Rhapsodies

Well after a long wait my long awaited vacation visiting my folks in Maine.

I woke up on schedule and I got to the airport, with time to spare. All was going all and well I called Mom to tell her everything was all right. Then I had a niggling feeling which I conformed when I checked my CPAP case.  I had forgotten the power cord. To anyone who doesn’t know I’ve been on sleep therapy for about six months now. It’s going really well. The fact that the device that keeps me a functional human being was going to be a paper weight for two weeks was not a good thing. I had enough time to call Resmed, the company that makes the device, for dealers in Portland, and call my mother with the information. Still, I was nearly the last person on the plane.

The flight started out okay , nothing like an emergency to distract you from your usual pre flight phobias. So far the flight’s been going fairly well other than my legs screaming how cramped they are. On the plus side, I got quite a bit of writing done..

I got to Washington-Dulles a little later than expected (there was quite a bit of turbulence along the way) And I started heading towards the gate that my ticket said I had to go to. On the way I called Mom. Everything was on schedule but the two numbers I had been given by Resmed were no good. While I may have a few ideas, it looks like I won’t be sleeping very well for the next two weeks

From there things got interesting. It was a long way to Gate A including many escalators, tunnels and a subway. To make matters worse, looking at my ticket I found that I only had ten minutes to get there. This became worse when I got to my gate and found it was going to Rochester and when I asked the attendant it turned out my flight was leaving Gate C18… four doors away from where I’d come from. So I was racing back as fast as I could, through the corridors, escalators and subways (and mad enough that I was arguing with recorded messages) now worried that I might be two late to board at all.

Happily I just made it, with an emphasis on the just. A few minutes latter a couple sitting next to me turned out to have had a similar adventure. I’m so glad I’m not the only idiot.

Landed okay , and got to baggage okay. From there it was a brief game of phone tag with my mom. She told me that she was the white car to the left of baggage, that narrowed it down to three cars.

Finally we spent the ride home checking to see if there were other ways to get a new power cord through non medical outlets like Best Buy and Radio Shack. In both cases it was a case of not having anything big enough or with enough voltage but at the end it didn’t seem impossible. Regrettably the only other option that had been recommended was closed for the day. (Hilarity ensued when I misread the businesses’ webpage that said they were open 24/7) 

So finally and we got home where I got to have a nice talk with my father. I ended the day going  out to take a brief look at a proper night sky.