Preparations for a flight

I am going to Santa Barbara tomorrow, to relax at my friend's house by the beach.

And while packing just now--I realized that I wasn't quite in synch with all the new security requirements vis a vis liquids...do I have the right plastic bags? Are the containers under the 3 oz limit or whatever it is???

And I do get to check a bag--at no cost. Is that because I am using a free ticket on Delta vs some other airline? (a dwindling cache of what was once millions of miles, now a few hundred thousand precious miles left...) but that's another story and calculation--I really had the best of the freq traveller program years and accrused benefits--which gave me and mine lots of cool free trips...

I helped Alida out at curbside check-in at United early yesterday morning. She was charged 15 the first bag; 25 for the second for a total of 40 bucks, making a fee ticket slightly less than a free ticket and addding to the cost of all other tickets...

pack light, carry light, arrive early, tip and use curbside baggage guys, read...nap...music..once we're in the air there can be some peaceful and calm moments...

so now i will examine my plastic bags and begin to calculate weight...

I have already checked in online and let them know I'll be checking 1 bag (free)
so there's a lot about this new tech I like, and which probably should have been implemented earlier--but I don;t know enough about that technology/business equation to offer up an opinion
But clearly one can move through the airline part of an airport more efficiently than before; it's the security which is still labor intensive, which slows everything down and makes it a bit of a daunting process.



at some other point i will write about many travel experiences

Hurricane Hanna, CBS, the US Open and digital delays

As Hurricane Hanna travels up the East Coast, both the play and the broadcast of the US Open Grand Slam Tennis Championships from Flushing Meadowaswere affected, creating a very odd time/travel/storm dimension enhanced by the 270 degree view from our loft in Queens just across the 59th st bridge in LIC on Thomson near LGCC.

Everyone knew Hanna was coming, so the tennis folks started play earlier than planned at 11am in Ashe Staduim (Feder-Djokovic), but then they started semi 2 in Armstrong (Nadal v Murray) justteo hours later, in the hope that both semis would be completed before the deluges began.

Well, they came close. Federer dominated and is through to the finals now scheduled for Monday at 5pm MON Est on CBS (prior to Monday NIght Football on ESPN--who, parenthetically will broadcast the US Open next year end ing a 25 year run on USA)--creating a new window of prime time programming for CBS on Mon. The downside for CBS seems large--the women's final has been moved from Sat prime time to Sun night Prime at 9p (high HUT levels--households using tv) but up against sun night football on NBC. CHI at INDY from Lucas Oil Stadium...no more RCA dome, I guess. I was on the floor there one night at an RCA corp party and say the final four there in 1997 thanks to RCA and the late, great Mike O'Hara.

Anyway, will the women get more viewership on Sun than if they were the only event of interest in prime time tonight?

Terrific ticket availability tonight and tmow if one is inclined to spend $1000...all kinds of seats up for sale on ticketsnow.com as thousands won't be able to adjust travel or work schedules to accomodate the changes implemented at the US Open..

Anyway, back to my media reflections.. We are in Queens, near the stadium, so our weather is pretty much the same as at the US Open, give or take 5-10 minutes or mph. Men's semi number two starts and Dick Enberg announces that if you wanted to watch it you could go online..but that the network would stay with the Ashe feed in real time. Interesting..especially as I can monitor both the weather and broadcast form my windows, my pc and my tv.

We chose to stay with the traditional network feed after checking usopendotorg online and seeing that it was 1-1 in the 1st..

(by the way I just changed my phone back to verizon from TWC and now have FIOS for Phone and ternet...thank you thank you verizon. Customer Service is equally poor, but at least I have real high speed (vs cable modem) and land line phones which work..more on this topic later, inclusing why I have still have 2 land lines when I could probably get by with one or zero)


Meanwhile, earlier toyday during the tennis) my TW Cable DVR is forcing me to watch in the same room as Mila, since she is in a non DVR equipped room, aware of the conclusion of points 4 seconds before me due to the fact that the dvr caches while recording (and it wasn't set to record; but records What's on as a software courtesy of sorts) So, I can guess the outcome of points based on her exclamations. Ohg well, into the BR from the Great room.

But the real oddity was the time delay--since the storm DID move into Queens, we knew that a point would come about 1hr 20 into the Nadal match when they would be rained out...
we could plan our afternoon around it (opening wine, cooking dinner)...I felt like yrlling out
"Hey Guys, it's gonna rain in 15 minutes--serve out and win the set Rafa!"

But they wouldn't have heard me...

so what is all this about...?

just more tech evolution...but the double time shifting of the dvr and the tape delay on cbs make for some interesting refelection on current media capabilities...plus the online live coverage for those who can multitask or liked Nadal and Murray

but the real winners in all this are the fans who headout to flushing meadows thinking they would get tix in a hurricane...to see the match on Armstrong..it was on the USTA site as a possibility ..they bought grounds passes to see juniors singles and doubles..and ended up in Armstrong watching Nadal and Murray...they won;t be back to finish the match...unless they payu 1000's to be anywhere near as close as they were at LA...b ut they have a tennis story for life to cherish..

and in the end...sticking it out and heading out to Queens in the rain pays out....

a little add while checking this: Do we record the Colts game tmow night while watching Serena and Jelena? Or just go back and forth...(avoiding baseball for sure...though I guess the mets-phils game on ESPN is compelling to some as the mets try to avoid a repeat of last september's swoon.....

more on these little media oddities as they occur.........

addendum on mon September 8 after a weekend of sports on TV, including Brett Favre's leadership of Jets to victory...i almost made it to the end of the women's finals, but fell asleep before the decisive points...oh well...I can watch all the replays. Happy Serena won! Congrats to Jankovic.

Men's final tonight. The athletic young Andy Murray vs perhaps the best of all time Roger Federer...

Vikings/Packers on early 7ish MNF; Broncs (beloved still) vs Raiders from OAK..a great old rivalry...is Cutler ready to break through?

and the mets are still only 2 up on the phils; while the yanks are finished


Will the US Open ever end???