2012 "It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)" Tour

We have all heard the rumblings that the world ends on Decemebr 21, 2012.

I went to Mexico and spoke to a descendant of the Mayans and he told me that once you get to the end of the calendar, then you just start at the beginning again.

So, that was a relief then.





Mexican trip pictures and commentary to come spread out over the next few days.

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Last year, I made a comment as I passed through the Denver airport that Tim Tebow shirts were prominently displayed for sale in the airport gift shops. I made the comment because although Tebow was indeed a Bronco, he was a third string quarterback.

Which means I have to make some comment about passing through the Houston airport and the Airport Shop front window display which featured shirts you could buy for the Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Longhorns, Houston Astros, and Tim Tebow.

Wait, what?!?! Tebow plays for the New York Jets, not remotely close to Houston.

Tebow equals bucks, I guess.

My favorite part of the flight to and fro was the guy in the Free Sean Payton t-shirt (a story that sports fans know, and non-sports fans probably wouldn't be all that interested in).

You think the worst part of the flight would be the surly guy with the e-reader on the flight there (I'd bet about $10,000 that he was reading "oh, this author you probably never heard of... His name is Jim Butcher". he at least fit the type).

No, the worst part was pretty much the whole experience of a little company, for legalreasons we will call Untied Airlines. I always heard Untied horror stories but I've flown them quite a bit, and have been lucky.

No, it was multiple delayed flights; in one case, delaying a flight so much, that they had to put us up in a hotel for a night instead of bringing us home on the intended evening.

I realize this probably happens all of the time, but their "bedside manner" was horrible (We had nothing pressing, but were behind two couples- one trying to meet a dad, and one needing to get to a kid. Both treated with the same expression you might give if you ran out of tomatoes at a restaurant.

Onboard things, weren't much better. A flight attendant who instead of just getting a pillow (or whatever one flier was requesting) started with a "Well, it wasn't my fault you don't have one" type story.

In my mind flashed the quote of every international flyer I have ever talked to telling me "International flights are so much better".

Things ended by getting on an Untied plane which boasted a rookie pilot (There were only 21 people on the flight, so at least the casualty count was going to be low). I would have felt a bit better if he didn't look so shellshocked. Mrs Bedsitter claimed she heard him asking people for their passports before getting on a domestic flight, but I think she misheard something. She claimed that it was the roughest flight she ever was on. I still give that award to an old TWA plane I took. (Those TWA workers, like the Untied crew had the feeling their company was going to last forever, so why not just do business as usual).

The green pilot wasn't helped by the fact he was carrying a carefully tabbed-fresh-out-of-school manual. Surely, if anything happened, he was going to be able to go to the correct page and get the right answer to correct whatever calamity was about to befall us.

I might have felt more secure with these guys:


(Some language content.)