Thursday, April 15, 2010

Think Clean (Air) Thoughts

Have you seen in the news how there are volcanoes erupting in Iceland? Apparently, along with causing flooding (because of rapidly-melting ice and snow), the ash clouds are disrupting flights all over Europe.

Well, here's the thing. Christopher and I were talking about travel, yesterday, and I was thinking "Wow. It's a good thing that we're not trying to fly to or from Europe, right now." I was seriously thinking that I feel bad for anyone getting trapped because of the ash grounding flights all over the place. And I was also feeling incredibly relieved that I didn't know anyone in that predicament.

Then I got a phone call this evening from a friend of mine who lives in Idaho. She was making pasta (yes, from scratch) while we were on the phone, and was calling to say that she has a layover in Minneapolis tomorrow. Sounds pretty good so far, right?

Her layover is a three-hour stop prior to flying to Amsterdam on her way to an international journalism conference in Brussels. Okay. Yeah. Not so very good at this point.

Of course, now that there's pretty much just one airline that goes over there from anywhere other than the Coasts, she's spent tons of time trying to get through to Delta. Delta, being the customer service powerhouses they are, told her that her flight isn't urgent enough (after all, it's not until 10 tomorrow morning), and then they hung up on her.

So... Until mid-afternoon tomorrow, I won't know whether she'll simply be "visit adjacent" or stranded in Minneapolis for a few days until she can find a flight either to Amsterdam, or back to Idaho. Of course, I'd love to see her, but I know that she'd really prefer to be in Belgium, instead of Minnesota.

Which is why I'm asking everyone to think clean (air) thoughts. If we can all focus positive energy, possibly we'll be able to get enough of the ash cleared out that she'll make it to Brussels. Let's hope.

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