying over some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. I had hoped to have a lot of daylight in the cabin to help combat jetlag, but it wasn’t to be. It is no longer a fun experience to fly in the USA.
Having said that, I am now fighting with Continental about my ticket to Houston tomorrow. Seems that when I went to check in on the Internet they had booked me to Houston via New Orleans getting me into Houston about ten minutes after the departure of the Singapore flight. I’m told not to worry but they don’t have any idea what kind of trouble I would be in if I had to tell Cindy that I’m going to be a day late!
Ok, two hours later I now have confirmation of my non-stop flight to Houston tomorrow. No assigned seat, but a confirmed reservation. The joys of travel!
Time to go and pack everything up and get ready for my departure tomorrow. It has been a long two weeks and I’m more than eager to get back to Moscow, which really means getting back to Cindy. We leave for an Italian vacation on Friday so I’ll have two days to rest and repack. Can’t wait. Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday, Wm
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