As y’all already know, last Thursday I flew into Fort Walton Beach for Choctawhatchee High School’s Class of ’76 reunion. As I often do I dithered about when to fly and was I picking the best flight and so I wound up paying more and traveling at less convenient times. I left from Raleigh-Durham Airport at 6:30, got there well ahead of time (as the airlines always recommended) and it was indeed surprisingly busy.
One of my must-have requirements is a big enough time when I change flights (I always have to) that I can make it. I had an hour in Nashville and fortunately the flight was on time as the arrival and departure were gates were literally at the very end of two different terminals. Made it, then to Fort Walton Beach.
As usual I stayed with my best friend Cindy, her sister Debbie and my sister Tracy (they’re housemates). And Cindy’s dog Raven, a very friendly, licky black lab. Here Raven checks me out on the airbed.
My brother Craig showed up too, as it was his 45th reunion. No photos of him though.
The events included a school tour, a round of Goofy Golf, dinner at the Yacht Club, an afternoon on the Okaloosa Island Boardwalk and Sunday brunch at a local restaurant. In between I hung out with Cindy and my siblings and occasionally stared out at the back yard.
It’s even better seen with the naked eye.
Sunday, after all was wrapped up, I got the bad news that my flight out had been delayed … and eventually delayed so much it would land in Charlotte after my flight to Raleigh left. Siiiigh. Tracy and Craig went with me to the airport. The American Airlines desk booked me into a hotel for the night with a $12 food credit. It turned out to be a “minitel” as you can see from this shot of the room.
It was a good enough room under the circumstances, even if the desk clerk’s reference to a “bug problem” elsewhere had me expecting the worst (apparently no bedbugs in my room at least). Unfortunately by the time I got in I had very little time to sleep before I had to get up and get back to the Charlotte Airport (CLT — some people read a lot into that particular airport code). And the timing of the minitel’s shuttle meant I had to spend money on a Lyft.
Once I got to the airport everything was smooth and I finally got home. Unfortunately I had the reunion equivalent of “con crud” — reunion rot, I’m calling it. Much like past viral incidents, it starts in my throat which is vulnerable because of asthma, and because my breath control when I speak is terrible and puts a strain on my voice. And I spoke a lot last weekend. It’s been so long since I had an incident, I’ve gotten slack about improving that; that’s going to have to change. Fortunately as it’s not my first rodeo I drove to the Urgent Care (a five minute walk, not that I wanted to walk) and got meds. I’m on the mend but still keeping largely silent; talking because I’m all better is how I undercut being all better. Oh, and the hacking has largely robbed me of sleep.
So my plans to bounce back with four days of work became a cropper. I did somehow get two stories in for The Local Reporter (not up online yet) and two Atomic Junk Shop posts: a look at the advertising for Jonah Hex’s debut and Gary Friedrich’s gratuitously sexist run writing Captain America.
His black power scenes aren’t too hot either (art by John Romita).
But now all that’s done, I can focus almost entirely on proofing and indexing Watching Jekyll and Hyde! At last!
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