I was up in Chicago this past week for work (quarterly meeting) and was able to re-affirm, yet again, why I no longer live there. The foot of snow on the ground was bad enough, but the temperatures are what made it quite delightful. The high on Friday was about zero.

Other than the awful weather, which really didn’t bother me all that much (knowing that I’d be gone in a couple of days), things went fine. Work was especially busy, with meetings, emergency code pushes, and other assorted fun.

The ‘highlight’ of my trip was when I fell at the train station on Thursday evening. I slipped on a nice section of unsalted parking lot. There was enough time for me to say “Oh, Fuck!” but that’s about it. I landed on my right wrist and elbow and was close to dislocating my right shoulder (my bag helped cushion my fall, but a side effect was that it pushed my arm up in a weird way). For those of you who don’t know, I’ve had surgery on my right wrist before, and I’ve a couple of pins in my right shoulder, so falling on that side risked ripping out a lot of surgeries.

I stayed home the next day, and found that I’d screwed up my left leg in a bad way. I don’t recall landing on it; maybe my leg twisted back or something. Anyhow, I’ve got some killer pain in my left thigh and was getting a series of charley horses in my entire left leg. (I’ve had them in my calves before, but never my thigh.) Still have them today, so I’ll probably need to go to the doc and have them check it out. All in all, I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train. My wrist seems fine, and my arm is sore, but my leg is killing me.

The flight back went okay. There was no one at the curbside check-in and two people ahead of me in the security lines. Probably the fastest I’ve ever gone through at Midway; about 15 minutes total. It would have been faster if the doofus couple in front of me read the signs and stayed the hell out of the “Experienced Passenger” line. I scowled enough, so they got out of the way eventually. Do us all a favor: If you don’t know what the fuck you are doing, stay the hell out of the line that’s dedicated for people who do know what the fuck they are doing. Just because you have a $500 piece of luggage does not make you experienced.

Anyhow, while security went like a breeze, the gates were a nightmare. Delayed flight after delayed flight. People sitting on the floors, people yelling, a lot of anger. In other words, a typical Chicago day. My gate, fortunately, is nearly always at the far end, so there was plenty of seating. On the dowside, the previous flight using our gate was delayed, and our aircraft was delayed, so we ended up being about 45 minutes late on departure. Not all that bad, I guess. 

Once in the air, the flight was fine. About 1/2 full, so I was able to take my customary seat all the way in the back and had the row to myself. I always sit all the way back because (a) people hate sitting in the back, and (b) I hate people. Also, since I check luggage, there’s no point in rushing out anyway. You’ll just end up sitting at the baggage area. Call me crazy, but I’d rather wait a little longer to get off the plane, and have an empty row, than be stuffed in the front next to a gazillion other coughing, yabbering, people.

Austin is fine. A little overcast today, but it’s in the fifties. “Cool” for Austin, but 50 degrees warmer than Chicago was yesterday. And it will be in the 70s next week.

Today I’ll mainly be resting and hoping that my leg gets better. Maybe do a little puttering around the house. We’ll see.